Acts v. 19, 20. So also, in the ancient martyrologies of the church, we meet with sundry relations of the appearance of angels to the suffering martyrs, and of the wonderful comforts they administered to them to support their faith and patience under their agonies and torments. And although since the cessation of miracles they do not ordinarily perform this ministry to us in visible appearances, yet there is no doubt, but as they are spirits, they have spiritual and invisible ways of conversing with our spirits, and of administering comforts to us in our needs and extremities; for though they can have no immediate access to our mind, which is a dark, mysterious chamber, into which no other eye can penetrate but his who is the Searcher of all hearts, yet that they can vehemently impress our fancies with joyous representations, and thereby exhilarate our drooping spirits to that degree, as to transport us into raptures of bodily passion, is not to be doubted, there being so many sensible experiments of it in the ancient prophets, whose imaginations were sometimes so vehemently impressed with frightful ideas by the angels which conversed with them, as that they immediately fell into an agony, and were seized with unaccountable horrors and tremblings; and not only the prophets themselves, that saw the angel, were thus affected, but sometimes their companions too that saw him not, of which you have an instance in Dan. x. 7. where Daniel tells us, that he alone saw the vision of the angels, and that the men that were with him saw not the vision, but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves: which is a plain evidence of the great power which the angels have over our bodily passions, even when

they are invisible to us; so as to strike what note soever they please upon them, whether it be fear, or sorrow, or joy; and it being in their power to excite our passions to what degree they please, there is no doubt but that, being ministering spirits, they can and do minister joy and comfort to us, whenever our case and circumstances require it.

IV. Another instance of the ministry of angels in the kingdom of Christ, is their protecting his subjects against the rage and fury of evil spirits: for considering with what a fierce and indefatigable malice those malignant spirits, which in vast numbers rove about in the air, are animated against mankind, and especially against the subjects of Christ, their most dreaded and implacable enemy; and considering also the mighty power they have, as they are angels, to do mischief, it is not to be imagined but that, were they not opposed and restrained by a mightier power than their own, they would never be able to forbear exercising their direful rage and cruelty upon us, till they had converted this earth into hell, and made this school of our probation the place of our torments: and as for the kingdom of Christ, whose subjects have so solemnly renounced their yoke and dominion, to be sure they would never cease infesting it with the fiery darts of their malice, till they had utterly ruined and destroyed them; and therefore, to prevent their mischievous attempts, God in mercy hath thought meet to commit us to the guardianship of his holy angels, and to send them forth under the conduct of Jesus our Mediator, to fight against these hellish powers in the defence of his church and people: for so God promised Jerusalem, Zech. ii. 5. that he would be as a

wall of fire round about her, i. e. as the most learned expositors suppose, by surrounding her with a guard of angels, whom, in the defence of his people against evil angels, he maketh flaming fire, as the Psalmist expresses it, Psalm civ. 4. and in Rev. xii. 7. we read of a war in heaven, (or the airy region, of which the Devil is called the prince,) Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels: which war Michael undertook, as the foregoing verses tell us, in the defence of the woman that was clothed with the sun; which all agree was the Christian church: so also, in ver. 9. of St. Jude's Epistle, we read that Michael the archangel contended and disputed with the Devil about the body of Moses, or Jewish church, so called for the same reason that the Christian church is called the body of Christ. And it is very probably supposed that that hedge, which the Devil complained God had set about Job, and about his house, by which he was hindered from breaking in upon him, was no other than a guard of angels, by which he was driven back, as oft as he attempted to execute his rage and malice upon him, chap. i. 10. Now by what means or instruments the good angels war against and repel the evil ones is, I conceive, an inquiry beyond our cognizance, revelation (from whence we receive all our notions of the state and economy of the invisible world) being wholly silent in the case; only thus much we may say, without any way presuming beyond our capacity, that spiritual agents can as easily strike upon spirits, as bodily agents do upon bodies; and though we, who are spectators only of corporal motion, can give no account of the manner how one spirit acts upon an

other, yet there is no reason at all to doubt, but that they have some way of impressing one another, and communicating to each other a mutual sense and feeling of each others' pleasures and displeasures: and if so, then it is easy to suppose, that the more powerful any spirit is, the stronger and more exquisite impressions of its displeasure it can make upon other spirits, and consequently that the good angels, who by preserving their innocence, and improving their perfections, have augmented and redoubled their natural strength and vigour, are much more powerful than the bad ones, (who have rather impaired it,) and so are much more able to withstand and repel the violent impressions of the bad angels, than the bad angels can theirs: so that though the bad angels may, and oftentimes do, resist and oppose the good, yet they can never conquer them; but in the conclusion are still forced to flee before them, as being unable to withstand their more powerful impressions. Since therefore we wrestle not with flesh and blood, i. e. not only with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednesses in high places, i. e. against the several ranks of devils that are in the air, under the command and conduct of Beelzebub their prince, Eph. vi. 12. and since these apostate spirits are by much too strong and powerful for us, so that, were we left to grapple with them alone, by our own single strength, they would infallibly vanquish and lead us captive to eternal ruin; God hath thought meet to subject his holy angels to the command of our compassionate Mediator, that so, whenever we are too hardly beset by these evil spirits, he might send

them forth to guard and protect us against them, and either to assist us in our conflicts with them, or to chase them away from us, when we are no longer able to withstand them; and accordingly we have a sure word of promise, that if we resist the Devil, he shall flee away from us, James iv. 7. not that our weak resistance is in itself sufficient to put those daring and mighty spirits to flight; but the meaning without doubt is, that if, when they assault us with any temptation to sin, we do but oppose them with a sincere resolution, God will not permit us to be vanquished by them; but, whenever they press too hard upon us, will be sure to send down some good angel to us, to repel and drive them away from us; for so he hath promised that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it, 1 Cor. x. 13. which plainly implies, that, should God suffer him, the Devil can tempt us above what we are able; and this, without doubt, he is ordinarily hindered from by the timely interpositions of the holy angels, who, when our strength begins to fail, are always ready to second us, and with their victorious arms to encounter and put to flight those evil spirits that do so importunately tempt us.

V. Another instance of the ministry of angels in the kingdom of Christ, is their furthering and assisting his subjects in the works and offices of religion; for since they are said to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation, there is no doubt but that they minister to them in the discharge of their religious obligations, upon which their salvation depends; and since, as our Saviour assures us, there is joy in the