we stand in need of from them, without those Inconveniences which their visible Appearance would bring along with it, which we could not well bear in this prefent State of Frailty. The Angels are faid to be miniftering Spirits fent forth to be Minifters for them who fhall be Heirs of Salvation. Heb. i. 14. They are helpful to us in a thousand Ways which we do not now distinctly know. We have Reafon to believe that they are often made ufe of in preventing Dangers which we do not forefee, or in defending and carrying us fafe through them, and disappointing the Rage and Malice of Devils and wicked Men. Many a Deliverance, which we perhaps attribute to a lucky Chance or Accident, is owing, under God, to the vigilant Care of thofe holy and powerful Guardians which invisibly watch around us. The Angel of the Lord, faith the Pfalmift, encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. Pfal. xxxiv. 7. The fame Thing is fignified in those remarkable Words, Pfal. xci. 10, 11, 12. There shall no Evil befal thee, neither shall any Plague come nigh thy Dwelling. For be fhall give his Angels Charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy Ways. They shall bear thee up in their Hands, left thou dash thy Foot against a Stone. The Angels may also be fuppofed to be inftrumental on feveral Oc

cafions,

cafions, in fuggefting good Thoughts and falutary Counfels; for fpiritual Beings may have a near Access to our Souls, and many Ways of operating upon them, which we are not able distinctly to explain. And finally, they minifter to good Men immediately at, and after their Death, in conveying their departed Spirits to the heavenly Manfions. Thus our Saviour represents the Soul of Lazarus, after his Death, as carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bofom. Luke xvi. 22. And he affures us that, at the End of the World the Angels fhall come forth, and fhall fever the wicked from among the juft. Matt. xiii. 49, 50. God's thus making use of Angels in his Administrations towards Mankind, is fuited to the admirable Oeconomy of his Providence, whereby he ordinarily maketh use of the Creatures as Inftruments in executing his Defigns towards one another. And it is wifely fo ordered, that the better Foundation may be laid for cultivating a facred Amity between Angels and Men, which fhall be compleated in the heavenly World, where they fhall be for eyer united in holy Love and Concord. And what a noble Idea doth this give us of the Extent and Order of the divine Government! This is one Instance among many, whereby it appears how much the Gofpel enlargeth our

Views. It teacheth us to regard ourselves as nearly allied to the bleffed Angels, and as all belonging to the fame glorious univerfal Family of God. It lets us fee that there is a Correspondence and Intercourse continually carried on and maintained between the invifible World and this Earth of ours; and that it is the Will of God that there should be a happy Harmony between the feveral Parts of his intellectual System. With what Pleasure should we raise our Views to that noblest Part of the rational Creation! How fhould our Hearts flow towards them in Love, when we confider them as united to us in the facred Bonds of a pure and difinterested Friendship, and join with them in bleffing and adoring the univerfal Sovereign!

But fecondly, Let us confider the Government of God as extending to the evil Angels. These, as the Scripture informs us, kept not their first Estate, but left their own Habitation; though, what were the particular Occafions and Circumstances of their Fall, is not diftinctly revealed to us. They are reprefented as of great Power and Sagacity, full of Malice and Envy, Falfhood and Deceit. Some No

tion of fuch malevolent Beings fuperior to Man, has generally obtained in the World; and there have been, from Time to Time,

Facts

Facts and Events of an extraordinary Nature, which can scarce be accounted for upon any other Suppofition. But though they are in a State of Difobedience and Apoftacy from God, yet they are still subject to his Dominion, and under his fovereign Cognizance and Control. They are faid to be referved unto Judgment; they are even now under the penal Effects of the divine Displeasure: but there is a farther Punishment prepared for them; and, in the mean Time, God fuffereth them to act according to their Nature, only that he fetteth Bounds to their Rage, and overruleth their Defigns and Attempts to the wife Purposes of his Government. And if we had a distinct View of this Part of the divine Administration, it would undoubtedly open a moft furprifing Scene. What can be more admirable, than to confider vaft Numbers of evil Spirits, of great Might, Subtilty, and Industry, who, if left to themselves, would spread Ruin and Mifery far and wide, yet all under the Control of the fupreme univerfal Lord, who, by a Wisdom which exceeds all Comprehenfion, defeateth their Malice, and confoundeth their Devices; and often ordereth it so, that they really execute his Will, whilst they think only of gratifying their own corrupt Inclinations.

It appears from Scripture, that evil Spirits are made ufe of as Inftruments for ferving the Ends of the divine Government. Remarkable to this Purpose is that parabolical Vifion of the Prophet Micaiah; 1 Kings xxii. 19-23. in which God is represented as on a Throne feated in awful Majefty, and that a Spirit presented himself before him, offering to be a lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets, to perfuade him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and was allowed to do it accordingly. The several Circumstances in this Reprefentation are not to be strictly urged, or taken in a literal Sense. But the general Design of it is manifest ; which is to fignify, that God, as the righteous Governor of the World, did, in his juft Judgment, fuffer Ahab to be deceived by a lying Spirit in the Mouth of his falfe Prophets; in confequence of which he went up to Ramoth-Gilead, where Providence ordered it fo, that he was flain by the Syrians, as a juft Punishment for his great Wickedness. And yet it is to be obferved, that in this Cafe Ahab was not laid under a Neceffity of being deceived, nor would have been fo, if it had not been his own Fault. For he was faithfully warned of it by one whom he knew to be a true Prophet of the Lord, though he hated him. for telling him ungrateful Truths. But he

3

rejected