SECTION 8.

The Appearance of Angels.

IF these celestial spirits were mere strangers to us though never so many, never so powerful, never so knowing, never so excellently glorious; yet what would their number, power, knowledge or glory be to us! I hear of the great riches, the state and magnificence of some eastern monarchs: but what am I the better, while at this distance, their affairs bear no relation to me? To me it is all one, not to be, and not to be concerned. Let us therefore diligently enquire, what mutual communion there is or may be betwixt these blessed spirits and us.

Nothing is more plain than that the angels of God have not always been kept from mortal eyes, under an invisible concealment; but have sometimes condescended so low as to manifest their presence to men in visible forms, not natural, but assumed. Abraham saw angels in his tent-door. Lot saw angels in the gate of Sodom. Hagar in the wilderness of Beersheba. Jacob in the way. Moses in the bush of Horeb. Manoah and his wife in the field. Gideon in his threshing-floor. David by the threshing-floor of Araunah. I need not mention the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Daniel, Zechariah, Ezekiel, and the rest. In the New Testament, Joseph, Mary, Zechariah the father of John Baptist, the Shepherds, Mary Magdalen, the gazing Disciples at the Mount of Olives, Peter, Philip, Cornelius, Paul, John the Evangelist, were all blessed with the sight of angels.

In the succeeding times of the primitive church good angels were not more sparing of their presence, for the comfort of holy martyrs and confessors, under the pressure of tyranny for the dear name of their Saviour. I doubt not but the faithful Theodorus saw and felt the refreshing hand of an angel, as he reported to Julian his persecutor. I doubt not, but the holy virgins, Theophila, Agnes, Lucia, Cecilia, and others, saw the good angels as the protectors of their chastity. Taking the mid way betwixt distrust and credulity, I can easily admit that

those retired saints, in the first ages of the church, had sometimes such heavenly companions, for the consolation of their involuntary solitude. But the older the church grew, the more rare was the use of these apparitions, as well as of other miraculous actions and events. Not that the arm of our God is shortened, or his care and love to his beloved ones any way abated; but because his church is now, in this long process of time, settled, through his gracious providence, in an ordinary way. Like as it was with the Israelites, who while they were in their long and lonely passage, were miraculously preserved and protected; but when they came once to be fixed in the land of promise, their angelic sustenance ceased. They then must purvey for their own food, and either till the ground or famish.

In these latter ages of the church, the visible appearance of angels has been suspended. They are now employed about the better part, the soul; instilling good motions, enlightening the understanding, repelling temptations, furthering our opportunities of good, preventing occasions of sin, comforting our sorrows, quickening our dulness, encouraging our weakness; and after all their careful attendance here below, conveying the souls of their charge to glory, and presenting them to the hands of their faithful Creator. Lazarus was by these glorious spirits carried up into the bosom of Abraham; nor was this any privilege of his, above all other saints of God; all of whom, as they land in one common harbour of blessedness, so they all participate of the same happy means of conveyance.

SECTION 9.

The Regard we owe to Angels.

It has been said that the life of angels is political, full of intercourse with themselves and us. What they return to each other in the course of their mutual services, is not for us to determine; but since their good offices are

thus assiduous to us, it is proper to inquire what duties are required from us to them.

Devout Bernard is but too liberal in his decision, that we owe to these beneficent spirits reverence for their presence, devotion for their love, and trust for their custody. Doubtless, we ought to be willing to give them so much, as they would be willing to take from us. If we go beyond these bounds, we offend and alienate them to derogate from them is not so heinous in their account, as to over-honour them. St. John offers a humble prostration to the angel, and is put off with, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow-servant. Rev. xix. 10. The excesses of respect to them have turned to abominable impiety, which Jerome seems to impute to the Jews, ever since the prophets' time. Yet Simon Magus was the first that we find guilty of this impious flattery of the angels; who, believing that the world was made by them, could not think fit to present them with less than divine honour. His scholar, Menander, succeeding him in that wicked heresy, left behind him Saturnius, not inferior to him in this frenzy; who, as Tertullian and Philastrius report, facied that seven angels made the world, not acquainting God with their work. Cerinthus also, and several other heretics professing christianity, reserved a certain kind of adoration to the blessed angels. Against this opinion and practice, the great teacher of the gentiles seems to bend his style, in his Epistle to the Colossians, forbidding a voluntary humility in worshipping of angels: whether grounded upon the superstition of ancient Jews, or upon the conceits of the Simonians and Cerinthians, we need not much enquire. Nothing is more clear than the apostle's prohibition. Some tell us that upon the ill use made of the giving of the law by the hand of angels, there was an error of old maintained, of angel worship, which continued long in Phrygia and Pisidia; so that a synod was assembled at Laodicea, the chief city of Phrygia, which by a direct canon forbad praying to angels. This practice was so prevalent, that oratories were erected to Michael the archangel. Here then was this miscalled humility, that they thought it too much boldness to come

immediately to God, and must first make way to his favour by the mediation of angels.

But what do I with controversies? This devotion we gladly profess we owe to good angels, namely, that though we do not pray to them, yet we do pray to God for the favour of their assistance and protection, and praise God for the protection that we have from them. That faithful patriarch, of whom the whole church of God receives denomination, knew well what he said, when he gave this blessing to his grandchildren: The angel that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads. Gen. xlviii. 19. Whether this were an interpretative kind of imploration, or whether this angel were not any created power, but the great Angel of the Covenant, the same which Jacob wrestled with before for a blessing upon himself, I will not here dispute. Sure I am, that if it were an implicit prayer, and the angel mentioned, a creature; yet the intention was no other than to terminate that prayer in God, who blesseth us by his angels.

Yet further: we come short of our duty to these blessed spirits, if we entertain not a high veneration of their wonderful majesty, glory, and greatness; and an awful acknowledgment and reverential awe of their presence; a holy joy and confident assurance of their care and protection, and a fear to do ought that might cause them to turn away their faces from us. All these dispositions are connected; for if we have conceived as high an opinion of their excellency and goodness as we ought, we cannot but be bold upon their mutual interest, and be afraid to displease them. Nothing but our sins can displease them. They look upon our natural infirmities and deformities without any offence; but our spiritual indispositions are odious to them, as those which are most opposite to their pure nature. The story of the Angel and the Hermit walking together is a famous one. In the way there lay an ill-scented and poisonous carrion: the hermit stopt his nose, and turned away his head, and hasted The angel held on his pace, without any show of dislike. Presently they met with a proud man, gaily dressed, strongly perfumed, looking high, walking stately.

on.

The angel turned away his head and stopt his nostrils, while the hermit passed on with reverence for so great a person. The angel gave this reason, that the stench of pride was more loathsome to God and his angels, than that of the carcase could be to him.

I blush to think, oh ye glorious spirits, how often I have done that whereof ye have been ashamed for me. I abhor myself to recount your just dislikes, and willingly confess how unworthy I shall be of such friends, if I be not hereafter more jealous of giving you just offence. Neither, without much regret, can I think of those many and horrible nuisances, which you find every moment from sinful mankind. Woe is me, what odious scents perpetually arise from those bloody murders, beastly uncleannesses, cruel oppressions, noisome disgorgings of surfeits and drunkennesses, abominable idolatries, and all manner of detestable wickednesses, presumptously committed every where; enough to make you abhor the presence and protection of debauched and deplored mortality!

But for us who are better principled, and know what it is to be overlooked by holy and glorious spirits, we desire to be more careful of giving you offence, than of a world of visible spectators. And if the apostle found it requisite to give a charge only for the observation of outward decency,' because of the angels;' what should our care be, in relation to those blessed spirits, of our deportment in matters of morality and religion! Surely, oh ye invisible guardians, it is not my sense that shall make the difference: it shall be my desire to be no less careful of displeasing you, than if I saw you present by me, clothed in flesh. Nor shall I rest less assured of your gracious presence and tuition, and the expectation of all spiritual offices from you, which may tend towards my blessedness, than I am now sensible of the animation of my own soul.