one of the angels that food by, and asked him the truth and meaning of them, So he told me, faith Daniel, and made me know the interpretation of the things, Dan. vii. 16. And in another vifion, when Daniel fought the meaning, Behold there stood before me, faith he, as the appearance of a man, and I heard a man's voice upon the 'banks of Ulai, which called, and faid, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vifion. And he faid unto me, Understand, O fon of man, &c. Dan. viii. 15, 16, 17. And another time the man Gabriel whom he had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caufed to fly fwiftly, touched him about the time of the evening oblation, and informed him, and talked with him, and faid, Q Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee fkill and understanding, Nothing is more ufual in God's word, than for angels to inform the faints what is the will and mind of God; the conception of Chrift, and his return to judgment, were all told by the angels; only you may look upon thefe às extraordinaries and apparitions of angels, and fuch teachings or enlightnings of our understanding in thefe days you cannot expect. All this I grant, and yet withal I add, that if vifibly they do not teach us, they may do it invifibly; yea, and I verily believe they do it in ordinary, though invifibly, teach and inftruct all the people of God. But how can that be, when they do neither fpeak to us, por reafon with us after the manner of men? I answer, they have other ways of speaking, or of reafoning with us. As, 1. They understand us, tho' we neither speak to them, nor reafon with them: Dr. Goodwin, one of our light, in his Child of light walking in darkness, tells us that evil angels know much within us, and to that purpose they have more advantages than we men have to know one another by. For, 1. Thofe fpirits can difcern all corporeal actions, and tho' the fpecies in them, and their manner of knowing corporeal things differ from ours, yet they are analogical with ours. 2. They make it their business to study men, it is their trade trade to go up and down, and confider men: Haft thou not confideréd, fays God to Satan, my fervant Job?' Job i. 8. 3. They are and can be present at all our more retired actions? they are with us at bed and board, in all companies, and in all folitary places. 4. By what they fee outwardly of our actions, they may guefs at our inwards, which are as the principles of them. 5. They have an infight into the fancy, and the images therein, which follow and imitate the inward thoughts of the mind, as the fhadow doth the body: In this refpect they go into a room further than we can go, yea, into a room next to the privy chamber, which yet remains faft locked up unto them. This last goes beyond all the former; and yet, faith my author, all divines grant, that the devils may know and difcern our phantasms intuitive as we do things that are prefent before us. 6. As they may fee into the fancy, fo if God permit, evil angels may go into the head, and fee thofe very ima ges and fpecies in the fancy, that are for prefent in direct conjunction with the understanding, and which is then thinking and mufing of. Indeed the immediate knowlege of our thoughts, and hearts, and understandings, is proper only to God; I the Lord fearch the heart, I try the reins, Jer. xvii. 10. Yet argutive, and as they do tranfire, and appear in the images of the fancy, and fo quafi in alis, and mediately they may be very far difcerned, and look'd into by evil angels, and fo by difcerning those very phantafms, which the understanding actually at prefent vieweth, and maketh ufe of, they may then judge what it is, that the mind for the prefent is mufing on. All this is difcufs'd at large concerning the evil angels. And if the evil angels may know thus much of what is within us, do not the good angels know thus much? The evil angels have by their fin loft much of their knowlege, and therefore are called, Darkness, and the power of darknefs, because they are exceeding dark in themselves, and in comparison of the holy angels; but the good angels never finned, and therefore never were deprived of the least meafure measure of knowlege conferred on them. I must therefore conclude that without fpeaking to them, or reafoning with them after the manner of men, they understand as well, or wherein they do not, God is pleafed often to discover it to them by an especial difpenfation of his favour and grace, As to the angel in Daniel, was revealed the myftery of the feventy weeks. 2. We may understand them, tho' they never fpeak to us, or reason with us, and so we are capable of their teaching: You may fay, How.may we do that? I anfwer, 1. Obferve we their work upon our fancies, there they are busy day and night, to fet together the images of our understanding of them. Look as a Compofitor in printing takes his letters that ly confused before him, and orders, and fets them in words and fentences, to represent to the reader's eye what he would have read by him: So do the angels fet and compofe the images in our fancies to represent to the understanding fuch things as they would have us know; it is good therefore to obferve their work day and night, for they may work on our fancies in our dreams. 2. Set we ourselves to think or muse upon those images fet together by them. Thus when the angel Gabriel faluted Mary, it is faid, That fhe caft in her mind what manner of falutation this fhould be, Luke i. 29. And after. the angels had appeared to the fhepherds, and that all wondred at thofe things which the shepherds told them, it is faid, that Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart, Luke i. 19. Certainly it is our duty, when angels have been communicating their minds to us, to ponder, and mufe, and meditate, and to caft in our mind what manner of communication this should be. the 3. Try we their works upon our fancies, whether it be agreeable to the word of God; it were fad, if we fhould take that for the fpeaking of angels, which is very voice of devils. Now though evil fpirits can transform themselves into angels of light, yet they may be difcerned, if we will try their work by the word. The good angels are diftinguished from the bad, either by their apparitions, or by their actions; the for mer mer I omit, for the latter the poet gives them inthus, The Cacodamon's labour all they can Against God's honour, and the good of man. Indeed this is the fure and indubitable character; the good angels never fpeak any thing contrary to the word of God, or which is all one, the good angels are employed in nothing fave the honour of God, and the profit and prefervation of good men; but evil spirits aim all their enterprizes and endeavours to derogate from God's worship, and to affume it to themfelves, and by their flattering de ceptions, and oily infinuations with man, to work the utter fubversion both of body and foul. It is good therefore to try their works upon our fancies, and if we find it agreeable to God's word, or if it aim at God's honour and man's profit, we may conclude, This was the fpeaking of an angel of God. But methinks I hear fome object, You tell us of a work of angels upon our fancies day and night; and indeed in the night we can more easily obferve fome fuch like im preffions or work upon us in our dreams: But are not these things fpoken against? Was not this the way of falfe prophets to obferve their dreams, and by them to delude the people, faying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed, Jer. xxiii. 25. I answer, Such dreams as tend to the leading men from the holy word of God to wicked doctrines or opinions, which are painted over with the pretence or colour of revelations and divine vifions, when they are indeed the mere delufions of Satan, transforming himself into an angel of light, are not to be heeded, but rejected; and fuch were the dreams of the falfe prophets tending to idolatry, again!! whom God fpake, If there arife among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a fign or a won ⚫der, and the figa or wonder come to pafs, whereof he fpoke fpake unto thee, faying, Let us go after other gods, '(which thou haft not known) and let us ferve them; 'thou shalt not hearken to the words of that prophet, ' or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your foul,' Deut. xiii. 1, 2, 3. Yet this hinders not, but fuch dreams as come into us by God's fpecial, and fometimes extraordinary work of providence, which must needs be directed unto some weighty and good end: As we must conclude, if we either confider the first mover, who is God, or the inftruments, who are his holy angels, fuch dreams will challenge our very ferious confideration, and diligent care to take notice of what they offer unto us, and the neglect or contempt thereof cannot be committed without great impiety; and therefore we have not only a warrant but an unavoidable and inviolable obligation in point of duty, to take notice of fuch dreams, and to make ufe of them according to their importance and purpose. In a dream, 'ina vifion of the night, when deep fleep falleth upon men, in flumberings upon the bed, then he openeth the ears of men, and fealeth their inftructions,' Job xxxiii. 15. ་ But becaufe dreams are of feveral forts, fome proceed. ing only from the constitution of the heavens, or from the difpofition of the air, or from previous cogitations, or from the temper of the body, or from the affection of the mind, or from the procuration of the devil, and only fome few from the operation of good angels: It is therefore worthy of our pains to know fome fuch marks or characters, whereby we may distinguish these laft from all others of the former dreams. A learned writer in his book of the Baptized Turk, hath laid down thefe marks of thofe dreams procured by angels. 1. When they move unto that which is truly and eminently good, or from the contrary evil, and have nothing in them that ftands oppofite to the truth and holiness of the word of God, or found reafon, or that addeth any |