tion, be fuppofed that thefe glorious beings, the friends of God, will aid and affift his enemies; that fuch faithful fervants will vifit and preferve those who defpife and vilify their Mafter; or that God, indeed, would ever employ his beloved minifters in a task so hateful to them, and withal fo fruitless and unneceffary: for if they will not believe Mofes and the prophets, if they will not be convinced by all those glaring truths which both reason and revelation conftantly fuggeft, fo neither will they be perfuaded though an angel came down from heaven to fatisfy and to reclaim them. To fuch indeed they will be fent, though not as bleffings, but as fcourges: for holy fcripture hath informed us, that as thefe exalted beings were employed to fave and defend the fons of God, fo were they also frequently made use of, as inftruments of the divine vengeance. Behold, fays the Lord, (Exod. xxiii.) I fend an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way: beware of him, and obey his voice; provoke him not, for he will not pardon your tranfgreffions: for my name is in him.

The fame angels who came to fave Lot from deftruction, punished the Sodomites with blindnefs. God, we are told in the book of Chronicles, fent an angel to deftroy Jerufalem, as it is witneffed alfo by the prophet Ifaiah. By an angel a hundred eighty and five thousand were flain in the camp of the Affyrians. It is enough, faith the Lord, flay thine hand; and the Lord commanded the angel, and he put up his fword. By an angel, the proud felf-fufficient, and cruel Herod was fimitten, because

he

he arrogated to himfelf that glory which was due to the Supreme Being; and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

These and many other inftances of the power of angels we meet with in holy scripture. But it is particularly worthy our obfervation to remark, with what and more than ordinary zeal, readiness, and alacrity, these bleffed fpirits exerted themselves in the great work of our redemption by Jefus Chrift. A more excellent, and at the fame time a more delightful employment fuch beings could not indeed have been engaged in. To affift in faving a finking world from ruin, a finful and corrupt world from everlasting misery and destruction, was a task worthy the nobleft natures: and accordingly we find them in various fcenes of this important tranfaction.

Gabriel is fent to Zacharias to fhew him glad tidings: to foretel the birth of John, who was to prepare the way before the Saviour of mankind, and turn the hearts of the difobedient to the wifdom of the juft. Again, we fee this beloved minifter appearing to the bleffed virgin, and prophecying the birth of the Meffiah. A little after the nativity, the angel of the Lord appears to the fhepherds, and with him a multitude of the heavenly hoft, finging and praifing God. David's prophecy of Chrift was literally fulfilled, where he fays, he shall give his angels charge over thee; they fhall bear thee up in their hands, left thou hit thy foot againft a flone. And accordingly, in the life of Chriit, as related by the holy apoftles, we fee angels frequently

frequently intervening to fave, to defend, to comfort, and to relieve him. After the temptation in the wilderness, angels, fays St. Matthew, came and miniftered unto him. And when he retired to the Mount of Olives, his ufual place of devotion, there appeared, fays St. Luke xxii. 43, an angel unto him from heaven, frengthening him. Doubtlefs they were all ambitious of ferving him, would he have accepted of their affiftance: and this he himself intimates, when, after rebuking his friend, who had drawn his fword in his defence, he fays, thinkeft thou that I cannot pray to my Father, and he shall prefently give me more than twelve legions of angels. Again, that care of and respect for their divine Master, which, whilft living, they were permitted to fhew to him, they alfo perfevered in after his death; two angels were feen by Mary, as fhe looked into the fepulchre, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jefus had lain.

From this time we fee them on various occafions promoting the great caufe of Chrift and his religion, by affifting his faints and followers. Since the times of the apoftles, we have not indeed any fufficient evidence of their visibly appearing to men; but ftill it is extremely probable, that they conduct and prefide over our actions, that they co-operate with the divine grace, and are of the utmoft fervice to us.

If angels therefore are ever prefent with us, ought we not to fhew fuch a refpect to thefe noble guests, as never to mix with them any

meaner,

i

meaner, bafer fociety? fhould we not watch carefully all our words and actions, when we reflect that every word is heard, and every action feen by them: it is a respect we always pay to our fuperiors here: how much more due to thefe immortal vifitants from above?

If angels are continually employed, as scripture hath affured us, in ferving God, let us imitate them, if they fpend their hours in praying to and worshipping him, let us join with them in the chorus of praife and thankf giving. Great and glorious are the privileges which thefe bleffed fpirits enjoy, yet are they fuch privileges as we ourfelves need not defpair of one day attaining to: God has made us, as the Pfalmift expreffes it, little lower than the angels, and will crown us with glory and worship; though in this world we cannot be equal, yet in the next may we be no ways inferior to them in power, in knowledge, or in happiness.

We fee that these fpirits were always ready to affift the afflicted, to foften the calamities, and encreafe the comforts of life; that they condefcended to vifit even thofe of the lowest order amongst men: let us then join with them in this labour of love, behave with tenderness and beneficence to our fellow-creatures, and think none of them beneath our notice and affiftance: fo fhall we ourselves become as it were guardian-angels, and rival thefe exalted beings in the nobleft of their perfections.

Briefly then, As it doth fufficiently appear from what has been faid, that we have reafon

to

to imagine the bleffed angels of God, these exalted beings do ftill, though invitibly, minifter unto men, that they ftill guard and protect the heirs of falvation, that is, fuch as deferve their favour and attention; it highly becomes us to be thankful unto God for this moft gracious condefcenfion, when we confider the thousand temptations to which we are fubject, the thousand dangers we are liable to, and the flippery paths we tread in: when we confider that, as the fon of Sirach nobly expreffes it, we go in this life in the midft of fnares, and walk on the battlements of the city, it must be a glorious reflection to think that we have fuch guides to conduct, fuch counsellors to admonith us, that the friends of God are our friends, and that his fervants minifter unto us.

Having thus endeavoured to explain, as far as in this imperfect ftate we poffibly can, the nature of thefe miniftring fpirits, it may not be amifs, before I conclude, as I propofed,

Secondly, To confider of what fervice the knowledge of this nature may be to us, with regard to our own lives and manners.

And to fuppofe that thefe glorious beings are employed in the guardianship and protection of mankind, may tend to give us a more true and adequate idea of our own nature, may humble our pride by the confideration of their fuperior perfections, and at the fame time raife our hopes to an emulation of them.

Though we do not therefore, with the church of Rome, pay that worfhip and adoration to

them