Father out of too much Indulgence to his Children who are debauch'd or prone to debauchery furnishes them with Mony he is the cause of their disorders and wrongs the Poor who stand in need of his assistance As he that gives a Sword to a mad Man or a Man transported with Passion is really the cause of the Murder that ensues The Prodigal robs the Poor and by his indiscreet Liberalities kills the Souls of his riotous Companions And he that gives a drunken Servant the liberty to drink as much as he pleases doth him a kindness which is forbidden by the Laws of Charity and Benevolence In a Word he that gives any power to impotent Minds which can neither consult nor follow Reason is the cause of their destruction and of all the Mischiefs which spring from the abuse of Power IV. These are undeniable Truths and the reason of them is plain Mony for instance is not properly a Good because we cannot truly possess or enjoy it for spiritual Subitances cannot possess Bodies It is such a Good as cannot be communicated without division and therefore the love of Benevolence should distribute it in such a manner that it may be useful and become a Good or rather a proper means of acquiring Good to those who receive it For otherwise there is a double breach of our Duty toward our Neighbour We hurt those to whom we give it and we injure all those who by the Laws of Charity have a just title to it to whom we do not give it V. But Pain and Disgrace which in themselves are real Evils become good in many cases and the love of Benevolence which we owe to all Men obliges us to inflict them on those that deserve it over whom we have authority to reclaim them from their disorders by the fear of Punishment She is a cruel Mother that will not suffer a gangren'd Arm of her Child to be cut off But she is much more cruel that suffers his Mind and Heart to be corrupted by Ease and Pleasure He that sees his Friend ruin'd by underhand Intrigues and takes no notice of it or for his own advantage enters into a correspondence in prejudice of the Friendship he hath vow'd is a perfidious Friend and not fit for humane Society But he is much more perfidious who for fear of grieving and displeasing us suffers us to fall into Hell or by gratifying our Passions joyns with the only Enemies we have to blind and destroy us VI. Who then is he that can render to his Neighbour the Duties of Charity or Benevolence Certainly he that knows the vanity of transitory Enjoyments and the solidity of the future Goods the stability of the heavenly Jerusalem built on that immoveable Rock the well beloved Son of the Almighty He that compares Time with Eternity and following the great principle of Christian Morality measures the Duties of Civil Friendship and Society by the Rules of that Society which is joyn'd here upon Earth by Grace and cemented for ever in Heaven by the perpetual communion of a Good which shall be given whole and entire to all and entire to every one of us He in fine that continually meditates on that divine Society which we ought to have with the Father by the Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit the mutual love of the Father and the Son and the Fountain of that happy Love which shall for ever unite us to God He and he alone is capable of paying to his Neighbour the Duties of Benevolence All other Men are destitute of Charity and are so far from loving us with the love which is due to us and is contain'd in the Second great Commandment of the Christian Law that they do not so much as know their essential Obligations toward us The Corespondence they have with us their Friendship their Society will rather be the fatal cause of our Misery than the happy foundation of our Joy and Tranquility VII Let People say what they will that we ought to separate the Laws of civil Society from those of Christian Charity to me they seem inseparable in the practical part The Citizen of my earthly City is already by Grace a Citizen of the holy City the Subject of my Prince is a Domestick of the House of God Now ye are no more Strangers and Foreigners Eph. 2.19 saith S. Paul but Fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God and are built upon the Foundarion of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone in whom all the Building fitly fram'd together groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. Shall I then engage in the designs of a Friend who seeks to advance his Fortunes here upon Earth and hazards the possession which he hath in Heaven Shall I by my Counsels and Friends favour his Ambition and advance one who wants that constancy and resolution that are necessary for subordinate Governments to a station which all wise and understanding Men are afraid of A Friend trembles for his Friend when he beholds him in the midst of dangers A Mother is frighted when she sees her Child clambring up a steep Place And shall not I be in fear for a Relation for a dear Friend in Christ whom I see environ'd on all sides with dreadful precipices and yet still climbing higher to a place that makes the strongest Heads giddy VIII The present Life should be consider'd with relation to that which is to follow and shall be follow'd by no other The Society which we now form is no otherwise durable than as it is the beginning of that which shall never have an end It is for this second Society that the First is ordain'd It is to merit Heaven that we live upon Earth I repeat this Truth often because it is necessary that we should be throughly convinc'd of it We should engrave it deeply on our Memory We should incessantly revolve it in our Mind for fear lest the continual action of sensible Objects should blot out the remembrance of it If we are fully convinc'd of this Truth if we make it the Rule of our Judgments and desires we shall not be concern'd at the want of those things which we shall not much esteem We shall not then take such measures as tend only to make us happy upon Earth and before the time of recompence but such as lead us whither we ought to direct our aim to that perfection which makes us acceptable in the sight of God and worthy to enter into an eternal Society with him through Christ our Lord. IX But because Men have but a weak and abstracted Idea of the greatness of future Goods they seldom think on them and when they do they are not affected with them for only sensible Ideas shake the Soul only the presence of Good and Evil touches and puts it in Motion On the contrary the Imagination and Senses being continually and forcibly struck by the Objects which are
in them any qualification which the World esteems and only make a Jest and a Diversion of their greatest and most material Imperfections such as discover to those that are skill'd in the knowledge of Man an abominable pravity and corruption And if a Tutor tho' never so good a Christian and a sensible Man should go about to extinguish their Pride and Self-love the Approbation of a peremptory Father or a fond Mother shall beget in them such a hatred and contempt of him as shall make him incapable of ever doing them any good * The greatest Reverence and Respect should be shew'd to Children Maxima debetur puero reâ—erentia saith a judicious Author Example and outward Behaviour irresistibly persuade young People when they suit with the corruption of their Nature And he that without saying a Word doth Evil in their Sight with an Air of Pleasure and Satisfaction speaks to them more strongly and forceably than he that discourses to them coldly of Vertue and exhorts them to follow it This is a matter that deserves the greatest consideration with respect to the instruction and education of Youth XVIII There are some Fathers who always use their Children Arbitrarily and Tyrannically They never do them Justice They are severe to them without cause and instead of enlightning them by Reason and making them submit to it they fancy that the Will of a Father is the inviolable Law of a Child But when the Father is Dead what then will be the Law of the Son Without doubt his own Will For he hath never been told that there is an eternal Law the immutable Order He hath not been accustom'd to obey it Nay he will not stay till his Father be Dead or grown Old and unable to keep him in Slavery any longer before he prescribes a Law to himself He will naturally find it in his Pleasures For this unjust and brutish Law is better perhaps than the will of an unreasonable Father I am sure it is more agreable and easy A young Man will quickly be satisfied of this when once he hath tasted the sweetness of it And then whether the Father be dead or alive the Son will easily find means to obey this Law and yield to its Enchantments He will look upon his Father as an Enemy and a Tyrant if he hath yet Strength and Vigour enough left to interrupt him in his Pleasures and disturb him in his Debauches and Being persuaded by the example and conduct of his Father that every thing ought to obey his own Will and Pleasure he will employ all his Power and all those Persons over whom he hath any Authority in gratifying his desires For he will find himself actually happy in giving himself up to his Pleasures and will not have Education and Experience enough to apprehend the fatal Consequences of them Children therefore should be govern'd by Reason as far as they are capable of it They have â—ll the same Inclinations with grown Men tho' the Objects of their desires are different and they will never be solidly Vertuous if they are not accustom'd to obey a Law which shall never perish if their Mind which was form'd after the universal Reason be not form'd anew after the same Reason made sensible by Faith XIX A Father must not imagine that his quality of Father gives him an absolute and independent Sovereignty over his Son He is a Father only by the Efficacy of the Power of God and therefore he ought not to command his Son but according to the Law of God He is a Father in consequence of a bruâ—ish Action in which he knows not what he doth for it is only Experience which teaches him that in gratifying his Passion he also preserves his Species What Right can he have over the Mind and Heart of another Man from an Action like that of Brutes an Action which he ought to blush at and which I am asham'd to mention A Mother carries her Burden with a great deal of Trouble and Hardship and brings it into the World with extreme Pains But she doth not give it Shape and Growth much less doth she give a Being to the Soul which animates her Child Therefore she hath no Right to command him but in Subordination to the universal Reason because she had no power to conceive him but by the Efficacy of the divine Power XX. Nevertheless a Son should stand in fear of his Parents when they are angry with him for God who gives and preserves his Being God who can throw him headlong into Hell God who hath all manner of Authority over him commands him by his Law to obey them and by that command gives them a Right to command him But Parents should not make use of this Right against the Will of him from whom they receive it They should not assume it to themselves as a Reward of a sinful or at least an indecent and beastly Action They should employ it in promoting the great Design of God the eternal Temple the end and master-piece of all his Works in labouring not for Time but for Eternity and preserving in the Members of Christ the Spirit of Holiness which they receiv'd at their Baptism And Children on their part should pay Obedience to their Parents as to God himself whose Person they represent They should shew a Respect in their presence as in the presence of the Almighty They should endeavour all they can to please them and further their designs as far as Order permits Perhaps they shall not live ever the longer upon Earth for this was the Reward of the Jews but they shall live eternally happy in Heaven with the well-beloved Son of God who was obedient to his Father unto death even the shameful and cruel death of the Cross CHAP. XI The original of the difference of Conditions Reason alone ought to govern but Force is now necessary The lawful use of Force is to make Men submit to Reason according to the Primitive Law The Rights of Superiours The Duties of Superiours and Inferiours I. IT is certain that the difference of Conditions amongst Men is a necessary consequence of original Sin and that many times their Nobility Riches and Grandeur are deriv'd from the Injustice and Ambition of their Ancestors But the iniquity of their Forefathers being buried in Oblivion and the lustre which their Riches and Honours have left in their Families still remaining we are dazled with the splendour of their Quality which appears bright and shining to our Senses and strikes our Imagination but we never think of the Injustice which perhaps is the original of that splendour because it is not visible and apparent II. The generality of Men who judge of things by the impression which they make on their Senses look upon those that go attended with a magnificent Train as something more than Men and instead of shutting their Eyes in sight of a stately Palace that they may make a sound judgment of the personal
would be capable of discovering Truth in all manner of Subjects are oblig'd to study throughly XII The only Rule which I would have carefully observ'd is to meditate only on clear Ideas and undeniable Experiments To meditate on confus'd Sensations and doubtful Experiments is lost labour this is to contemplate nothing but Chimeras and to follow Error The immutable and necessary Order the divine Law is also our Law This ought to be the principal Subject of our Meditations Now there is nothing more abstracted and less Subject to Sense than this Order I grant that we may also be guided by Order made sensible and visible by the actions and precepts of Jesus Christ Yet that is because that sensible Order raises the Mind to the knowledge of the intellectual Order for the Word made Flesh is our Model only to conform us to Reason the indispensable Model of all intelligent Beings the Model by which the first Man was form'd and according to which we are to be reform'd by the foolishness of Faith which leads us by our Senses to our Reason and to the contemplation of our intellectual Model XIII A Man that is thrown down on the Ground supports himself with the Ground but 't is in order to rise again Jesus Christ accommodates himself to our Weakness but 't is to draw us out of it Faith speaks to the Soul only by the Body it is true but it is to the end that a Man should not hearken to the Body that he should retire into himself that he should contemplate the true Ideas of things and silence his Senses Imagination and Passions That he should begin upon Earth to make the same use of his Mind that he shall do in Heaven where Understanding shall succeed Faith where the Body shall be subject to the Soul and Reason shall have the sole Government For the Body of it self speaks to the Soul only for it self this is an essential Truth of which we cannot be too fully convinc'd XIV Truth and Order consist in nothing else but in the relations of Greatness and Perfection which Things have to one another But how shall we discover these Relations evidently when we want clear Ideas How shall we give to every thing the Rank which belongs to it if we measure nothing but with relation to our selves Certainly if we look upon our selves as the Center of the Universe a Notion which the Body is continually putting into us all Order is destroy'd all Truths change their nature a Torch becomes bigger than a Star a Fruit more valuable than the safety of our Country The Earth which Astronomers consider but as a Point in respect of the Universe is the Universe it self And this Universe is yet but a Point in respect of our particular Being At some certain times when the Body speaks to us and the Passions are excited we are ready if it were possible to sacrifice it to our Glory and Pleasures XV. By clear Ideas which I make the principal Object of those who would know and love Order I mean not only those between which the Mind can discover the precise and exact Relations such as are all those which are the Object of Mathematical Knowledge and may be express'd by Numbers or represented by Lines But I understand in general by clear Ideas all such as produce any Light in the Mind of those who contemplate them and from which one may draw certain Consequences So that I reckon amongst clear Ideas not only simple Ideas but also those Truths which contain the Relations that are between Ideas I comprehend also in this Number common Notions and Principles of Morality and in a word all clear Truths which are evident either of themselves or by Demonstration or by an infallible Authority tho' to speak nicely these last are rather certain than clear and evident XVI By undeniable Experiments I mean chiefly those matters of Fact which Faith informs us of and those of which we are convinc'd by the inward Sense we have of what passes within our selves If we will be govern'd by Examples and judge of Things by Opinion we shall be deceiv'd every Moment for there is nothing more equivocal and more confus'd than the Actions of Men and many times nothing more false than that which passes for certain with whole Nations Further it is a very fruitless thing to meditate upon that which passes within our selves if we do it with a Design of discovering the nature of it For we have no clear Ideas of our own Being nor of any of its Modifications and we can never discover the nature of any Beings but by contemplating the clear Ideas by which they are represented to us But we cannot meditate too much upon our inward Sensations and Motions to discover their Connexions and Relations and the natural or occasional causes which excite them for this is a thing of infinite consequence in relation to Morality XVII The knowledge of Man is of all the Sciences the most necessary for our purpose But it is only an experimental Science resulting from the reflection we make on that which passes within us This Reflection doth not discover to us the nature of those two Substances of which we are compos'd but it teaches us the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body and is serviceable to us in establishing those great Principles of Morality by which we ought to govern our Actions XVIII On the contrary the knowledge of God is not at all Experimental We discover the Divine Nature and Attributes when we can contemplate with Attention the vast and immense Idea of an infinitely perfect Being for we must not judge of God but according to the clear Idea we have of him This is a thing not sufficiently taken notice of For most Men judge of God with a relation to themselves they make him like themselves a great many ways they consult themselves instead of consulting only the Idea of an infinitely perfect Being Thus they take away from him those divine Attributes which they cannot easily conceive and attribute to him a Wisdom a Power a Conduct in a word Sentiments resembling at least in some measure those which are most familiar to them And yet the knowledge of our Duties supposes that of the Divine Attributes and our Conduct can never be sure and well grounded if it be not built upon and govern'd by that which God observes in the execution of his Designs XIX The Knowledge of Order which is our indispensable Law is compounded of both these clear Ideas and inward Sensations Every Man knows that it is better to be Good than Rich a Prince or a Conqueror but every Man doth not see it by a clear Idea Children and ignorant People know well enough when they do ill but 't is because the secret Check of Reason reproves them for it and not always because the Light discovers it to them For Order consider'd speculatively and precisely only as it contains the Relations
addresses them to the Son she considers him as equal to the Father and consequently calls upon him not simply as he is Man but as he is God and Man This appears from the ordinary conclusions of our Prayers Through Christ our Lord or through Jesus Christ our Lord or who livest and reignest one God c. For since God alone is the true cause who by his own power can do all that we desire it is necessary that the greatest part of our Prayers and all our Worship should be refer'd to him But as he never acts but when the occasional causes which he hath appointed determine the efficacy of his Laws it is fit that the manner of our calling upon him should be conformable to this Notion of him III. If Jesus Christ as Man did not intercede for Sinners it would be in vain for them to call upon him For since Grace is not given to Merit the immutable Order of Justice doth not oblige God to grant it to Sinners who Pray for it It must therefore be the occasional cause which obliges him to do it in consequence of the Power given to this cause by the establishment of the general Laws of the Order of Grace Because as I said before God never acts but when the immutable Order requires it or when the occasional or particular Causes oblige him to it But tho' Christ alone as Man be the particular cause of the good Things which we receive yet if the Prayers of the Church were always Address'd directly to him this might give Men some occasion of Error and induce them it may be to Love him as he is Man with that kind of Love which is due only to the true Power and to Worship him even without regard to the divine Person in which his humane Nature subsists Now Adoration and Love of Union which are Honours belonging to Power are due to the Almighty alone For Christ himself challenges our Adoration and this kind of Love only as he is at the same time both God and Man IV. Therefore the Church hath very great reason to Address her Prayers to God the only true Cause but through Christ who is the occasional and distributive Cause of the good Things which we Pray for For tho' Sinners never receive Grace but when Christ Prays for them by his Desires either Actual or Habitual Transient or Permanent yet we must always remember that it is God alone who gives it as the true Cause that so our Love and Devotion may be ultimately refer'd to him alone Nevertheless when we apply our selves to the true and general Cause it is the same thing as if we did it to the particular and distributive Cause Because Christ as Man being the Saviour of Sinners Order requires that he should be acquainted with their Prayers and he is so far from being Jealous of the Honour which we give to God that he himself as Man always acknowledges his Impotence and Subordination and will never hear those who like the Eutychians look upon his humane Nature as transform'd into the Divine and so take from him the qualities of Advocate Mediator Head of the Church and High Priest of the true Goods Thus we see on one side that to make our Prayers effectual it is not absolutely necessary that we should know the Truths which I have here explain'd so precisely and distinctly and on the other that the Churches proceeding agrees perfectly with the fundamental Vertue of Religion and Morality namely that God alone is the final Cause of all Things and that we cannot have access to him but by Jesus Christ our Lord. This I think will easily be granted V. But the case of the Blessed Virgin Angels and Saints hath somewhat more difficulty in it Nevertheless the sense of the Church is that they know our Necessities when we call upon them and that being in favour with God and united to Christ their Head they may by their Prayers and Desires sollicite him to deliver us from our Miseries Nay it seems to be beyond Dispute from the example of S. Paul and all the Saints who constantly recommended themselves to one another's Prayers For if the Saints on Earth as yet full of Imperfection can by their Prayers be beneficial to their Friends I see no sufficient reason to deny the Saints in Heaven this Power Only we must observe That they are not occasional causes of inward Grace For this Power was given to Christ alone as the Architect of the eternal Temple the Head of the Church the necessary Mediator in a Word as the particular or distributive cause of the true Goods VI. So then we may Pray to the Blessed Virgin to Angels and Saints that they would move the love of Christ on our behalf And probably there are some certain times of Favour for each particular Saint such as are the Days on which the Church celebrates their Festivals It is possible also that as natural or occasional Causes they may have a Power of producing those effects which we call Miraculous because we do not know the Causes of them such as the curing of Diseases plentiful Harvests and other extraordinary changes in the position of Bodies which are Substances inferiour to Spirits and over which it should seem that Order requires or at least permits them to have some Power as a reward of their Vertue or rather as an inducement to other Men to admire and imitate it But tho' this be not altogether certain as to Saints yet I think it cannot be doubted as to Angels This Truth is of so great Importance on several Accounts that I think it necessary to give a brief explication of it from the manner of God's proceeding in the execution of his Designs VII God could not act but for his own Glory and not finding any Glory worthy of himself but in Jesus Christ he certainly made all Things with respect to his Son This is so evident a Truth that we cannot possibly doubt of it if we do but reflect a little on it For what â—elation is there between the Action of God and the product of that Action if we separate it from Christ by whom it is Sanctified What proportion is there between an unhallow'd World which hath nothing of Divinity in it and the Action of God which is wholly Divine in a Word between Finite and Infinite Is it possible to conceive that God who cannot act but by his own Will or the Love which he bears to himself should act so as to produce nothing worthy of himself to create a World which bears no proportion to him or which is not worth the Action whereby it is produc'd VIII It is probable then that the Angels immediately after their Creation being astonish'd to find themselves without a Head without Christ and not being able to justify God's design in Creating them the Wicked ones imagin'd some Worth in themselves with relation to God and so Pride ruin'd them Or supposing
which seems most probable that the eternal Word to justify to them the Wisdom of God's proceeding acquainted them that he had a Design to make Man and to joyn himself to the two Substances of which Man is compos'd Soul and Body thereby to Sanctify the whole Work to God which is also compos'd of none but these two sorts of Beings The wicked Angels oppos'd this Design and would not Worship Jesus Christ nor submit to one whom they thought their equal or even inferiour to them in his own Nature how much soever that might be exalted by the hypostatick Union Upon this two opposite Parties were form'd in the Workmanship of God S. Michael and his Angels and Satan and his Ministers the Foundation of the two eternal Cities Jerusalem and Babylon IX The Angels then having a Power over Bodies either by the Right of their own Nature for Order seems to require that superior Beings should act on those that are below them Or rather by the Decree which God had establish'd to execute his own Designs by them as occasional Causes of certain Effects to build the holy City the heavenly Jerusalem his great Work in which the Angels are employ'd under the Wise and only Architect our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Holy Scriptures And by this means to manifest the Power of his well-beloved Son who wanted Enemies to Fight with and overcome which Power of his never appear'd more illustrious than when he dethron'd the rebel Prince who had brought all the World under subjection to his Laws For the Power of a Deliverer is never more Conspicuous than when our Enemy hath gain'd an absolute Dominion over us when we have no Power to resist him and have groan'd a long time under his Tyranny The Angels I say having an immediate Power over Corporeal Substances and by them an indirect Power over spiritual Substances as soon as our first Parents were Created the wicked Angels tempted the Woman in that manner which we all know probably grounding their Temptations on the known Design of God that the World should unite it self to the Soul of Man to Sanctify him as may be gather'd from these Words Ye shall be as Gods knowing Good from Evil. Gen. 3.5 For I do not see that illuminated Minds could have any other Motive formally to disobey God but that of being translated from a profane State to one Divine and worthy of God by a particular union with the universal Reason the Eternal Word for whom and by whom they knew that they were first form'd and by whom they were to be form'd anew they who were all of their kind upon the Earth and the Heads of that Posterity which might spring from them Thus the Devils conquer'd them and became Masters of them and all their Posterity And thereby tho' indeed they promoted the Design of the Incarnation of the Word for the Sin of the first Man made it necessary upon several Accounts yet they thought they had overthrown it imagining belike that the Union with God was to be merited by an exact Obedience to his Orders X. We must know that not only for Reasons which I have given in my Search of Truth 2d Part of the 1st Remark when the first Man had Sin'd there was a necessity in consequence of the Laws of the union of the Soul and Body and the immutability of Order that his Flesh should rebel against his Mind and also that Concupiscence should be transmitted to all his Posterity but for other Reasons which I have examin'd in another Place of the same Book See the Remark on original Sin Now Concupiscence is the universal Instrument of that Iniquity which over-ran the whole Earth And being in the Hands of the Devil who hath a Thousand ways to stir it up by the Power which he hath over Bodies he reign'd by the help of that till the coming of Christ who by his Sacrifice merited the quality of High Priest of the true Goods and of the occasional cause of inward Delight which alone can counterpoise the force of Concupiscence and render that Instrument of the Devils Conquests useless to him For since Man invincibly desires to be happy there is nothing can cure his Heart corrupted with sensible Pleasures but the Unction of Grace the Earnest or Fore-tast of true Joys For the good Angels having no Power to infuse into the Heart of Man the Grace of Sense and the bad ones having a Power to stir up Concupiscence in it Sin must necessarily have reign'd not only among the idolatrous Nations but even among the Jews also And therefore we find that that People was very Gross and Carnal always prone to Idolatry and frequently relapsing into it notwithstanding the extraordinary Miracles which S. Michael and his Angels wrought in favour of them and in spight of the Promises and Threats of temporal Good and Evil which were the Objects of their Concupiscence For the Angels themselves preserv'd the Worship of the true God among those that follow'd their Conduct and kept them in their Duty only by motives of Self-love and by promising them such Enjoyments as true Christians think altogether unworthy of their Love XI There are several Reasons why the Law did not promise the true Blessings but one of the chiefest is that since this sort of Enjoyments cannot be the Object of Concupiscence the knowledge and worship of the true God would have been soon lost among the Jews and that chosen People reduc'd to a Handful of Men belonging to Christ and Sanctified in every Age by inward Grace But it was necessary that the knowledge of the true God should be preserv'd with some lustre among the Jews a prophetical People and an unexceptionable Witness of the Truths of Religion in spight of all the Power and Artifices of the Prince of this World till at length the only begotten Son of God for and by whom all things were made should come down from Heaven to change the Face of Things over all the Earth and to open the surprising and wonderful Scene of God's Conduct A Scene which will end with the indissoluble Marriage of the Bride and Bridegroom who shall enjoy together in Heaven an eternal Felicity in the midst of the divine Brightness singing Songs of Praise without ceasing to the Glory of him who shall have put all their Enemies under their Feet by the invincible Power of his Arm and by ways perfectly suitable to his Wisdom and other Attributes XII These great Truths do without doubt deserve to be prov'd and explain'd more at large but this is not a place for it My Design here is chiefly to shew Heb. 1.14 that the Angels are Ministers of Jesus Christ sent forth as S. Paul saith to Minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation And that as occasional Causes for God communicates his Power no other way to the Creatures they have a Power not of giving inward Grace but of producing in the