SERMON XII.

THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY ANGELS IN REFERENCE TO GOOD MEN; BEING APPOINTED BY GOD AS THE MINISTERS OF HIS SPECIAL PROVIDENCE TOWARDS THE FAITHFUL; AND WHEREIN THE ANGELICAL MINISTRY DOTH MORE ESPECIALLY CONSIST.

HEB. i. 14.

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

IN the entrance of my former discourse on this text I observed, that the negative interrogation or question therein propounded is equivalent to this strong affirmative proposition, That the holy angels of God are questionless all of them ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.

In which proposition I considered, first, the subject, or persons spoken of, the holy angels. Where I proved, even by cogent reasons, that there are such noble beings as we call angels; and that they are very certainly creatures of God, most probably created sometime within those six days of the creation described by Moses in the beginning of Genesis, though on which of those six days the holy Scriptures nowhere plainly inform us.

In considering the predicate of the proposition, or what is therein affirmed of the holy angels, I have

first discoursed of their nature, that they are spirits; and then of their state and condition with reference to God, that they are ministering or serving spirits, doing homage with us to the supreme God and Lord of all things, and therefore by no means religiously to be worshipped by us.

It remains that I now proceed to the third and last particular in the second part of my text, concerning the office of the holy angels in relation to us, viz. That they are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.

This is to us the most useful part of the text, and therefore the more accurately and carefully to be considered by us.

The holy angels are spirits, ἀποστελλόμενα, sent from heaven above into this earth; what to do? Chiefly to minister to, or to do all good offices, both corporal and spiritual, for them who shall be heirs. of salvation, i. e. all truly faithful persons continuing such.

The providence of God in the government of this lower world, and therein more especially of the children of men, and most especially of those who love and fear him, is in great part administered by the holy angels: these, as Philo terms them, are "the "ears and eyes of the universal King"." The expression alludes to the government of earthly monarchs, who have their deputies or lieutenants in all parts of their dominion, who are, as it were, the eyes by which they see, and the hands by which they act. Not as if God needed the help of angels to oversee and act those things which his own knowledge and

Ὦτα καὶ ὀφθαλμοὶ Παμβασιλέως.

power cannot reach to, for he is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent; but this is spoken of God, ávoρwπоτаÐãs, after the manner of men, and must be understood, beожреns, in a sense becoming the majesty of God. The rulers of this world have their deputies out of necessity, because they cannot govern without them: but the universal King hath his ministers out of choice, because he is pleased for very good reasons to make use of them.

But as to Philo's expression, it seems to be borrowed from the holy Scriptures, wherein the angels of God are expressly termed the eyes of the Lord". So 2 Chron. xvi. 9. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew themselves strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him. Indeed our translators here read himself; but there is no such word in the Hebrew, and the supply might as well have been made by the word themselves; yea, so it ought to be made, if we will make sense of the words, with reference to the eyes of the Lord in the plural number preceding. However, that by the eyes of the Lord in that text are meant angels of God, is otherwise plain enough from the words themselves, which clearly express the every employment constantly attributed to the holy angels in Scripture, of being sent, and running to and fro through the earth, to exercise their power in the protection and security of good and upright And the same is farther evident from other parallel texts of Scripture. In the fourth chapter of the prophecy of Zechariah, verse 2, we have a vision of seven lamps in a golden candlestick. The inter[Part of this and the following page is repeated nearly word for word in Sermon XIX.]

men.

pretation of which vision is thus given, verse 10. Those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro throughout the whole earth. Now what those seven eyes of the Lord are, we learn clearly from St. John, Rev. v. 6. where we have a vision of the Lamb, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth; and those spirits he terms angels, chap. viii. 2. I saw the seven angels which stood before God. So again, Rev. i. 4. we read of seven spirits which are before God's throne, i. e. wait in his presence, do not sit upon, but stand before his throne, ready to receive his commands, and are therefore undoubtedly created spirits, i. e. angels.

For the understanding of which places we are to know, that the ancient Jews believed, that among the holy angels, those eyes of God and instruments of his watchful providence over us, there are seven (whereby perhaps they meant no more than a certain determinate number of) principal angels, as it were chief captains and commanders of the whole heavenly host. So in the ancient, though apocryphal book of Tobit, chap. xii. 15. the angel Raphael is brought in thus speaking to Tobit and his son: I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels,which go in and out before the glory of the holy One. And that this was no vain speculation of the Jews, appears from those texts of canonical Scripture, both of the Old and New Testament, which we have but now produced. But this by the way; I proceed.

That the holy angels are appointed by God, as the ministers of his special providence over the faithful, is plainly asserted in very many places of Scrip

ture besides my text. So Psalm xxxiv. 7. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. So Psalm xci. 9-12. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the Most High thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Yea, our Lord himself assures us, that his little ones, those that imitate the innocence and humility of little children, i. e. all truly good men, have their angels in heaven to protect and defend them; and that therefore it is a very dangerous thing for any man to injure or offend them, Matt. xviii. 10.

It is true indeed the good angels do not now ordinarily appear in visible forms, or speak by audible voices to men, as in ancient times they did. After God had once spoken unto men by his own Son, manifested in the flesh, and by him fully revealed his will to the world, and confirmed that revelation by a long succession of unquestionable miracles, there was no such need of angelical appearances, for the instruction, confirmation, and consolation of the faithful. The succeeding ages do indeed afford us very credible relations of some such apparitions now and then; but ordinarily, I say, the government of angels over us is now administered in a secret and invisible manner. Hence too too many have been inclined either flatly to deny, or at least to call in question, the truth of the doctrine we are now upon. But they have souls very much immersed in flesh, who can apprehend nothing but what touches and affects