which his cause and religion are more immediately SERM

concerned.

In fuch a cafe, it is not at all incredible, that God should give his angels a particular charge, concerning those that fight his battles; to pitch about their camps, and fecretly to affift them against their enemies, and to ward off, and put by many dangerous blows and thrusts, which are made at them; and wonderfully to preserve them, when the instruments of death fly abut them, and do execution on every side of them. To what can we ascribe fuch and fo many remarkable deliverances of a person upon whom so much depends; but either to the immediate hand of GOD, or to the ministry of angels? And where GOD is provided so abundantly, with fuch powerful beings and ministers of his will; though they may be invisible to us, yet there is great reason to believe, that he very feldom works without them.

And now what an astonishing regard is this, which the great God is pleased to have for the fons of men, that he should make the whole creation serviceable to us; not only the visible creation, for the support of our bodies, and the diversion of our minds; but even the noblest of all his creatures, the great and glorious inhabitants of the invisible world, mightily furpaffing us mortal men, in the fimplicity and purity of their nature, in the quickness and largeness of their understandings, and in their power and vigour of acting; I say, that God should give these excellent and glorious beings the charge over us, and fend them forth to minister to us, for the fafeguard of our persons, for the fuccefs of our affairs, and for the security and furtherance of our eternal salvation! "D, what is man that thou art" thus "mindful thou madest him lower

that when

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SERM." than the angels," thou shouldst yet " make the

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angels to minister unto him!"

Thirdly, If the angels have the particular charge of good men, we should take heed how we despise, or be any way injurious to them: for how defpicable foever they may appear to us, they are certainly very dear to God; since he deems them so confiderable, as to employ his chief ministers about them, and to commit the charge of them to those, who by their office do more immediately attend upon himself. This is Our SAVIOUR'S own argument, Mat. xviii. 10. "Take " heed' that ye despise not one of these little ones; " for I say unto you, their angels do continually be"hold the face of your father, which is in heaven." With how much contempt foever we may look upon a poor good man; he hath friends and patrons of a higher fort, than any of the princes of this world.

Fourthly, If God appointed angels to be ministring Spirits in our behalf; we may thence very reasonably conclude, that God did not intend, that we should worship them. This seems to be a clear consequence, if the reasoning of the angel in the revelation be good; where he forbids St. John to worship him; "because he was his fellow servant." Yea the consequence seems to be yet stronger from the text; that if they be not only fellow-fervants but do in fome fort minister unto us, then we are not to worship them.

And yet this practice is openly avowed in the church of Rome, though it be reproved so very severely by the apostle, as an apostasy from christianity, Coloff. ii. 18, 19. "Let no man (fays he) deceive

you, in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of " angels; not holding the head;" as if it were a renouncing

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nouncing of CHRIST, out of a pretended humility, SERM. to make use of other mediators befides him to the Father. And notwithstanding also that the angel in the revelation does so vehemently forbid it, ὅρα μὴ by no means, upon no terms to do it: and he forbids it for fuch a reason, as makes it for ever unlawful; namely, that we ought not to worship those, who serve and worship God together with us; "it not, says the angel, I am thy fellow-fervant, " worship thou GOD." In which words, he plainly directs us to the sole and proper object of our worship.

" do

Bellarmine the great champion of the popish cause, never used more gross and apparent shuffling, than in answer to this text. He says first, why are we reproved for doing what St. John did? To which the answer is very easy; because St. John himself was reproved by an angel, for doing what he did. And now that his question is answered, one might, methinks, ask him a cross question or two. Why does the church of Rome prefume to do that, which an angel does so exprefly forbid to be done? Or was it fit for St. John to worthip one, who (according to Bellarmine) was so ignorant in the doctrine of the catholick church, as to reprove him for doing his duty? As is evident from his second crafty answer to this text, That St. John did well to give due worship to the angel: and yet it is plain from this text, that the angel did not think the worship which St. John gave him, to be his due.

It is very hard to imagine, but that a man of Bellarmine's understanding, did intend to give up the cause, in his answers to this text: but if he was in carnest, then the matter is brought to this plain and short

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SERM. short issue; whether it be fitter for us to believe a LXXV. cardinal of Rome, or an angel of God ?

Lastly, We should imitate the holy angels, by endeavouring to ferve God as they do, in ministring to the good of others. Whilft we are in the body, in this state of infirmity and imperfection; though we cannot ferve God with the same activity and vigour that the blessed angels do, yet we may in the fame fincerity, and with the same true pleasure and delight.

And we should learn also of them, to condefcend to the meanest services, for the good of others. If the angels, who are no ways allied to us, do fo much excel us, in the dignity and perfection of their nature, (for though David says, that "God made man " a little lower than the angels;" his meaning is, that he made him next below the angels in the rank of beings; but yet very distant from them in perfection) I say if those glorious creatures, who are the chief of the ways and works of GOD, do not think much to humble themselves to be ministers on our behalf; shall we be so proud as to think much to stoop to the lowest offices, to serve one another?

You fee, my brethren, what is the constant work and employment of the blessed spirits above; to do good to men, especially in order to their eternal happiness, and this is the highest degree of charity, and charity is the highest perfection of men and angels: so that to employ ourselves, with all our minds, and with all our might, to help forward the falvation of others, is to be good angels (I had almost said to be a kind of gods) to men.

I hope that we all of us do hope one day to be like the angels, in the purity and perfection of their

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nature. So our SAVIOUR has told us, that "at the SERM. "refurrection we shall be like the angels :" now as they are the patterns of our hope and happiness; so'let us make them the examples of our duty and obedience: according as our SAVIOUR hath taught us to pray, "that God's will may be done on earth, as "it is in heaven; that is, that we may serve God, and do his will here on earth, (fo far as the infirmity of our nature and of our present state will admit) with the fame readiness and diligence, with the same chearfulness and zeal, that the holy and blessed angels do in heaven. And let us aspire continually in our minds, after that blessed time, when we shall be free from fin and forrow, from affliction and pain, from diseases and death; when we shall serve GOD without distraction, and do his will without wearinefs, and shall "be for ever with the LORD, amidst

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an innumerable company of angels, and the spi" rits of just men made perfect."

Finally, Let us bless God, as for all the visible effects of his merciful providence towards us, so likewife for the invisible aids and protection of his holy angels; many times probably vouchsafed to us, when we are but little aware of it. But above all, let us bless him for his Son, our LORD JESUS CHRIST, who "was made a little lower than the angels," that is, a mortal man; " that by the suffering of death" for our fakes, " he might be clothed with glory and "honour, according to the working of that mighty

power which GOD wrought in CHRIST, when he " raised him from the dead, and set him at his own "right hand in the heavenly places, far above all "principalities and powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in " this

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