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external helps and guards of holy and blessed angels: Ah

woe to thefe men!

Ufe 2.

W

SECT. V.

Use of Encouragement.

7HAT encouragement is this to the godly? Tho' the wicked have not fuch guards, yet the godly are the proper objects of the angels ministry. Are they not all miniftring fpirits fent forth to minifter unto them? It is a queftion that puts all out of question: The wicked indeed are left to the wide world, but God is at charge of giving the faints tutors, and governors, and guardians, here is a mighty encouragement to the people of God. I know not the condition that any faint in the world may be in, wherein we cannot find in scripture fome encouragement or other drawn from an angel: Art thou in a journey? fo was Abraham's fervant when Abraham told him, He fhall fend his angel before thee and profper thy way,' Gen. xxiv. 7, 40. Art thou in battle, or ready to march against the enemy? fo was Ifrael when the Lord told Mofes, For mine angel fhall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Petizzites, &c. and I will cut them off,' Exod. xxiii. 23. Art thou in oppreffion, or under the ty ranny of wicked men? fo Mofes told Edom the Ifraelites were, 'Thou knoweft of all the travail that hath befallen

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us, how our fathers went down into Egypt, and the E'gyptians vexed us, and our fathers, and when we cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and fent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt,' Numb. xx. 4, &c. Art thou in perfecution for religion, and forced to flee for thy life? fo was Elijah, when he requested for himself that he might die, and faid, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers; and as he lay and flept under a juniper tree, be• hold an angel touched him, and faid unto him, Arise, and eat,' I Kings xix. 4, 5. Art thou traduced, maligned, cenfured, imprifoned, and condemned to death for righteoufnefs fake, or for the truth? fo was Daniel, whom God yet delivered by an angel, My God hath fent me his el, and hath fhut the lions mouths, that they have

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not hurt me, for as much as before him innocency was 'found in me,' Dan. vi. 22. And fo it was with Peter, • For behold the angel of the Lord came unto him, and a light fhined in the prifon,-and when Peter was come to ' himself, he said, Now I know certainly that the Lord hath fent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod,' Acts xii. 7, 11. Art thou amidst a people whom God because of fin hath decreed to deftruction? So was Lot whom the angels haftned out of Sodom left he should be confumed in the iniquity of the city. But I dam faved this labour of fearching any further into fcrip. ture; bishop Hall, a worthy author, hath framed us the variety of their affiftance in the fame fcheme: One while they lead us in our way, as they did Ifrael, another while they inftruct us as they did Daniel; one while they fight for us, as they did for Jofhua, another while they purvey for us, as they did for Elijah; one while they fit us for our holy vocation, as they did Ifaiah, another while they difpofe of the opportunities of our calling for good, as they did of Philip's to the eunuch; one while they foretel our danger, as to Jofeph and Mary, another while they com fort us in our afflictions, as they did Christ and his apoftles; one while they refift our offenfive courfes, as they did Mofes, another while they encourage us in our devotions, as they did Paul; one while they deliver us from durance, as they did Peter, another while they preferve us from death, as the three children; one while they restrain our prefumption, as the cherub before the gate of paradife, another while they excite our courage, as to Joshua, Gideon, and the other judges; one while they cure our bodies, as at the pool of Bethefda, another while they carry up our fouls to heaven, as they did to Lazarus. were endless to inftance, in all the gracious offices which the angels perform. And is not here great encouragement to all the faints? The children of princes are not without their guard, no more are God's children; as they have an heavenly Father, fo they have an heavenly guard to wait upon them, and to minifter unto them. O mighty encou ragement!

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SECT.

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TOW may this angel-admiration caufe the faints to admire at the kindness of the Lord towards them? You darlings of the Almighty, if others regard not, you have caufe to wonder at this, that the angels, thofe creat ed citizens of glory, fhould receive you in your straits, march after you in your ways, counfel you in your doubts, defend you in your dangers; in a word, that God fhould charge all his elect angels to fhew love and refpect unto you, yea, to serve and to minifter unto you. Stand amaz ed at this, O ye faints! the angels are the most glorious creatures in the world, they are the most glistering creatures of heaven, the beautiful companions of Jefus Christ; Job calls them morning ftars, in that being newly creat ed, they gave glory to the Creator, even as the birds in fpring begin their notes, and fing at break of day; and he calls them fons of God, in that he does use them as children, they are very near to him, they do always attend him, and continually fee his face, they have the privilege of fons. The morning ftars fing together, and the fons ' of God fhout for joy,' Job xxxviii. 7. Now that fuch creatures fhould wait on finful wretches, duft and athes, worms and not men, it is enough to cast any man in the world into an amazement or astonishment. A wonder it is that any creature, tho' inferior, fhould be ferviceable to mao, that by fin has left his dominion over the creatures; a wonder it is, that the ravens should minister to Elijah, but that all the host of heaven fhould be abased (if we may fpeak after the manner of men) to fo low a work, that angels fhould perform offices of refpect to the meaneft crea tures; that an angel cloathed with light and glory should come to Zachary, to Mary, and to the fhepherds? What! angels of God to wait upon thofe who are the most defpifed and rejected of men? Stand and wonder at this! When I confider the heavens, faith David, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou haft or dained: What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the fon of man that thou vifiteft him? for thou haft made him a little lower than the angels,' Pfal. vi, 3, 4, 5.

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This indeed is applied to Chrift, Heb. ii. 6. 7, 9, 11. Who was made a little lower than the angels, by the fuf. frings of death, but now is crowned with glory and honour: Yet, faith the apoftle, He that fanctifieth, and they who are fanctified are all one, for which caufe he is not ashamed to call them brethren; Christ and we are of the famé nature, which, tho' in fome respect it be lower than the angels, nay, in fome refpects are we higher than the angels, for the angels wait on the faints, and the angels are not fo married to Jefus Chrift in a myftical union as the faints and people of God reflored to his image are. Admire at this all ye faints! verily there is fomewhat in holinefs more than the world feeth or knoweth, there is fome worth, or excellency, or confanguinity in the faints of Chrift; otherwife I cannot think that Chrift would fet fuch a guard upon them as his own courtiers. The angels are indeed near in alliance to Chrift but the faints are nearer. The angels are God's progeny, the fons of God, and fo Christ is their brother, but man is allied nearer to Christ than fo, in that man is of God's lineage, and Chrift is of man's lineage: And hence it is, that the angels muft now ftoop, and bow, and wait, and ferve, and mipifter to the faints. Are they not nearer allied than all the angels? Unto which of the angels faid he at any time, You are my fons, my kinsmen, brethren, mother, fifier, spouse? An angel is conftantly called a miniftring fpirit, but is no where read a friend of God, the Son of the Father, the delight of the fon of man, the temple of the holy Spirit, wherein the thrice glorious Trinity takes up his mansion. Chriftians admire, here is enough to caft you into an extafy. Come, view the faint's pedigree, and tell me what you think of it.

US,

Christ is

The SAINT's PEDIGREE,

Our Lord, 1 Cor. i. 2.
Our Friend, Cant. v. 16.

Our Flesh and Blood, Heb. ii. 14.
Our Brother, Heb. ii. 17.
Our Father, Ifa. lxiii. 16.
Our Husband, Rom. vii. 4.

We

We are both, We are to Chrif,

His Servants, Rom. vi. 22.
His Friend, John xv. 14.
His Kinfmen, Mark iii. 21.
His Brethren, John vii. 3.

His Sons, Gal. iii. 26.

His Spouse, Sifter, Love, Dove, &c. Cant.

vi. 9.

One Vine, John xv. 1.
One Seed, Gal, iii. 16.
One Temple, Eph. ii. 15.
One Body, Rom. xii. 5.
One Spirit, 1 Cor. vi. 17.
One Christ, 1 Cor. xii. 12.

Upon the view of this line, genealogy, pedigree, (call it what you pleafe) methinks, my brethren, we should all cry out, Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of 'him? for thou haft made him higher than the angels, ' and haft crowned him with glory and honour, thou hast 'made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands, ' thou haft put all things under his feet; O Lord, our Lord, 'how excellent is thy name in all the world!' Pfal. viii, 4, 5, 6, 9.

SECT. VII.
Ufe of Magnanimity.

O angels wait on heaven's heirs? Come then, ye holy ones, and take an holy ftate upon you, think yourselves too good to abase yourselves to the world, or to fin, or to be flaves of men. Why you are kings, and have a mighty guard, and therefore carry yourselves conformable to your royal dignity. Little do the men of this world know of this or believe this truth, if they fee a man to have at his heels a long train of earthly followers, in filks, fattins, golden chains, and fuch like braveries, Oh how are fuch fights gazed on? and how are fuch men ufually ftiled, Your Greatness, Highnefs, Excellency? Alas! alas! all is but beggary to the glory of the least of the faints of God, and of their attendants. I fee indeed a great deal of glifter in fome of thefe earthly ftate folemnities, yet in their pomp they had need of a fair day, and clear fun

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