make them our Patternes they come to us admonish us of Gods will they teach protect and comfort us 4. From their apparitions and services they appeared often to the Fathers they wrastled with Iacob eate with Abraham carry the elect into Abrahams bosome they gather the dead at the day of judgement and wee shal be like the Angells also Christ was said not to take upon him the nature of Angells and Paul chargeth Timothy before Christ and the elect Angells and Christ is said to have a name given him above the Angells Lastly to give a ground out of Philosophy Aristotle saith that to the perfection of the world it is necessary that there should be three sorts of substances invisible visible and partly invisible and partly visible as if hee had hit as indeed hee did on Gods creation The second are the heavens and elements and compositions out of them the last are Men which have an invisible soule and a visible body and hold the middle the first therefore must be the Angells If you aske as an appendix to this whether the Angells have bodies or are altogether incorporall it is a question controverted betweene the Philosophers the Schoolmen and the Fathers the Platoniste would have them have bodies to which many of the Fathers adhere Aristotle and the Schoolmen would have them altogether incorporall the reasons on both sides are not unworthy considering if one would amuse themselves in that out of which the Scripture gives no issue I will not trouble you with it onely this its safe to say that they are not essences so simple as they are altogether uncapable of composition it is onely proper to God to have his being and essence or substance the same Angells are mutable they consist of an act which they are and of a power into which they may be reduced it is one thing in them to be simply and another thing to be indued with understanding and will to be and to be good to be and to be wise God onely is I am uncapable of any change as of any composition To say God were an Angell were a derogation as to say hee were a body unlesse you should meane by a body a substance as Tertullian did and so called God a body that is a substance But if they have any such composition as may be called a body it is certainely of the greatest finenesse and subtilty a spirituall body and therefore not like to be of that grossenes that either the aire is or those heavens that are framed out of the Chaos but neerer the substance of the highest heavens which seeme to have bene made at the same time To conclude it will be safe to say that in comparison of God they are bodies in comparison of us they are pure and mighty Spirits From this that hath bene said in generall of the nature of Angells consider by way of corrollary First in that these blessed substances are creatures brought with you by God out of the same wombe of nothing and raised from that lowenesse to the height and dignity they possesse how great then is that God that can make and forme such beings from nothing Wee praise workemen that with all accommodations of instruments and matter can produce something worth the looking on but nothing and something are all alike to God Also hee can make of one lumpe a vessell of honour as easly as of dishonour if the workman be to be esteemed by the worke consider these mighty pieces and who made them breake into an admiration and blessing of God as David did Psal. 104.1 Blesse the Lord O my soule O Lord my God thou art very great cloathed with honour and Majesty why hee was able to forme and create those mighty things and among them the Angells ver 4. Who maketh his Angells spirits his Ministers a flame of fire where by the way hee gives you their nature and office for their nature they are spirits raised and excellent for that office they are ministers 2. But secondly if God created them then feare them not hee hath a hand over them still hee that bounds the sea will bound the divells They are reserved in chaines as well to their effects as to their punishments they cannot breake loose nor get beyond their Tedder On the other side there are good ones amongst them which shal be ordered to your advantage by this maker and creator of them who mindes us as well as them and mindes them for us of which wee have a good pledge in Iesus Christ Who tooke not on him the nature of Angells but tooke on him the seed of Abraham our nature and surely all creatures shall subserve to that composition of which God is a part 3. If God created the Angells feare no lowenesse God can raise you high enough in a minute can you imagine almost greater termes of distance then from nothing to an Angell wee suffer many graduall changes in our bodies and soules but God can raise us in a moment if hee please to the highest pitches of grace or comfort and prosperity 4. How great is that love to piece up with much care and paines such vessells as wee are who could in a moment cast new ones of a better forme and fill his house with Angells but hee loves our tribe and hath condiscended to us and done more for us then for the Angells 5. You see reason to consider of the Angells not as inspirations motions fansyes or phantasmes but as of reall substances and existences mightie spirits that in the frame of the world and order of nature come neerest God and possesse the next place to him for so they are and as such are the immediate instruments of God which have ever had much to doe with the sonnes of men though sometimes in apparitions more sutable to our nature sometimes in a more spirituall converse more agreeable to their owne nature but ever they have bene beingh that have had and still have a great part to play and therefore as the good Angells are of more use then wee consider so the evill which is to our purpose especially are most powerfull and malignant substances farre above the capacity of flesh and blood carrying themselves rather as Princes and Powers and Dominions and being acted with the greatest malice are alwaies watching alwaies tempting alwaies observing ever if wee looke not to it ruining and destroying us warring with weapons sutable to our complexions and lusts betraying simple soules with their methods and wiles so as without a great power of God wee shall not be able to escape them The not considering of this enemy gives him a mighty advantage wee hope in some measure to unmaske him Wee have considered two things already concerning the nature of Angells in generall first that they are creatures secondly that they are substances and have made use of both Wee shall now consider their mutability or immutability And first wee say that as it is peculier to
God onely to be without beginning so it belongs to God onely to be without change or shadowe of change and that the Angells as creatures are reduceable to nothing by the same hand that made them so as though there be no passive principle in them by which they may be called corruptible or mortall yet in respect of an active power of God upon which their being and life depends they may be called corruptible and mortall because as it is in the power of the Creator that things are so it is in the power of the Creator that they may not bee yea so much they are in Gods hands though the best pieces of nature that if hee doe but withdrawe his hand they all moulder to nothing there neede no great activity be put forth a meere ceasing to uphold them is sufficent to destroy them but yet when yee speake of changeable or corruptible it must be understood of the next and intrinsicall cause and not of the remote and outward cause as men are not called the children of the Sunne though Sol homo generat hominem but of their parents so as the Angells may properly be called incorruptible and immortall because they are so by nature I speake not now of the changeablenesse of their wills but of their nature and substance the reasons are First because the Angells are not produced out of the power of any matter as corporall substances and the soules of beasts but are produced onely by the word of God and therefore as they have no internall principle of being so have they none of dissolution for there is the same reason of being and not being Secondly Angelicall natures as the soules also of men are not compounded of matter forme but are simple formes and substances subsisting by themselves now all corruption mortality and death is by the separation of the forme from the matter as when the soule is separated from the body which is corruption or death or when the accidentall forme is separated from the subject as white from the wall or health from the man now what ever wants matter is incorruptible because there is no composition and so no separation but the Scripture concludes this best in assimulating the state of immortality in which wee shall be to the Angells This is the third consideration wee make of the nature of Angells that they are immutable Fourthly wee will consider of the apparitions of Angells of which wee heare so frequent mention in the Scriptures and the consideration whereof will proove so proper to our purpose One manner of their appearings hath bene in dreames another in visions the third in assumption of bodies and that either of bodies formed of nothing or of pre-existant matter them formed or possessing and acting naturall bodies already made Some have thought there hath bene no assumption of bodies but onely an appearance to the fancy and imagination but that must needs be otherwise for what ever is a substance which is not a body nor hath a body naturally united and yet is sometime seene with a bodily sight or vision must needs take up a body and further this was not an imaginary and phantasticall apparition because such an imagination is not seene by the sences without but by the fancy within 2. An imaginative sight being onely within in the imagination consequently appeares to him onely which so sees it but that which is seene by the eyes because it exists without and not within the minde may be seene also of all others such apparitions were of the Angells that appeared to Abraham to Lott and to the men of Sodome who were seene by them and indifferently by all But if you object to what end was this assumption of bodies since the power of the Angells exceeds all bodily might and this will not be unusefull to consider since it makes way to shew to what end they appeare and what they have done and can doe for us and upon us both the good and bad The Angells assumed bodies for the manifesting themselves not for the doing of their worke but that they might familiarly speake with men without their terrour and dread Aquinas gives other reasons that they might manifest the intelligible society and converse which men expect with them in another life And in the old Testament that it was a certaine figurative declaration that the word of God should take humane flesh for all apparitions in the old Testament were in order to that apparition of the sonne of God in the flesh If you aske mee what kinde of bodies they tooke and whether they were true men or no in taking humane shapes Answ. First though they appeared in a humane shape they were not true men as Christ was a true man because hee was personally and hypostatically united but bodies were not united to the Angells as to their forme as the bodie is to the soule which is its forme nor was the humane nature body and soule united to the person of any Angell but they tooke bodies to them as garments which they tooke up and laid downe upon occasion If you aske of what those bodies consisted It is like ordinarily of some of the Elements as of the ayre And if you object that the ayre is improper to take figure or coulour because it is so thin and transparent The answer is that although the ayre remaining in its rarity doth not reteyne figure or coulour yet when it is condenced and thickened it will doe both as appeares in the clouds Another way of appearing was in possessing some naturall body so the divell entred into the serpent and an Angell spake in Balams Asse so you read often of men possessed with evill Angells the men spake not but the divell in them the like may be said often of the good Now if any shall aske what becomes of those bodies The answer is if they be created of nothing they are reduced into nothing by the power of God But if they be formed of pre-existent matter the worke being done for which they were taken up they are resolved againe into their Elements or Principles but if the bodies were naturall reall and existent before they were left so againe by the departing of the Angells so was Balams asse and many bodies possest by the divells cast out by Christ. Another consideration is whether the Angells having assumed those bodies did put forth acts of life whether they spake and sung or eate and drunke as they seemed to doe this is handled with much controversie but it is certaine they did what they seemed to doe as appeares by the plaine direct story of Moses concerning the Angells that appeared to Abraham and others and this is assur'd that what ever the Angells appeared to have or doe that they had did for they never deceived your sences their coulour their shape their eating their drinking their speaking was what it seemed to be for the sences are not
and professours of it Therefore what the Divell abaseth let us exalt let us desire to know nothing but Iesus Christ and him crucified Let Christ in the Kingdome of Christ be all in all Let us beleeve though wee be nothing let us rejoyce though wee be worse then nothing in our selves that is to make good the gospell that is to resist the Divell let worship be administred according to the rule though it want pompe and applause and let the power of the gospell appeare in changing our natures in healing our lusts Grace came by Christ let the notion of gratefulnesse worke in us as effectually as that of merit let the love of God in Christ be strong as death let his dyeing love constraine us to live to him who dyed for us this is to magnifye the gospell which the Divell would depresse if you beleeve strongly if you rejoyce strongly if you worke strongly from gospell principles and notions then ye destroy the Divell then you oppose Christs enemy I beseech you let us doe it under this head Doe I not hate them that hate thee saith David Christ hath many enemies which should be all hatefull to us but hee hath none like the Divell as I have shewed you therefore hee came to destroy him The fairest ground of contention that you will ever have with the Divell will be this that hee is the mortall or rather the immortall enemy of Iesus Christ if you oppose him under this notion you will draw Christ neerest you for assistance and fight a battell in the strength of love and whilst you have your head you will secure the body and every member this is to put another notion in to the conflict not onely to secure our selves from lusts but to save Christ therefore live according to pure gospell because the Divell opposeth it wee have thought that to be assured or to rejoyce with joy unspeakeable and glorious were onely to doe good to our selves that is the least in it to a minde well-formed the returnes are Christs the glory is Christs and the Divell feeles every blowe who is Christs enemy and the enemy God hath set you up with whom you ought to make good a warre and to contend for ever as wee shall see heareafter Thirdly next to Christ and the naturall and Genuine doctrine of the gospell the Divell excerciseth this ministery especially against the Churches of Christ and the Ministers and teachers of them who are the guides and lights and members also either by persecution or dissention How hath the Churches bene harrowed not onely of old by the Assirians Caldeans c. But in the primitive times by the Romaines in all their persecutions and the Turkes now this the Scripture calls the Divells casting men into prison Rev. 2.10 All persecutions burnings imprisonment the Divells have done it Kings and Princes hath but lent their hands That which the Divell did to Ioshua Zach. 3.1 Stood at his right hand to resist him that the Divell doth generally to all those that would serve God in the ministry of the gospell So Paul Wee would have come unto you saith hee but Sathan hindred this their acts and Epistles shew how hee would have destroyed their ministry Then hee corrupts teachers Sathan himself is transformed into an Angell of light 2. Cor. 11.13.14.15 by whose meanes men give heed to the doctrine of Divells 1. Tim. 4.1 hee falls upon the membres also pursues them like a roaring Lyon 1. Pet. 5.8 Accusing them before God day and night Rev. 12.10 First drawes them into sin the cause of Gods hatred and then labours to fasten upon them the effects this hee doth amongst men over whom hee raignes drawes them into murthers witcheryes and then discovers them but his usuall care in the Church is to divide and scatter that hee may raigne alone by difference of judgements distracting affections God is love and love is the onely cement of communion The Divell therefore which is the enemy with all his might breaks those walls loosens this cement that there may not one stonely upon another till all be destroyed Let us therefore treade the contrary paths learne the rule from the obliquity aswell as the obliquity from the rule It is warrant enough for us to resist what Sathan promotes In pursuite of that great peece of the Divells ministery which lyes in temptation having shewed formerly what influence hee had upon sin and what influence upon and concurrence with temptations wee came in the last place to shew how those ministeryes were distributed according to vices or persons which when wee had made use of wee came to discover to you some of the Divells marches in his most ordinary and high wayes that is the great and generall snares hee leads men into such as sease upon most men eminently and to their assured ruine and with which the Saints are so clogged as they are rendred unweildy lesse expedite and fit for service they drive slowly and oftentimes fall scandalously though they rise againe Wee will pursue two or three of those points more and so conclude this head in which I purpose not to be large Another effectuall head of temptation by which the Divell labours to drowne men in perdition is the lusts of the flesh Peter admonisheth to abstaine from fleshly lusts because they warre against the Soule The Divell knowes it well and therefore fights against that parte by those weapons Our bodies are the Lords and therefore wee should serve him in body as in spirit but fleshly lusts though they seems to be especially in the body yet in truth they moove circularly from the soule to the soule Out of the heart comes fornications c. And when they have past the body and come to the heart againe the soule is rendred monstrously adulterous and uncleane so that as the soule is pander to the body so on the other side the body is vexed and harrowed beyond its naturall desires beyond what it would have to satisfy an uncleane and filthy minde which appeares plainely in this that the debordments and excesses of no beasts are so great as those of mankind in bodily things because neither the reason of bodily pleasures or any other consideration calls for so much excesse as the satisfaction of a soule made uncleane and unpure doth and therefore where such lusts raigne and are in their excesses a thousand bodies would not be sufficient for the drudgery that a lustfull minde would put them to such lusts have no meane but not to be such mindes besides other incōveniences labour extreamely under this unhappinesse that they conflict continually with impossibilities because their desires run still higher and their lusts have enlarged them to a spheare and capacity that no bodie nor bodily thing can reach or fill How contrary this is to God and his holy Spirit besides other things two things shew one is that hee pretends to be our spouse and hath married us to himself in
holines and righteousnes sutable to which bond and excellent alliance there is a series of spirituall lustings proportionable to the soule the subject of them and to God the object of them which should leade both body and soule captive to an holy and intimate converse with so great and excellent a husband whose comelynesse should alwayes be in our eye and whose beauties should ever inflame our hearts to whom wee should be holy that is separate both in body and spirit 1. Cor. 7.34 whose loves draw out our affections strongly but orderly whose converse fills our minde and enlargeth it altogether which is health to our navell and marrow to our bones quite contrary to the effects of other lustings which give men occasion to mourne at last when their flesh and their body are consumed Prov. 5.11 Now for this excellent spirit to be out-bid by so base and harlotry love that can make no satisfying returnes to have a spirit stollen from him and layde under chaines for these lustings are deepe pits out of which onely an almighty spirit can rescue to be cast of as not faire or not worthy cannot but be deepe in Gods heart Manet altâ repostum judicium Paridis spraetaeque injuria forma In a word to espouse the Divell his enemy by the mediation of filthy and base lustings it is no wonder that men are abhorred of the Lord when they thus fall Prov. 22.14 Another thing that shewes how hatefull these lustings are to God is that these fleshly lusts in that branch properly called uncleannes are made the greatest punishment of the greatest sinnes Rom. 1. from ver 21. to 28. If you aske mee how I intitle the Divell to this besides what was said in the beginning of this head that the Divell who shoots at the soule knowes those lusts ruine it and therefore useth this great engine against it first how can you make a more proper match then betweene the uncleane spirit and those lusts which are properly stiled by God himself uncleaunesse in the abstract as being of all others most eminently uncleane and impure besides looke upon men the Divell acts and possesseth most fully and immediately their God is their belly they fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the minde which is ingaged as deepe as the body is in these lustings and evill affections 2. Eph. 2.3 and not to prosecute this further it is extreamely observable that where the Divell keeps open court reignes personally and absolutely as hee doth amongst infinite numbers in this world though wee are not acquainted with such assemblings therein all beastly shapes and manners hee doth subject them to the actuall commission of what ever wee call uncleannes although oftentimes greatly contrary to their wills and desires that suffer such things from him but the bond of their obedience is strickt and they can refuse nothing who have subjected their necks to that yoake this innumerable and joint confessions of witches and sorcerers accord upon of which I could give you account enough upon as good record as story can give us of any thing although which also wee may consider the Divells are altogether uncapable of any pleasure from such fleshly acts who as being spirits have neither flesh nor bones nor blood they do it onely to debase mankinde and by the most sensuall lusts which fight against the soule to keepe them at the greatest distance from spirituall and heavenly employments by which onely the humaine nature is perfected and improoved To conclude this besides what hath bene said already the Scripture saith expresly that not onely in generall amongst mankinde but even in the Church and therefore considerable to us all It is Sathan which tempts men for their incontinency 1. Cor. 7.5 And it is from him that the younger women waxe wanton against Christ and turne after Sathan 1. Tim. 5.11.15 so as there is cause enough to entitle Sathan to this high way of perdition to these lusts of the flesh that fight against the soule and therefore cause enough for us to watch him and our selves in this high way of perdition in which every step wee take is a departing from Christ our spouse to follow Sathan for the Scripture calls it a turning after Sathan Men are apt to thinke that it is but a turning after their loves a turning after pleasures but besides which you leave which is Christ your husband you follow indeed Sathan in that disguise which should keepe us at the greatest distance in every degree or steppe that way A fifth beaten path of the Divell is Pride the pride of life you may know that to be the Divells way from which God calls you of so earnestly and so effectually first by his denouncements against the proud and pride Pride goeth before destruction Prov. 16.18 as the herbenger or usher that makes way a man acted and filled with pride is upon the very brincke of the precipice of ruine hee is dropping into destruction God delights to debase every one that is proud hee doth but stay till they are proud enough that they may be more capable of ruine and destruction that they may fall deeper Therefore when pride cometh then cometh shame Prov. 11.2 and they come both together pride onely hath the upperhaud Will you see how God sets himself against this evill Iob 26.12 By his understanding hee smiteth through the proud Hee divideth the sea with his power as it is said before but imployes his wisedome and understanding to smite through proud men that is to do it most assuredly to doe it most seasonably for their ruine so Prov. 16 5. Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Nothing proud men looke after more then to be had in esteeme and in honour to be admired and to be to others the objects of their envies and the measure of their wishes the rule and modell of their actions but saith hee Hee is an abomination to the Lord that men are which they are to God and that they shal be within a while to all the world that is they shal be a loathing and an abhorring and therefore the things which they would establist shal be scattered the houses they would build shal be pulled downe for so sayes Mary Hee hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts Luk. 1.51 that is there is a concentration of thoughts castles that men build for themselves the imaginations the thoughts of mens hearts drive to some height to some high marke or But sutable to the fountaine from whence they flow a proud heart and when they have wrought them up to a due height and proportion and looke for the product or result of all then God comes as with a whirlewinde and scatters them and shewes how ill compacted every building is how loosely it is layde which is formed without him so for the other place which I hinted the Lord will destroy the house of the proud as it
had hee not bene God himself hee would never have out-wrastled it In a word every creature of God is good and nothing offends him irritates him and provokes him but sinne Nothing reacheth God nor causeth God to reach the world in anger but sinne It is that which puts the sting into death and torment in Hell Thus you are armed for that guard that sin is the greatest evill the second followes easily That then Wee should keep at the greatest distance from it for that you have Rom. 12.9 Abhorre that which is evill cleave to that which is good when wee meete with any thing extreamely evill and contrary to us nature abhorres it and retyres as farre as it can so on the contrary cleave to that which is good cling to it as a man should cleave to his wife or be glewed as the word is and they shall be one flesh incorporate your selves with that which is good make your self one with it So Abstaine from all appearance of evill 1. Thess. 5.22 a thing may appeare to be ill that is not but take heed of any similitude or appearance or likenesse of ill if it looke like ill though it bee not fly from it This gives you the benefit of a long sword by which you keep the enemy at a distance so Jude 23. Hate the garments spotted with the flesh not onely the flesh but the garment that hath toucht it Ephes. 5.3 Fornication and all uncleannes and covetousnesse let it not be once named among you as becometh Saintes nor filthinesse nor foolish speaking nor jesting So Job 31.1 I made a covenant with mine eyes why should I thinke on a maide hee would not looke because hee would not thinke and the way to secure the thoughts is to keepe well and strictly the out-doores the sences which made David pray to God to turne away his eyes from vanity Folly is bold but wisdome is wary to keepe at the greatest distance Thus this sword cuts of the first risings this is a sure way and this saves you a world of paines when a temptation or a lust hath once come within you and incorporated it self you must teare your flesh to pull it out you must pull up earth and all that the roots may come at last but while it is at a distance there is some kinde of modesty and blushing in it and it may be snib'd with a word use therefore some of these for a sword in time and it may prevent you hard work which yet must be done if you would not perish other heads I thought to have runne over and fitted for use as Thirdly God knowes our thoughts Fourthly that the word must judge us even this which wee have in our hands and mouthes and if it condemne our sinnes now how is it like to acquit us another day Fifthly that every secret thing shall be made manifest Sixtly that you should walke in the sence of death and changes but I shall prosecute this no further onely let us know that if the Divell have got within us the same way hee is fetcht out that hee is kept out this sword must do both Thus God hath armed you compleatly and it will be both your sin which you will not know how to answer and your shame also to be foyled If you oppose Captaine to Captaine you have Christ and the Divell you have as sufficient as mighty as experienced a Captaine as your lusts have if armes to armes yee have all these spirituall armes against his carnall armes for so are his in comparison of those Though his be spirituall also as acted by a mighty spirit your reward held over you by hope is greater for the present then any he can offer though not to flatter our selves Our condition heere is to indure hardnesse as good souldiers 2. Tim. 2.3 And wee must conflict according to the law of combate if wee would have the crowne But this is no new thing to us this wee knew when wee undertooke religion this was laid in at first as the law and condition of our undertaking That which followes is prayer praying with all prayer which is to all other ordinances of God as bread and salt to our repast wee cannot make a meale without it heere it fastens on your armour and lookes up for strength and successe to him who is able to give it If souldiers be weake or succumbe in fight they send to their Generall for supplies and reinforcements Praying alwayes that is in all time every juncture and article of time as you have occasion by temptations for combate for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly occasion this is not so much spoken heere of our ordinary and customary use of Prayer as it is applicable to occasions that is temptations but this Prayer must be in the spirit The Spirit in our Prayer is what the soule is in our bodie it is that which gives the life to it to conflict with the living God by dead words will doe no good therefore Jude sayth Praying in the Holy Ghost ver 20. You have another expression Rom. 8. That the spirit makes intercession for us the Holy Ghost must pray in us there must be an incorporating in that duty of the Holy Spirit with our spirits watching thereunto you must watch to prayer therefore it must be an act of time With all perseverance that is till the worke be done for then ye persevere when ye give not over till you obtaine your end so as your Praying and fighting must runne parralell till you have overcome your enemie and sleighted his workes It s enough to have hinted this which I intend not to speake of as being no peece of the armour nor resembled by the Holy Ghost to any peece To all that hath bene said I shall adde no more but this that every thing is strong in vertue of an ordinance therefore bread nourisheth because it hath a word that bids it doe so and therefore the word shall cut and destroy because God hath made it a sword and edged and fitted it for that purpose Thus have I some what largely measured the field of Battaile shewed you your friends and enemies and fitted to you those armes which God hath given you for the service of this holy warre To conclude therefore The just end and designe of warre for every thing is to act in vertue of a designe is peace now no warre pretends to peace more then this we have been speaking of and therefore Communion which is the effect and birth of peace beares one halfe of the title of this discourse And indeed men were so form'd for Communion as no doctrine can be avowed for good which renders them unsociable But experience tells us that it is the fate of some warres not onely to be the meanes by which peace is gotten and procur'd but by which it is nourisht and maintayn'd and we know some countryes which injoy the greatest benefites of peace in the
deceived about their objects if the distance be proportionable and they no way distempered for if the sences are ordinarily capable of being deceived then you may question any thing subjected to sence as whether the snow be whit c. Now all this they did not by vertue of an internall forme but an Angelicall power quickening and mooving the body they acted and it is observable that when the Angells would hide their natures that they might converse more familiarly with men they would eate and drinke and speake But when they would be acknowledged for Angells then they denied to eate meate as Iudges 6. in the story of Gedion and of Sampson Iudges 13. If you aske what became of the meate they eate for their assumed bodies needed no nourishment I would aske you what became of their bodies their meate aswell as their bodies was reduced into nothing or the pre-existent Elements of which they consisted as that which Christ eate after his resurrection There is one question more in this subject with which I will end and that is Why the Angells make not their operations now as formerly they have done The heathen who were ignorant of the wayes of God ascribe this to the sins of men that God being now displeased with them hath no more minde to converse with them But the reason is quite otherwise because as God would be worshipped in spirit and truth so hee would have us walke in the spirit and converse more with the spirit then formerly and Christ being now in the flesh and in heaven hee would have us live by the faith of him and a greater measure of the spirit being now given hee would have us converse with the spirit and these spirits in a more invisible way As also the Church being now confirmed by God needs not those visible and sensible confirmations as formerly which is the reason also of the ceasing of miracles they were appropriated to the laying of fondations both of the law and the Gospell we walke now in the vertue of these apparitions which were of old and in the power of these miracles and besides wee have faith enableing us to converse with the Angells in a way more spirituall So much for the apparition of Angells First from the immutability of the Angells you see the reason of their indurance nothing can destroy them but God immediately and God will not the same reason is for the soules of men for they as the Angells are not produced out of matter are not compounded of matter and forme but are pure substances created and infused by God immediately and so not subject to corruption And for glorified bodies when they shall have put on a celestiall forme this corruptible shall have put on incorruption this passive principle by which they are corruptible shal be destroyed they will then be in the same condition of the Angells uncapable of fadeing or alteration From the apparition of Angells see the care that God hath had of his Church in all times Hee hath not left himself without witnesse to the world in that hee gave them raine and fruitfull seasons nor to his people for hee hath given them the apparitions of Angells and invisible substances Secondly learne the dignity of saints that have had the Angells to be their ministers and so farre as to humble and debase themselves to take up shapes that were not their owne Heb. 1.14 Are they not all ministring spirits c. Thirdly consider the meanenesse of mans nature in respect of the Angelicall wee cannot beare apparitions scarce in our owne shape but out of it in any higher wee are confounded Fourthly see the blessednesse of our conditions wee shall be as the Angells as little depending on Elements and outward things the more wee can frame our selves to this independency of living now the more raised wee are it is good to have our happines in few things and to be easily able to quit the rest Fiftly admire not bodily beauty you see an Angell which is a creature but one degree above us can frame beautifull shapes which shall be acted and moved and within a while comes to nothing and this beauty of our bodies this Elementary beauty this mixture of whit and red is almost as perishing a little blast of sicknes a little undue commotion of the humours renders it also nothing Sixtly see the great love of the son of God in his apparition who though above Angells as being their creatour Coll. 1.16 Though hee were God blessed for ever yet did not abhorre our nature but as hee tooke our nature and not that of the Angells so hee tooke it up indeed not in shewe as the Angells who troubled not themselves with the heavinesse indisposition and vildenesse of our bodies but Christ so tooke our nature as he subjected himselfe to all our naturall infirmities and to have as wee a vilde body Seaventhly by the frequency of the former apparitions of the Angells you may know they are not idle now although wee living by faith have not such a visible converse with them as formerly but as miracles are ceased so are their appearings seased but not their workings though their converse be not so sencible yet it is as reall But of that in another place So as the fifth thing will be to consider about the administrations of Angells to us and the deputations they have from God concerning us And first wee must know that the doctrine of the Angell Gardians hath bene exceeding antient not onely amongst the Christians but the heathens also who drew much of their knowledge from the Scripture and they thought that every man had his Angell which was his Genius hence are those phrases Invitâ Minervâ contra genui facere that when their Angell or Genius inspired them one way they would do acts notwithstanding contrary to such inspirations and to their Genius Secondly some not onely Philosophers but Christians have thought that every man good and bad was under the guidance of a good Angell which to the reprobate was an aggravation of their sinnes but it is cleare that the tutelage of the good Angells belongs onely to the elect for so it is Heb. 1.14 Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heires of salvation Exclusively that is to them and no others Els hee would not have made it a priviledge and prerogative to the saints but given it in common rather amongst men So Psal. 91.11 Hee shall give his Angells charge over thee but to whome ver 9. those which make the Lord their refuge so that it is cleare for them and for no others And it doth not hinder that this was spoken immediately to Christ for so are all the promises which concerne the elect they are made and made good first to Christ and from him as a head they discend to his members A third consideration will be whether every elect person hath a particular
Angell deputed for him or whether all indifferently serve all Not to trouble you with the dispute some incline rather to the negative because they thinke it is a derogation to the goodnes of God to his people who gives them the heavenly host amongst them and to them all for their use and protection but neither doth this satisfy mee nor their answere to the places alleadged for the former opinion but before wee proceed further I affirme That it is probable that every elect hath his proper and peculiar Angell deputed as his keeper and companion yet so as extraordinarily many may be sent to his ayde for proofe of this Math. 18.10 Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones for in heaven their Angells doe alwayes behold the face of my Father which is in heaven Wherein seemes to beheld out plainely the particular guardian-ship of Angells for hee saith their Angells that is their particular Angells els hee might have said the Angells which are not onely their Angells but the Angells of all the elect with them so as hee seemes to have meant their particular Angells which were deputed to them as tutors and keepers which because it was a thing so honorable to them they ought not to be dispised the Antients were of this opinion and therefore Ierome sayes upon this place It is a great dignity of soules that every one from his nativity hath an Angell delegated for his keeper Also Acts 12.15 when the company with one accord affirmed that it was Peters Angell that knocked as a thing notorious amongst them that men had their particular Angell guardians And from this opinion amongst the Iewes arose that received and common opinion among the heathen that every one had his Angell or Genius Now no man affirmes or need affirme that upon occasion there are not more then one deputed to the service of an elect man which may satisfie them of the other opinion for many Angells carried Lazarus into Abrahams bosome and the Angell of God rejoyce over one sinner that repents Besides more Angells then one brought Lott out of Sodome As for the answere out of that place of Peter that it might be one of his Angells that lookes like an evasion nor seemes it any derogation but an honour to the saints to have their particular Angells so as wee doe not limit them to one in all cases About this there are some other questions mooved As when this Angell Guardian begins his charge whether when the child is borne or baptized or afterwards There is no reason why the beginning should depend upon Baptisme or any ordinance for the other if one would argue it there might be more question I should rather thinke that the Angells begins the execution of his charge assoone as the soule is infused for though the child be a part of the mother yet it hath a distinct being of his owne and is a person consisting of soule and body Againe some consider whether the Angell keepers doe ever leave men or no with whose Guardianship they are be trusted Certainely never totally for as our adversary the divell goes about seeking whom hee may destroy so our Angells intend their worke of preserving and keeping with all diligence But as God leaves us that affliction or sin may follow So may the Angells of God also which are his messengers and ministers they may withdrawe for a time of affliction and the like and returne againe for our advantage for the keeping of the Angells is nothing els but a certaine execution of Divine providence concerning us Now God never leaves us therefore not the Angells But they are often with us as Phisitians are with those who have filthy ulcers they stop their noses administer the medicine so doe they our vanity sins extreamely offend them as it doth God yet their obedience to God and Love to us keepes them steddily to us though in our ill waies wee are no waies pleasant to them but They shall alwayes beare us in their armes as Psal. 91. that no evill befall us The next Question as an Appendix of this is whether Provinces or Communities have their Angell Guardians or no It is very probable they have as men their particular guardians and yet the concurrence and assistance of more as they need that place of the 10. of Daniel is famous where mention is made of the Prince of the Kingdome of Persia and of the Prince of Grecia and of Michael their Prince ver 20.21 and ver 13. The Prince of the Kingdome of Persia withstood him but Michael their Prince came to helpe him Upon this place so cleare Ierome and all expositours agree that there are Angells deputed to the care and protection of Provinces Countries some other places are brought but this cleare one shall suffice The same reason also might be given for Churches which are Communities very deare unto God The fathers were of that minde and many bring those places of the Revelation to the Angell of particular Churches as of Ephesus c. which they understood of the Angell Guardian I will not dispute that but that place of 1. Cor. 11.10 might mee thinkes as probably be urged where the women were to have power over their Heads because of the Angells in which place certainly the Angells not the Ministers are meant And me thinkes it is pro ratio or an argument rather from the lesser to the greater God doth take care for oxen saith Paul then much more for Ministers So doth God give such honour to Provinces then much more to Churches which are Communities much dearer to him but I shall not enlarge this now particularly Wee will now speake of the reasons why God useth this ministry of Angells towards us If you aske in generall why God useth the ministry of Angells It is for his owne glory hee hath creatures about him fit for his service Dan. 7.10 there is a brave Court Thousand Thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him But if you aske why God useth this Ministration and Guardianship of Angells towards us Hee doth it first to preserve that Eutaxy that good order which hee hath put into things as thicker bodies and more inferiour are managed by more subtile and powerfull So the Bodies of the Beasts by a spirit of life and irrationall spirits by rationall as Men governe Beasts so by the same reason of proportion the Angells which are invisible spirits and are all spirits have an influence upon men which are partly spirits and partly bodies Thus the Fathers all visible things are moderatedly invisible which what can it be els under God say they but the Angells and spirits of just men because things must be governed by that which is higher and purer then it self So that as God in respect of the earth and fruits of it places the Heavens next him I will heare the Heavens So in this sub-ordination Angells
us with which through him wee fight against the divell so as by the righteousnes of Iesus Christ infused into us and derived by his spirit our vitall parts are armed and secure against the divell who by unholines and unrighteousnes would destroy that building of Gods owne rearing I have bene some thing large in this both in shewing you what righteousnes is as it respects God and man and in distinguishing it from the imputed righteousnes of Christ which is the temire wee hold by and by which wee stand accepted before God and in shewing you how it secures you against sin which is the divells weapon to wounde us withall If ye aske mee how you shall put it on in a word be renewed in the spirit of your minde things are maintained as they were gotten be converted often one conversion is not enough the worke of repentance that is of a change of heart is of a continuall dayly use you must be changed from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord righteousnes in you acted and enlarged by the spirit of God must worke out unrighteousnes in you acted and fomented by the divell and you must do your part to righteousnes as you have done to sin and as ye have yeilded your members servants to uncleannesse and to iniquity unto iniquity So now yeild your members servants to righteousnes and to holinesse Rom. 6.19 Your Members that is your whole soule the faculties of it the endowments of it must be yeilded in service to God as they have bene to sin and the divell they must be now weapons in Gods hand under the command of his spirit for so saies hee ver 13. neither yeild your members as weapons or armes of unrighteousnes for so signifies the word which wee translate instruments Wicked men unrighteous men furnish the divell with weapons to kill and destroy themselves their owne weapons slayes them the divell doth but helpe to point them and sharpen but wee must yeild our selves to God and our members weapons of righteousnes to God and by doing this sin shall not have dominion over you for saies hee yee are under grace not under the law that is the grace of God in Christ and the assistance of his spirit will enable you to overcome sin and the divell which the law would never have done Nothing hinders more then discouragement but feare not imploy your members as weapons for God and you will prevaile the rigour of the law Christ hath satisfied and those parts which remaines you which are left for you grace will work in you and by you so as let the divell be what hee will be sin or unrighteousnesse shall not have dominion over you and consequently not the divell against whome ye fight for hee moves in the strength of unrighteousnesse Wee are come now to the third peece of armour which is for the feet and leggs for the Breast-plate reached downe to the knees and this covered the rest by the feete are commonly denoted the affections by which we martch or move to good or ill they are the movings and outgoings of the soule and the feet and legs are a part which needs asmuch armeing as any other thing for in their motion to fight they conflict with the difficulties of the place and in their fightings are exposed to wounds and danger other parts are freed from that more they are not so much offended with the ground on which they are but these are aswell exposed to the difficulties of the place as to the wounds of the combate The armour therefore for this part is the preparation of the Gospell of peace that is an ability and readines with chearfulnesse to preach and confesse the Gospell First that this is a great duty to confesse or manifest upon all occations your beleefe of the Gospell appeares by that place Rom. 10.10 with the mouth confession is made to salvation that is it is a part of the duty which you owe to God in order to your eternall salvation to confesse and promulge the glorious Gospell which in your hearts you beleeve for the faith of the Gospell should so fire your heart with the glory of God that the flame should breake out On the contrary it is an absurd and foolish thing to talke of fire where no flame or heate appeares to speake of beleeving to righteousnesse where there is not at all occations a readinesse to confesse with the mouth This being laid for a foundation you shall see how two other places will helpe to interprete this Those shooes the feet armour I take to be a fitnesse and readinesse to preach or declare the Gospell of peace this semes to be extremely parrallelled with Rom. 10.15 taken out of Isa. 52.7 How beautifull are the feete of them that preach the Gospell of peace Heere you have the Gospell of peace the same thing named in this place and the bringing or communicating of it expressed by feet As heere by the armour of the feet but if any shall say this is onely applicable to Ministers because in the beginning of this 15. ver it is said How should they preach except they be sent that is utterly a mistake for by sending there is not meant the particular and lawfull call of Ministers which the Apostle heere treats not of but imports onely that it is a speciall signe of the love of God when the Gospell is brought any whither for hee sends it it drops not out of the clouds by chance or hazzard but it comes whither God sends it whither hee addresseth it and therefore should be received accordingly The other place is 1. Pet. 3.15 Be ready alwaies to give an answere to every one of the hope that is in you The word ready is the same word that is heere prepared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and heere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a readines or preparation having your feet shod with a readinesse of the Gospell of peace that is as heere with a readinesse to give an account of it or preach it or confesse it as in the former places as you have occation either by offering and declaring it or by answering and giving account of the hope that is in you of the Gospell the ground of that hope or of your actions according to that rule and word you see how this exposition suits with a generall duty in other places commanded and runnes paralell with the very phrases and expressions of them so as the exposition falls naturally and without constraint If you aske mee now how this readines and preparation of preaching and confessing the Gospell upon all occations armes the legs and feet which denotes our Martches and Motions in this warre against the divell Answere first because it imployes a great boldnes in the faith of Christ which fits for motion and going forwards hee that is ready and prepared to be a Preacher or Confesser to give an account of his faith hath as it is said of the
these faith suckes and drawes downe the dew of the spirit the cooling waters the refreshing streames if need be balsome and oyle to quench the fire before it kindle or to fetch it out when your concupiscents are cooled by the Holy Ghost and your spirit is in temper Fiery darts will do no hurt as a Grannado that falls into a Pit of water there is fire in it but before the blowe gives it is quencht O those sweet cooling influences of the spirit how refreshing are they as dewe to thirsty grounds when Dives burned what would hee have given for some water to coole his tongue When wicked men are fiered by the divells darts to dispaire or lust or persecution their owne spirits are inflamed burnt up and they burne what ever they come neere and so they must till they be utterly consumed for there is no heavenly dewe no water no rayne no balsome no droppings of the spirit But to us there is a River the streames whereof shall make glad the City of God Psal. 46.4 Shall refresh us shall keepe us from burning and fyering and chapping and hee gives an account of it ver 5. God is in the midst of her shee shall not be greatly mooved there is the head of that fountaine hee will not suffer the divell to gaine upon you to waste you to drinke you up very much to fire you but the streames shall continually refresh you and make you glad when others shal be like the parched heath in the wildernesse easily inflamed a curse to themselves and others Therefore with all gettings gett faith above all take the shield of faith and take it as I have told you take it on like a large shield that it may be fitt to cover you beleeve not scantily beleeve not a little have not your faith to fetch and prove and spell when the fiery Darts are shooteing how will you make this use of it els that I have told you is there any thing the divell would rob you of so much as lively faith effectuall faith bold and hardy faith hee knowes why well enough it will repell his fiery darts it will quench them yeild him not that peece of armour in any proportion that is so dammageable to him and so necessary for you faith is usefull in every thing but in these cases faith doth not all as I have told you and while you are doing this the obedience of faith the use of faith is as pleasing to God as resisting the fiery dart is necessary for you as therefore ye would be relieved when you most need it when your soules are fyered with lust or dispaire when those flames drinke up your spirits and undoe you beleeve boldly beleeve strongly without if's and and 's have God tyed and made one with you by faith according to the right notion of it and then dread nothing heere is good newes for you you will be able to quench all the fiery Darts of the wicked There now remaines nothing but some helpes to take this shield of faith First consider it under the notion of obedience in it the worke of God and the will of God is ingaged you may be bold with your selves and yet yee cannot because ye are creatures ye are not your owne but will you be bold with the will of God This to those that have but a little faith and love already will be a great argument God bids you sanctify his name bids you honour your father c. you will do it why because it is a thing not left to your choice God bids you sanctify him by beleeving honour him by beleeving and this is first to God to God immediately I beseech you looke not on faith in this notion as a priviledge left to the arbitration of your owne wills whether you will be so good to your selves or no but as an indispensible duty Some duties may be dispensed with for ends as the worship of God in some of his ordinance but this dutie lies so hard upon you as it is not to be dispensed with all for a moment not for the greatest good not for the salvation of all men if God be great to you therefore obey him in beleeving or upon the same reason cast of all Religion and disobey him in every other thing but if you feare to doe that then knowe that the same God that bidds you doe any other thing bids you also beleeve and know that this commandement is the least arbitrary of all the rest Secondly consider what obstructs faith if negligence and want of consideration as that doth much and often I beseech you let mee set you on considering consider that you will goe to hell without it if you will not beleeve God for the pardon of your sinnes and that hee is yours in Christ beleeve him for this that without this you wil be condemned for ever God may seme to put it to your choice whether you will beleeve or no but hee doth by no meanes put it to your choice whether you will goe to hell or no if you beleeve not for that is determined with him that the fearefull and unbeleevers shal be cast into hell and indeed thither are all men goeing a pace onely belief turnes the motion and makes the earth assend upwards But if you say you see you see your misery enough in unbelief but ye want boldnes to beleeve that you thinke that there is no proportion betweene sin and such a nothing as faith is there is a proportion betweene sin and damnation but not betweene sin and faith right now I have you where I would but then consider that the things wherin God useth man in the way to salvation are indeed nothing or as nothing by the foolishnesse that is by the Nothingnesse of Preaching hee saves them that beleeve The Vessells in which his word comes are earthen as good as nothing our righteousnes reacheth not to him and though our reward be heaven yet our merrit is nothing just nothing And therefore if faith in respect of its owne internall vallew or as a grace in this case were any thing wee should never be saved by it but now our comfort and assurance is that it is nothing But on the contrary though there be no proportion betweene sin and faith yet there is a proportion betweene sin and Christ or if you will have mee speake the truth there is no proportion in this regard Christs dyeing Christs suffering makes sin nothing so that that which held the greatest proportion before God before and was heavyer then the sand of the sea deeper then hell is now nothing what will you thinke your debts greater then God can pay will you ballance your wickednes and his love your unkindnes may be aggranated and made greater by his love but it cannot be made even with his love for hee is God In a word wee cannot out-sin his pardon or grace by any thing but unbeliefe so as this