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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	nature_n	soul_n	unite_v	6,882	5	9.6339	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81481	The deputation of angels, or, The angell-guardian: I. Proved by the dim light of nature, clear beames of Scriptures, and consent of many ancient and modern writers, untainted with popery. II. Cleared from many rubs and mistakes; the criticall queries of antagonists examined, untyed. III. Applyed and improved, for our information in many other truths; consolation in our adversities; and reformation of our lives. Chiefly grounded on Acts 12. 15. It is his angell. / By Robert Dingley, M.A. and minister of the word at Brixton in the isle of Wight; formerly Fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford.	Dingley, Robert, 1619-1660.	1653 (1653)	Wing D1496; Thomason E1505_2; ESTC R208670	88,111	239

harken what the Lord will speak Psal 85.8 for he will speak Peace unto his people Any mercy that comes as an answer of prayer is a double mercy but that which comes in the time of prayer is a trebble Favour and heaps a multitude of inviolable bonds upon us Of this we have had many experiences in these daies April 7. 1654. one very lately For on our day of Humiliation for the late Drought it rained very sweetly t was like a shour of Rose-water coming as an immediate answer and in the very time of seeking God 2 Point from the Coherence Secondly Somtimes the deliverances of Gods people out of imminent emminent dangers are so wonderfull and attended with such a Train of Miracles and Improbabilities that they have much ado to believe them although they hear and see them The Disciples took that for the Eve of Peters Execution and they well knew he was guarded with four Quaternions of Souldiers was bound with two Chains and that if he could escape out of Prison and pass the first and second watch there was yet a Gate and that of Iron that would obstruct his aime Therfore when he was delivered and stood knocking at the Gate through incredulity they let him stand so long that he might have been re-taken at the door and the ship sink in the Havens mouth Rhoda though she heard his voice is charged with madness for saying so Calvin in Locum and at last they said it was his Angel in Summe any thing rather then the Apostle Hinc colligimus Petri liberationē minime fuisse ab illis speratam saith Calvin on the Text They little dreamt of Peters deliverance When the three Children were preserved in the hot fiery Furnace and Daniel safe in the Lions Den their Enemies who saw it could hardly beleeve it Nay Beleevers as well as others have been at a loss in this thing when Christ that great Answer of prayer was come in the Flesh how few did beleive in him when he came to his Disciples in the Ship to save them from the Tempest they cryed out for fear supposing he was a Spirit And when he was risen from the dead the Apostle Thomas though he saw him and conferred with him could not beleive but must put his Fingers into the prints of the Nails The Jews when they had long prayed for the return of the Babylonian Captivity Psal 126.1 at the receipt of that mercy they were as men in a Dream Admonemur sic succurrere Deum pijs dum affliguntur ut ex improviso liberentur se non liberari sed somnium videre Putent Musculus in explan Psal 126.1 P. 1005 Gen. 45.26 27. saith Musculus on that place So Jacob when he was told that his Son Ioseph liv'd and had great power in Aegypt Old Jacobs heart fainted for he beleived it not but when he saw the Waggon which Joseph had sent for him his Spirit revived Thus in our Text the Disciples could hardly credite the Deliverance of Peter or Testimony of Rheda that heard his voice and knew it full well Nay Peter himself had little faith in this respect For first Act. 12.6.11 He was fast asleep just before it was begun and was very far from plotting or hoping this escape 2. When he was perfectly awakened and in the midst of his deliverance himself saw not ground of beleiving it For Luke saith Act. 12.6.11 He followed the Angel and wist not that it was true which was done by him but thought he saw a Vision and when he was come to himself he praised God This may be so Reas 1 because God is often mysterious in his working and many times he seems to destroy when he comes to deliver As in the case of Ioseph sold and put into a Pit The Israelites entring into the Red-Sea and Christ being destroyed and murthered of the Jews when all the hopes of the Disciples were buried with Christ We thought that this had been he that should have redeemed Israel The Lord useth very strange Methods of deliverance Psal 65.5 As one that had an Ulcer in his body being sadly yet sweetly wounded by his Enemy had his Ulcer opened and his life saved Hag. 2.7 By terrible things in Righteousness will thou answer us Psal 99.8 I will shake all Nations and the desire of Nations shall come Thou answeredsts and forgavest them although thou tookest vengeance of their Inventions When God comes to deliver a people Psal 97.2 Gen. 32.24 and execute vengeance on his Enemies it may be clouds and darkness are round about him Although he answered the prayer of Iacob yet first he put his Thigh out of joynt Again Reas 2 much of this wonder may be charged upon our great unbelief we are apt to measure the All-sufficience power and purposes of God by visible Appearances by humane Probabilities and rationall Expectations But the vast circle of his power and goodness excells the Epicicle of our faith Vnde quod nunc factum est illis videtur incredibile ut magis ad celebrandam Dei virtutem excitentur Calvin in Locum saith Calvin on the Text Ionah was in two deeps yet at the bottom of the Sea and entomb'd in the Whale he despaired not he ceased not to call upon God for deliverance The use What ever our streights be oh let us never cease to besiege Heaven with our prayers and lett our Bullets be Tears our Guns Groans In the lowest ebb of affairs let us know a spring tide of comfort may be at hand Eph. 3.20 God can and will do for his people aboue all that they can ask or think For as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are Gods thoughts above our thoughts Thirdly 3 Point from the Coherence Elect Angels have assumed the shape of men Here you see the Disciples took Peter to be an Angel in his shape It is his Angel Now that the Angels have appeared in visible forms of men Iudg. 6. 13 Chap. and for a while so conversed with Mortals walking eating and drinking and talking familiarly of the matters wherabout they were sent is full evident in Sacred Records Abraham entertained Angels unawares so also did Lot Daniel Hagar Zachary the Virgin Mary Saint Iohn in the Revelation Peter in the Prison Angels have appeared in Dreams in Visions and lastly in assumption of bodies as here to Peter But how could this be Qu. 1 I answer Ans 1 1. Some have thought there hath been no Assumption of bodies but only an appearance to our Fancy and strong imagination But this cannot be so because they did eat and drink and were seen of many as well as of one Ans 2 2. The Learned hold they took reall bodies formed by Divine Power into the similitude of men Angels were united to those bodies not as mans Soul to his body nor as Christ to our Nature but they

assumed Bodies as a Cloak or other Vestment to be taken up and laid down upon occasion Angeli fuerunt in Corpore per intimam substantialem Praesentiam Suarez de Angel lib. 5. cat 36. tanquam Motor ad mobile cum particulari Respectu ad Peculiarem ejus usum saith Suarez This body so assumed may be composed of the Elements and they are not more easily assumed then deposed being again resolved into their former Principles And in case they were by God created of Nothing then they utterly vanish by Annihilation Here again it may be demanded Qu. 2 why Angels have somtimes appeared in Bodies I answer 1. Answ That they might familiarly confer with men and leave on them no impressions of terrour and dread Lawrence of Angels P. 14. 2. Such Apparitions were used of old to inure and prepare the people for the Incarnation of Christ the Angel of the Covenant 3. Aquinas adds that they might give men an entrance into that Communion which they expect with them in Heaven 3. Once more it may be asked Qu. 3 why Angels appear not in our daies I answer Answ Heathens ascribe this to the sins of men that therfore God will no longer converse with them But the true reason is this that God would now be Worship'd in Spirit and in Truth His whole mind is now written and recorded So spirituall should we now be under the Gospel that we are taken off from the Bodily presence of Christ Jesus 2 Cor. 5.16 Now know we Christ no more after the flesh There is now poured forth a greater measure of the Spirit So God would have us to converse with him in the Spirit and with those holy Spirits in a more invisible way as we shall above The Church needeth not now those visible sensible confirmations as formerly in the Infancy of the Jewish or Christian Church For which reason also Miracles are now ceased Well then The use see the care that God hath of his Church at all times and how he doth condescend and apply himself in a sutable way to his people And see the Dignity of Saints that have had Angels assuming bodies to serve them and make known the will of God without terrour unto them But why do we wonder at the Apparition of Angels in the shape of men Let us rather be astonisht at the love of Christ In that he abhorred not though Angels worship him to be * See Stephanus Paris de Incarnatione And Nieremberg Theopolit Part 1. lib. 2. cap. 25. An Decorum suerit Deum fieri Hominem P. 264. Dr. Sibbs Light from Heaven P. 50. unto 70. 2ly Of the Text it self clothed in the rags of our flesh that he might be capable of bleeding and dying for us Into this Mystery Angels pry GOD MANIFESTED IN THE FLESH That he who spanned the Heavens should become a Babe of a span long That he who thundred in the Clouds should cry in the Cradle and when Angels laid aside their assumed bodies Christ hath not deposed our flesh but hath carried that as a Pledge into Heaven and hath left with us the earnest of the Spirit After this let us wonder at nothing And so much of the Coherence Secondly We come now to the words themselves IT IS HIS ANGEL I am not to discourse of Angels in generall or of Elect or Reprobat Angels in particular I am not to treat of those glorious Creatures that sing and chant their joyfull Halelujas before the Lamb for then I should write of their Creation Confirmation Place Nature Number Amity Offices and Degrees All which is performed by very many Authors But I am to treat distinctly of The Deputation of Angels which by few hath been performed and for that end I have chosen this Text which I suppose is very clear for the Point For observe it is not sayd an Angel or his Angels but his Angel Now besides the marrow and substance of these words 4 Notable circumstances about the Text. there are four circumstantiall Observations that like Harbingers do blow their silver Trumpets to make way for this Text to ride with the greater triumph into our hearts viz. 1. The persons speaking 2. The time of speaking 3. The manner of speaking 4. The recording of the thing spoken by Saint Lukes Evangelicall and Golden Quill among the Acts of the Apostles and Primitive Christians 1 The Persons speaking First the persons speaking are very considerable if either you eye their quality or quantity 1. Their quality they were not superstitious Heathen but the Disciples of Christ They had bin tutor'd and instructed in the Principles of Religion either immediatly by Christ or else by his Apostles In Scripture are sometimes Recorded the speeches of vaine and foolish men as the vile speech of Jobs wife curse God and Dy of the whorish woman Personated in the Proverbs by a Prosopopaeia our Saviour useth the saying of Socrates and Plato Mart. Day on 1. Cor. 15. P. 132 133. and Saint Paul quotes Menander and Epimenides two heathen Poets Nay in the Scripture there is mention of things uttered by the black mouth of Sa●an himselfe Qui Plebeios vulgares Homines putant cum haec dicerent ex vulgi opinione Locos vereor ne dubitent an sint Angeli Beza in Act. 12.15 P. 332. But our Text was uttered by Christians not only Nominall but Reall Persons knowing and fearing God being much in Prayer and resolved to endure Persecution for the Truth 2. Their quantity or Number is observable had it been only Rhoda's fancy we should have past ●t over as an impertinent speech But marke the context Then said THEY it is his Angell It seems it was their generall Vote And who or how many these THEY were Act. 12.5.12 you may gather by comparing the fi●t twelfth verses together Peter therefore was kept in Prison but Prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him So that those many gathered together in Prayer verse the 12 were doubtlesse the Church at Jerusalem where were very many Christians They met indeed together in a private house because they had not the Liberty of any Publique Assemblies Let this be weighed and t will follow that many did either speak or Agree to this perswasion of the Angel Guardian you read not that any did contradict it Publicus Rumor non est omnino frustra saith Aristotle The Generall consent and Harmony of people cheifly if knowing and good is very much to be heeded For oftentimes Vox populi est Vox Dei I am sure that which Primitive Christians untainted with Heresy so neer the Fountaine of Truth maintained as Orthodox with unanimous consent is not by us to be slighted but carefully observed Secondly an other circumstance is the time and place 2 The time place when and where it was spoken Not at the Table Semel in Anno ridet Apollo or Recreations when the Bowstring