And how safe are we, under so many and so mighty protectors! It might be perhaps well meant, and is confessed to be seconded with much reverend antiquity, the conceit, that each man hath a special angel designed for his custody : and, if but so, we are secure enough from all the danger of whatsoever. hostile machinations; however this may seem some scanting of the bountiful provision of the Almighty, who hath pleased to express his gracious respects to one man in the allotment of many guardians: for, if Jacob speak of one angel, David speaks of more; He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways; Psalm xci. 11. And even those, which have thought good to abet this piece of platonic divinity concerning the single guardianship of angels, have yet yielded, that, according to several relations, each one hath many spiritual keepers. Insomuch as the forecited Fornerus", late Bishop of Wirtzburg, durst assure his auditors, that each of them had ten angels, at least, assigned to his custody; according to the respects of their subordinate interests: besides their own person, of their family, parish, fraternity, city, diocese, country, office, church, world. Yet even this computation is niggardly and pinching i, since the abundant store and bounty of the Almighty can as well afford centuries as decades of guardians.

Howsoever, why should it not be all one to us since there is no less safety in the hands of one, than many; no less care of us from many, than from one? Should but one angel guard millions of men, his power could secure them no less than a single charge; but, now that we are guarded with millions of angels, what can the gates of hell do?

I us, sure am, But, what number soever be employed about that, together with them, those, that attend the throne of their Maker, make up no less, as Nazianzen justly accounts them, than a world of spirits: a world, so much more excellent than this visible, by how much it is more abstracted from our weak

senses.

O ye Blessed Spirits, ye are ever by me, ever with me, ever

* Cuique electo ordinariè certum propriumque angelum, qui perpetuus sit ejus custos et comes. Zanch. de operibus creat. 1. iii. c. 15.

b Ex quo facilè colligitur, ex vobis unumquemque habere plus quàm decem Angelos. Forner. de Custod. Ang. Serm. v. p. 56.

How scant then is the account of the great and voluminous Abulensis, who, upon Matt. xviii. 10, determines that the Blessed Virgin had two angelkeepers one, the most noble of the angelical order, which guarded her all her life; the other, Gabriel, an archangel of the second order, who attended her from the time of Christ's conception, until his passion! Bernard. 1. vi. c. 10. As also that of Degrassalius, That the French King hath two angelguardians one, in regard of his private person; another, in respect to his royal dignity! Degrassal. 1. 1. Jure 20. Regal. Franciæ.

about me: I do as good as see you; for I know you to be here: I reverence your glorious persons; I bless God for you; I walk awfully, because I am ever in your eyes; I walk confidently, because I am ever in your hands. How should I be ashamed, that in this piece of Theology, I should be outbid by very Turks; whose priests shut up their devotions with an apprecatory mention of your presence, as if this were the upshot of all blessings! I am sure it is that, wherein, next to my God and Saviour, I shall ever place my greatest comfort and confidence; neither hath earth or heaven any other besides, that looks like it.

SECT. IV.

THE POWER OF ANGELS.

MULTITUDES, even of the smallest and weakest creatures, have been able to produce great effects: the swarms_but of flies and lice could amate the great and mighty king of Egypt; and all his forces could not free him and his peers, from so impotent adversaries. But when a multitude is seconded with Strength, how must it needs be irresistible! so it is, in these blessed spirits: even their Omnipotent Maker, who best knows what is derived from him, styles them, by his apostle, powers; Eph. iii. 10. Col. ii. 10: and, by his psalmist, mighty ones in strength; Psalm ciii. 20. A small force seems great to the weak; but that power, which is commanded by the Almighty, must needs be transcendently great.

We best judge of powerfulness, by the effects: how suddenly had one angel dispatched every firstborn in Egypt; and, after them, the hundred fourscore and five thousand of the proud Assyrian army! 2 Kings xix. 35: and, if each man had been a legion, with what ease had it been done by that potent spirit! Neither are they less able to preserve, than to destroy. That of Aquinas is a great word: "One angel is of such power, that he were able to govern all the corporeal creatures of the world." Justly was it exploded, as the wild heresy of Simon Magus, and his clients the Menandrians, That the Angels made the world. No; this was the sole work of him, that made them but, if we say that it pleases God, by their ministration to sway and order the marvellous affairs of this great universe, we shall not, I suppose, vary from truth. If we look to the highest part thereof, philosophers have gone so far as to teach us, that which is seconded by the allowance of some great divines, That these blessed Intelligences are they, by whose agency, under their Almighty Creator, the heavens and the glorious luminaries thereof continue their ever-constant

* Mr. Blunt's Voyage to the Levant.

and regular motions. And, if there fall out any preternatural immutations in the elements, any strange concussations of the earth, any direful prodigies in the sky, whither should they be imputed, but to these mighty angels; whom it pleaseth the Most High God to employ in these extraordinary services? That dreadful magnificence, which was in the delivering of the Law on Mount Sinai, in fire, smoke, thunderings, lightnings, voices, earthquakes; whence was it, but by the operation of angels? and, indeed, as they are the nearest, both in nature and place, to the Majesty of the Highest; so it is most proper for them to participate most of his power, and to exercise it in obedience to his sovereignty. As, therefore, he is that Infinite Spirit, who doth all things, and can do no more than all; so they, as his immediate subordinates, are the means whereby he executeth his illimited power, in and upon this whole created world; Joel iii. 11. Whence it is, that in their glorious appearances, they have been taken for Jehovah himself; by Hagar; by Manoah and his wife; yea, by the better eyes of the father of the faithful; Gen. xvi. 13. Judg. xiii. 22. Gen. xxii. 14.

Now, Lord, what a protection hast thou provided for thy poor worms, and not men, creeping here on thine earth! and what can we fear, in so mighty and sure hands? He, that passeth with a strong convoy through a wild and perilous desert, scorns the danger of wild beasts or robbers; no less, than if he were in a strong tower at home: so do we the onsets of the powers of darkness, while we are thus invincibly guarded.

When God promised Moses, that an angel should go before Israel; and yet, withal, threatened the subduction of his own presence; I marvel not, if the holy man were no less troubled, than if they had been left destitute and guardless; and that he ceased not his importunity, till he had won the gracious engagement of the Almighty, for his presence in that whole expedition. For, what is the greatest angel in heaven, without his Maker? But, let thy favour, O God, order and accompany the deputation of the lowest of thine angels; what can all the troops of hell hurt us? As soon may the walls of heaven be scaled, and thy throne disturbed; as he can be foiled, that is defended with thy power. Were it possible to conceive, that the Almighty should be but a looker-on in the conflict of spirits, we know that the good angels have so much advantage of their strength, as they have of their station; neither could those subdued spirits stand in the encounter: but now, he, that is strong in our weakness, is strong in their strength for us. Blessed be God for them, as the Author of them, and their protection; blessed be they under God, as the means used by him for our protection and blessings.

SECT. V.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF ANGELS.

IF Sampson could have had his full strength in his mill, when he wanted his eyes, it would have little availed him; such is power without knowledge: but where both of these concur in one, how can they fail of effect? Whether of these is more eminent in the blessed spirits, it is not easy to determine.

So perfectly Knowing are they, as that the very heathen philosophers have styled them by the name of Intelligences; as if their very being were made up of understanding. Indeed, what is there in this whole compass of the large universe, that is hid from their eyes? Only the closet of man's heart is locked up from them; as reserved solely to their Maker: yet so, as that they can, by some insensible chinks of those secret notifications which fall from us, look into them also. All other things, whether secrets of nature, or closest counsels or events, are as open to their sight, as the most visible objects

are to ours.

They do not, as we mortals are wont, look through the dim and horny spectacle of senses; or understand by the mediation of phantasms: but rather, as clear mirrors, they receive at once the full representations of all intelligible things; having, besides that connatural light which is universally in them all, certain special illuminations from the Father of Lights.

m

Even we men think we know something; neither may our good God lose the thank of his bounty, this way: but, alas, he, that is reputed to have known most of all the heathen', whom some have styled the Genius of Nature, could confess, that the clearest understanding is to those things which are most manifest, but as a bat's eyes to the sun. Do we see but a worm crawling under our feet, we know not what that is, which in itself gives it a being: do we hear but a bee humming about our ears, the greatest naturalist cannot know, whether that noise come from within the body, or from the mouth, or from the wings of that fly": how can we then hope or pretend, to know those things, which are abstruse and remote? But these heavenly spirits do not only know things as they are in themselves, and in their inward and immediate causes; but do clearly see the First and Universal Cause of all things, and that in his glorious essence: how much more do they know our shallow dispositions, affections, inclinations, which peer out of the windows of our hearts; together with all perils and events, that are incident unto us!

1 Arist. Metaphys. 1. ii. m Bonavent. Vulcan. præf. in lib. De Mundo. n Lord Bacon, in his Natural Hist.

We walk, therefore, amidst not more able than watchful overseers and so are we looked through, in all our ways, as if heaven were all eyes. Under this blessed vigilancy, if the powers of hell can either surprise us with suddenness, or circumvent us with subtlety, let them not spare to use their advantage.

But, O ye Tutelar Spirits, ye well know our weakness, and their strength; our silliness, and their craft; their deadly machinations, and our miserable obnoxiousness: neither is your love to mankind and fidelity to your Maker, any whit less than your knowledge; so as your charge can no more miscarry under your hands and eyes, than yourselves. As you do always enjoy the beatifical vision of your Maker, so your eye is never off from his little ones: your blessedness is no more separable from our safety, than you from your blessedness.

SECT. VI.

THE EMPLOYMENTS AND OPERATIONS OF ANGELS.

EVEN while we see you not, O ye Blessed Spirits, we know what ye do. He, that made you, hath told us your task. As there are many millions of you, attending the all-glorious throne of your Creator, and singing perpetual Hallelujahs to him in the highest heavens: so there are innumerable numbers of you employed, in governing and ordering the creature; in guarding the elect; in executing the commands, which ye receive from the Almighty.

What variety is here, of your assistance! One while, ye lead us in our way, as ye did Israel; another while, ye instruct us, as you did Daniel: one while, ye fight for us, as ye did for Joshua; another while, ye purvey for us, as for Elijah: one while, ye fit us to our holy vocation, as ye did to Isaiah; another while, ye dispose of the opportunities of our calling for good, as ye did of Philip's to the Eunuch: one while, ye foretell our danger, as to Lot, to Joseph and Mary; another while, ye comfort our affliction, as to Hagar: one while, ye oppose evil projects against us, as to Balaam; another while, ye will be striven with for a blessing, as with Jacob: one while, ye resist our offensive courses, as to Moses; Exod. iv. another while, ye encourage us in our devotions, as ye did Paul and Silas, and Cornelius: one while, ye deliver from durance, as Peter; another while, ye preserve us from danger and death, as the Three Children: one while, ye are ready to restrain our presumption, as the cherub before the gate of paradise; another while, to excite our courage, as to Elijah, and Theodosius: one while, to refresh and cheer us in our sufferings, as to the Apostles; another while, to prevent our sufferings, as to Jacob in the pursuit of Laban and Esau, to