"And what are we? Were we better than they? Or did we stand firmer? Or were we more out of danger? Or more on our watch? No, in no wise. It once seemed impossible we should fall : but now we are surprised to see we stand. And, Oh, who knows what another day may bring forth! We are as likely to be in hell to-morrow, as they were yesterday! God is no more obliged to keep us than he was them. And what if we should fall! Oh, how dreadful, how infinitely dreadful, the thought! We will all go and fall prostrate before the throne of the great IMMUTABLE; and cry, O, father of our spirits, of thy sovereign grace, keep us, we humbly pray thee. Nor will we ever forget what we have seen.

Nor will we ever cease to watch and pray,”

2. Reflections of the elect angels on the temptation of satan, and the fall of man.

"Oh, the hellish pride, and spite and malice of satan, once our companion in bliss! How gladly would he ruin the whole system, were it in his power, and even overturn the throne of heaven's eternal King! How wicked a deed hath man committed! and how righteous the doom of our glorious monarch! All who rebel against him deserve to be turned out of his world, and lie under his everlasting displeasure. But what an infinite weight of vengeance doth satan deserve! We rejoice, the Almighty hath decreed to bruise his head, and frustrate all his schemes, and bring salvation to We rejoice, that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and will for ever reign.

man.

"O, THOU, who only art immutable, behold, man is fallen! We prostrate ourselves at thy feet. O, keep us, of thy mere sovereign goodness, we most earnestly and humbly do beseech thee! We claim no right to such a favour. Our fellow-creatures in heaven, and now on earth are fallen. Thy throne is guiltless. But, O, thou father of spirits, keep us, of thy mere sovereign grace, through our state of trial, to the everlasting honour of thy great name; that, through eternal ages, we may celebrate thy praises. In the revelation of thy designs of mercy towards fallen man, we see the infinite goodness of thy nature, and that thou canst have mercy on whom thou wilt have mercy, and at the same time secure the honour of thy government.

We

flee to thy sovereign goodness for preserving grace ; nor will we ever forget what we have seen, nor will we cease to watch and pray."

3. Reflections of the elect angels on the death of Christ attentive spectators on this solemn occasion, no doubt, although invisible to the surrounding, insulting multitude.

"This is he who brought the universe into existence, and is worshipped by all the hosts of heaven! This is he who appeared to Abraham and to Moses; gave the law on Mount Sinai, and dwelt in the Jewish temple; then in the form of God, now in the form of a servant; Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews! And this gives us higher conceptions of the divine goodness, than ever before entered into our hearts: That after mankind had continued 4,000 years in obstinate rebellion, and given millions of instances of an inveterate enmity against our Almighty sovereign, yet he can thus freely give his Son to die for them! But, Oh, the hellish temper of the surrounding crouds, insulting the Son of God in his last agonies! Pushed on by satan, who knows what they are doing,' although they do not. And thus satan will treat the God who made him. This is his heart. Oh, what is there he would not do, had he power on his side! No wonder he is doomed to eternal woes. Hell is his proper place. And such might we now have been, if God had left us to fall when they did. Oh, the sovereign grace of God to us! Preserved to this day in our integrity! Oh, the dreadful nature of sin! Oh, the ruined state of a guilty world, seduced by satan, should justice take place! But here hangs their expiatory sacrifice; the Son of God dying in their room! The whole intelligent system now sees how God hates sin; and how resolved he is, as governor of the universe, to bear ample testimony against it. Not one of the guilty race of Adam will he pardon, unless his Son die in their stead. The greatness of the atonement shows how great he thinks the crime. If all the angelic world had been offered as a sacrifice of atonement, it had been infinitely beneath this. Yea, compared with this, it had been nothing, and less than nothing, and vanity. Oh, the infinite evil of sin! Oh, the infinite greatness of God! How does the death of his Son show him to be infinitely exalted! None

it to mediate between him and sinful men, but his Son! Nor any blood precious enough to make atonement but his! Nor can satan, under all his woes, through eternal ages, ever once think that he is punished in a sovereign, despotic, arbitrary manner; much less can such a thought ever enter into our hearts in heaven, while we behold the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and remember how he was treated by his Father, when once he stood in the room of sinners. Nay, now we are more fully convinced than ever, that sin really deserves the eternal punishment which God will inflict. Oh, the infinite evil of rising in rebellion against the infinitely glorious and almighty Monarch of the universe, the maker and Lord of all! Oh, what an infinite kindness, that God has kept us from this infinite evil! Our obligations to him, how are they infinitely increased! And, after all this, for us ever to turn apostates, Oh, how unutterably dreadful quite infinitely dreadful the thought! If, when the Son of God arises from the dead, ascends to heaven, and sits down on the right hand of the majesty on high, and becomes head over all the saved from among men, in whom they will be for ever safe, whose immutability will render them immutable in goodness for ever, Oh, if he might become our head too! How infinitely great would be the favour of God in this: nor should we ever forget the freeness of God's grace*."

* And if, on the exaltation of Christ, the elect angels were confirmed, it is easy to see how they would naturally be a thousand, (if not a million,) times more sensible of the greatness and freeness of the goodness and grace of God, exercised towards them, than if they and all others had been immediately confirmed at their first existence. That Christ is to be head of angels, as well as of saints, seems to be intimated in Eph. i. 10. "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in Keaven and which are on earth, even in him." And perhaps the confirmation of the elect angels is what the Apostle refers to, in Col. i, 19, 20. "For it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell, and by him, to reconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” And it is certain that they receive great instruction from God's works here on earth. They behold "the whole earth full of the glory of the Lord.” Isai. vi. §. And it is certain, God designed they should. And that he has ordered things as he has, to the intent, "that unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." Eph. iii. 10. And it is equally certain, they are very attentive. For these are things, which "the angels desire to look into." 1 Pet. i. 12. And they have the best advantages for a

4. Reflections of the elect angels on the destruction of Antichrist, and on the millennium.

"Now at length an end is come to the long series of mischief which hath been wrought by that furious dragon, that subtle old serpent, once a glorious angel, now of long time a devil. Behold, he is bound, and shut up, and can deceive the nations no more! Behold, Babylon, the great is fallen; is fallen! Hallelujah! Salvation and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments. Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. And, lo! all his foes fall before him, unable to resist and the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And now Christ shall reign on earth a thousand years, and all nations shall serve him, and all the people shall be holy, and all shall know him, from the least to the greatest; and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters fill the seas, till the saved of the Lord be as the stars of heaven, and as the sand on the sea-shore, innumerable. Hallelujah!

"This grand event, which, to satan, is matter of so great confusion and anguish, is to us matter of the greatest joy. And yet once satan and his hosts were all of our number, and we sang the praises of God together. Oh, the surprising change sin hath wrought! Oh, the distinguishing grace of God, which kept us from falling, too, on that dreadful day of satan's revolt! A day by us never to be forgotten. Now satan lies chained in the bottomless pit. And we are in triumph on the occasion around the throne."

5. On Christ's second coming. "Behold, he cometh in the clouds of heaven, and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him shall mourn; and the bold and haughty, who once bid him defiance, shall call to the mountains and rocks to fall on them and cover them; the crush of moun

large acquaintance with these things, as "they are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation." Heb. i. 14. And they deeply interest themselves in all God's dispensations towards the church on earth, as is evident from the book of the Revelation throughout. And they will attend Jesus Christ when he comes to judge the world, and God's grand plan finished, and things in God's kingdom brought to a final settlement. Mat. xxv. 31. 46.

tains being less dreadful than the wrath of the Lamb. And now shall the scene close, and the ways of God to men and angels be all justified. And God shall receive glory from all his works.

"See, yonder cometh satan, with all his guilty host, trembling, to appear before the bar. Oh, never let us forget the day, when they sang the praises of God with us before the throne! How surprised were we at their unexpected revolt! We then little thought what was before us; little guessed what was in the creature's heart, or in God's heart. But now we have seen both; and now we see the result. God is exalted, his authority established; Satan and his host are conquered, and are now to be sent away into everlasting punishment. And, but for the distinguishing grace of God, which has always held us up, we might now have been as they now are. No heart can conceive, no tongue can express the infinite obligations we are under to God: of whom, and by whom, and to whom, are all things; to whom belongs glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Now, therefore, let eternal ages be, by us all, employed in contemplating God's glorious works; in admiring the -wisdom of all his ways; revering the dread majesty of the universe; magnifying and extolling his great name; exulting in his supremacy, and celebrating the praises of his free and boundless goodness."

It is easy to see how natural it must be for the elect angels to make these and such like reflections on these occasions. And it is as easy to see how the knowledge of God, and of themselves, increases their humility; their dependance on God; their reverence, love, gratitude, and joy, i. e. their holiness and happiness. And it is easy to see how the fall of angels and men, and God's conduct on these occasions, gives them these new ideas of themselves and of God. Had sin and misery never entered into God's world, they could never have had these ideas of themselves, or of God. And, if what has been said of the angels may be applied to mankind, as for substance we see it may, and that, too, with some additional circumstances of great weight, as will appear in the next sermon, then this will be the sum of the argument.