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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49761	An history of angells being a theologicall treatise of our communion and warre with them : handled on the 6th chapter of the Ephesians, the 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 verses / by Henry Lawrence ...; Of our communion and warre with angels	Lawrence, Henry, 1600-1664.; Milton, John, 1608-1674.	1649 (1649)	Wing L660; ESTC R12895	135,420	210

you see comes in by light Againe Glory the apprehension of it the notion of it begirts renders strong exceedingly Christ for the glory set before him c. did wonders but light and glory runne together and the notion of glory comes in by light Isa. 60.1.2 Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee so it is called The light of the glorious gospell 2. Cor. 4.4 there would have bene no glory seene if there had bene no light and there is a glory also in light Acts 22.11 Paul said hee could not see for the glory of the light therefore light is glorious now this dazelled his bodily eyes but our spirits see better and more strongly for glorious lights which gives assurance and courage and so strength also In a word our whole armour is called the armour of light Rom. 13.12 So great a thing is light to armour and to strength according to the more or lesse of which men are weake or strong to any course to which they pretend but above all to religion Now for the Divell against whom wee arme doth not hee play in the darke almost altogether when hee would deceive our sence hee casts sand in our eyes mists before us to deceive and blinde us and then wee judge of things not as they are but according to the medium wee see through So for our comfort how doth hee enervate us and loosen our loynes by leading us into darke thoughts of God and of our condition how doth hee unsteddy our steps and intimidate us by putting scruples in our wayes and hiding from us those truths wherein our strength would consist If hee can make us insincere hee hath enough wee shall then seeke darknes and chuse it rather then light of such Christ sayes that they loved darknes rather then light because their deeds were evill Ioh. 3.19 But be sincere the right eyeing the right seeing the right apprehension of things is that truth which begirts us and together with sincerity renders us strong and mighty to fight with him to contest with his wiles with his lyes with his impostures for his dealings with us is nothing els But be wee but sincere that is honest to your selves and to God and discover him and hee is gone This therefore is a neate cleane peece of armour fitted for the part and for the enemy wee contest with all If you aske what you shall doe for it I would advise you by way of corrolary to two things First converse much with the Father of lights In his light wee shall see light Psal. 36.9 Be neere God that hee may shine upon you continually hee hath no false lights as impostures have to shew their wares by what ever light hee affords you is right and gives you the thing as it is Hee hath no false glasses that greaten or lessen the proportion of things but such as render them as they are Converse much with the word the booke of lights all it sayes is true without a reason though it be all reason converse with the Saints the subjects of lights they have light that will shine before you all these lights convey truth to you the right notion of things And that is it which begirts you renders you strong and steddy fit to deale with the Divell the father of all impostures and deceits also think ruminate much of things according to what true notion you have ever had of them in some times and parts of our lives wee have right notions of things with such sight as carry their owne evidence with them represent them often to your selves this will make your light shine to you your light may be under a bushell in your owne heart and truth without this may be to seeke when you should use it when you should judge and walke by it you may have many right principles in you but Raked under Ashes but wisedome is to have them at hand and for use that when the Divell comes with his wiles and his mists shining and blazing truth may scatter them and melt them and cause them to waste away assoone as they dare to appeare for example If hee shall shew the pompe and glittering of titles and honour and would lead you out of your way by that foolish shine a right judgement of things hath for him that the outsides of things are for children that the masks and vizards either of good or ill are not much considerable that honour is in truth that which is lasting which hath its rise in worth and is given by God and wise men that such honour properly should rather follow then lead good actions that the praise of men and the praise of God are seldome consistent that it is a signe of diffidence of God to be too anxious to receive honour from men that there is no reason that should moove you which the Divell can neither give nor continue to you I give you but a tast if hee tempt you to gratify the flesh by lust or idlenesse by a soft and delicate life by indulgeing to bodily things Truth will girde your loynes and make you stand steddy heere in also by telling him that it is wisedome to till the better part that nothing stands in so proper an antipathy to the spirit as the flesh that Paul beat downe his body and brought it into subjection that the body is to be considered onely as an instrument and not to be idolized and indulged to for it selfe that belly meat shall both be destroyed ere long but the soule dies not that idlenes is death before your time with this difference that it is considerable in your punishment which death properly is not for no man is punished for dying That Iesus Christ was a perpetuall motion that good men have used to finde little rest but in their consciences and their graves till they come to heaven that your condition heere is to be a souldier to indure hardnes and fight for which truth armes you not to live delicately and take your ease this might be enlarged in many other particulars and in these more fully I onely give an instance that you may know what I would and may learne to begirt your selves with right notions against the wiles of the Divell For the other part namely sincerity for the heightening and improoving of that I shall put upon you but this burthen love much sincerity is immixednesse and rightnesse of ends a spirit goeing right forward drawne right forth without guile or ends Love will concentrate all in God make all lines meet in him self love makes men insincere to God and others because it drawes away from the pretensions which are to God it sucks away the sappe and the juice that should goe into the body of the tree it is like a cut that draynes the channell which should runne with full source into the sea but love gives all and wishes for more in no respect

God onely to be without beginning so it belongs to God onely to be without change or shadowe of change and that the Angells as creatures are reduceable to nothing by the same hand that made them so as though there be no passive principle in them by which they may be called corruptible or mortall yet in respect of an active power of God upon which their being and life depends they may be called corruptible and mortall because as it is in the power of the Creator that things are so it is in the power of the Creator that they may not bee yea so much they are in Gods hands though the best pieces of nature that if hee doe but withdrawe his hand they all moulder to nothing there neede no great activity be put forth a meere ceasing to uphold them is sufficent to destroy them but yet when yee speake of changeable or corruptible it must be understood of the next and intrinsicall cause and not of the remote and outward cause as men are not called the children of the Sunne though Sol homo generat hominem but of their parents so as the Angells may properly be called incorruptible and immortall because they are so by nature I speake not now of the changeablenesse of their wills but of their nature and substance the reasons are First because the Angells are not produced out of the power of any matter as corporall substances and the soules of beasts but are produced onely by the word of God and therefore as they have no internall principle of being so have they none of dissolution for there is the same reason of being and not being Secondly Angelicall natures as the soules also of men are not compounded of matter forme but are simple formes and substances subsisting by themselves now all corruption mortality and death is by the separation of the forme from the matter as when the soule is separated from the body which is corruption or death or when the accidentall forme is separated from the subject as white from the wall or health from the man now what ever wants matter is incorruptible because there is no composition and so no separation but the Scripture concludes this best in assimulating the state of immortality in which wee shall be to the Angells This is the third consideration wee make of the nature of Angells that they are immutable Fourthly wee will consider of the apparitions of Angells of which wee heare so frequent mention in the Scriptures and the consideration whereof will proove so proper to our purpose One manner of their appearings hath bene in dreames another in visions the third in assumption of bodies and that either of bodies formed of nothing or of pre-existant matter them formed or possessing and acting naturall bodies already made Some have thought there hath bene no assumption of bodies but onely an appearance to the fancy and imagination but that must needs be otherwise for what ever is a substance which is not a body nor hath a body naturally united and yet is sometime seene with a bodily sight or vision must needs take up a body and further this was not an imaginary and phantasticall apparition because such an imagination is not seene by the sences without but by the fancy within 2. An imaginative sight being onely within in the imagination consequently appeares to him onely which so sees it but that which is seene by the eyes because it exists without and not within the minde may be seene also of all others such apparitions were of the Angells that appeared to Abraham to Lott and to the men of Sodome who were seene by them and indifferently by all But if you object to what end was this assumption of bodies since the power of the Angells exceeds all bodily might and this will not be unusefull to consider since it makes way to shew to what end they appeare and what they have done and can doe for us and upon us both the good and bad The Angells assumed bodies for the manifesting themselves not for the doing of their worke but that they might familiarly speake with men without their terrour and dread Aquinas gives other reasons that they might manifest the intelligible society and converse which men expect with them in another life And in the old Testament that it was a certaine figurative declaration that the word of God should take humane flesh for all apparitions in the old Testament were in order to that apparition of the sonne of God in the flesh If you aske mee what kinde of bodies they tooke and whether they were true men or no in taking humane shapes Answ. First though they appeared in a humane shape they were not true men as Christ was a true man because hee was personally and hypostatically united but bodies were not united to the Angells as to their forme as the bodie is to the soule which is its forme nor was the humane nature body and soule united to the person of any Angell but they tooke bodies to them as garments which they tooke up and laid downe upon occasion If you aske of what those bodies consisted It is like ordinarily of some of the Elements as of the ayre And if you object that the ayre is improper to take figure or coulour because it is so thin and transparent The answer is that although the ayre remaining in its rarity doth not reteyne figure or coulour yet when it is condenced and thickened it will doe both as appeares in the clouds Another way of appearing was in possessing some naturall body so the divell entred into the serpent and an Angell spake in Balams Asse so you read often of men possessed with evill Angells the men spake not but the divell in them the like may be said often of the good Now if any shall aske what becomes of those bodies The answer is if they be created of nothing they are reduced into nothing by the power of God But if they be formed of pre-existent matter the worke being done for which they were taken up they are resolved againe into their Elements or Principles but if the bodies were naturall reall and existent before they were left so againe by the departing of the Angells so was Balams asse and many bodies possest by the divells cast out by Christ. Another consideration is whether the Angells having assumed those bodies did put forth acts of life whether they spake and sung or eate and drunke as they seemed to doe this is handled with much controversie but it is certaine they did what they seemed to doe as appeares by the plaine direct story of Moses concerning the Angells that appeared to Abraham and others and this is assur'd that what ever the Angells appeared to have or doe that they had did for they never deceived your sences their coulour their shape their eating their drinking their speaking was what it seemed to be for the sences are not

from such as personally give themselves over to their service They are stiled also the Governours of this world or Rulers 2. Eph. 2. which governe wicked men in and to their lusts Also Roaring Lyons 1. Pet. 1.8 from their fiercenesse and malice A murderer Authour of our death and all murthers Also Beliall 2. Cor. 6.15 What agreement hath Christ with Beliall this signifies irregular without yoake and discipline such hee is himself will submit to no law but what the power of God layes necessarily upon him and such hee renders his The use that I shall make of all this to our selves is that wee dread the spirituall punishments of sin Sin drawes along a dreadfull chaine after it the little sweet that was in your mouth that your rolled under your tongue which you judged so good the tast of that is presently gone but there is a long bitter followes the pleasure is but skin deepe reacheth but to your sence but the effects of it are felt upon your conscience and minde your most noble parts The pleasure gives you the enjoyment of a minute such a one as it is but the paine is of your life perhaps of all eternity but how miserable is it to drawe on a trayne of spirituall punishments that is that sin shall be punished with sinne the truth is every first sin carries punishment with it for it is a punishment to sin in the first act though wee consider it not as all holy acts carry reward with them even in their mouth but heere is not all this sin shall make you sin againe Pharoah was punished by frogs by haile by many things but the hardenings of his heart as it was the greatest punishment so it was virtually all the rest That place Rom. 1.28 is dreadfull Because they delighted not to reteyne God in their knowlegde God gave them over to a reprobate minde and then they were filled with all unrighteousnes If wee will not delight in God God wil give us up to delight in the basest things in the world Thou little thinkest that thy proud or uncleane thought shal be waited on with such a trayne not onely of punishment but sin And this is true to all in it's proportion to the Saints for sin doth not naturally dispose for further degrees of sinning of the same kinde for so every act strengthens the habit but the spirit of God being grieved withdrawes and when yee are in the darke the spirit of darknesse is bold with you and you want light to repell him and God can when hee pleaseth in consideration of a sin past let either a sin fall upon your spirit or an affliction or sicknes upon your body But oh feare such punishments they are not onely of the worst kinde but they are multiplying of evill infinitely if God prevent not Beware therefore of sin least you sin and least you be given over to a spirit of sinning which is the greatest and worst of punishments thinke that you know not what sins are in the wombe of this sin which you are now about If to grieve the spirit to please the Divell to offend God be dreadfull to you feare sin above all not onely for that present act but for those other sins which may be contained in the wombe of that and may in time be most cursed births of it And as Austin said of hell Lord saith hee burne heere cut heere punish heere that is in this life So of sin O wish rather the animadversion to fall upon your bodies and estates your outward man heere cut Lord spare my soule my inner man let sinne rather cause death then sin which is the worst dying In the next place wee come to shew what is the principall ministery of the evill Angells for God knowes how to improove every creature and not onely the power but the evill of the evill Angells and hee made nothing in vaine The wicked are for the day of wrath muchlesse such mighty instruments and engines as those spirits are which though they have received a wound and lye under chaines yet are of mighty ability when God gives them leave to act it That they are at liberty for a ministery I told you before when I spake of their punishment for they are not in termino they are not yet in the great deepe nor under the sentence of their punishment they are not in the place prepared for the Divell and his Angells but they are in the ayre and the world where also they are Princes they have the advantage of the place and powers is also theirs now for their ministery which still will come neerer our purpose the principall and proper ministery of the evill Angells is to tempt and induce men to sinne they improove all the power and opportunity they have chiefly to this this is manifest by Scripture assoone as the world began hee began this worke with our parents in innocency in the shape of a Serpent Gen. 3.1 Therefore Christ calls him a murtherer from the beginning Ioh. 8.44 For assoone as the world was hee gave the greatest blow that ever was given mankind hee murthered our first parents and in them all our posterity and this was done in a way of tempting and alluring so Paul 2. Cor. 11.3 I feare least as the Serpent seduced Eve shewing that that temptation was the beginning the first of that kinde that was in the world the first prancke hee playd the first execution of his ministery and as it were the coppy of the rest therefore also Math. 4.3 hee is called The tempter as being the title of his office other names hee hath which shew his power and ability his nature and his malice but none declare his ministery so properly as this Therefore 1. Thess. 3.5 Least by some meanes the tempter have tempted you and very frequently our temptations are said to be from the Divell so Ioh. 13.2 The Divell put into the heart of Iudas to betray Christ Iudas had the corruption in his heart before which was fit matter to worke on but it was a fruit of the Divells ministery to suggest that temptation and put it into his heart so Christ told Peter that Sathan had desired to winnow him Wee should have said hee was affraid to die and being surpriz'd secured himself by a lye and so should have imputed it to little more then the act of a timerous spirit but Christ said the Divell was in it and 1. Pet. 5.8 it is said hee goes about like a roaring Lyon seeking whom hee may devour that is by his temptations and allurements otherwise hee doth not rampe upon our bodyes and Rev. 12.9 it is said that the great dragon was cast out that old Serpent called the Divell and Sathan who deceiveth the whole world this is his worke hee sayes they were cast out and his Angells were cast out with him which are his under-ministers in deceiving the world as Christ Math. 25.41 calls them The Divell and his

reasonings to the motion of the object which may more easily leade and facilitate us to the consenting to such a lust or inordinary It may also be on the other side that corruption mooving freely and of it self the Divell may adjoyne himself as hee will neglect no probable occasion to promote his worke and it is possible that some motions may escape him without his concurrence For though hee be wise and watchfull yet neither doth hee foresee all future things nor perhaps doth hee consider all present things instantly and assoone as ever they are in act especially such as give the least impression upon the fancy or some of the fences which may be supposed rather of more transcient acts of thought of suddaine and passing things then of any thing of greater moment which lyes longer in thy minde and are premeditated it is most probable the Divell is never wanting to them Thus you see how hee stirres in sin and how hee mingles himself with temptations which is according to Scripture and the sence and experience of our owne heart From that therefore which hath bene said in the first part of the second point viz. that our owne corruptions can furnish us with temptations though there were no Divell Let us be sencible of the miserable condition wee are in and cry out of the body of death wee carry about us as Paul did and learne to keepe the avenues against all lusts which may finde away to us by our sences by the example of others and by ill company aswell as the Divell watch our hearts out of the heart proceed evill thoughts c. The Divell could hurt us no more then hee did Christ if hee had no more matter in us subdue corruptions mortifie lusts and the Divell wants so much footing the fire is ours alwayes though the flame be his quench the fire take away the subject matter and then yee defeate and vexe him as hee doth you with his wiles But then secondly see the need of watching yee fight not against flesh and blood yee have a nature that you cannot stand before without a speciall assistance that yeeldes without a blow or with an easy touch and wee have a Divell able to adde strength to the bluntest weapon to stir up corruption where they are most mortified who is sufficient for these things for this combate Fly to Christ to the Lyon of the tribe of Iudah to resist for you this Roaring Lyon Thirdly in our watching thinke much of the Divell have him evermore in our eye and by knowing his nature wiles and methods and his ministery what hee doth in the world hee instructed for him as for an enemy set him up as a But to shoote against But in our confessions charge onely our selves Acts 5.3 Peter said to Annanias why hath Sathan filled thy heart hee chargeth him reasons it out with him not with the Divell it was an evasion in Evah to excuse herself by the temptation of the Divell and in Adam by Evah therefore the charge of sin is ours not the Divells Wee have last insisted upon these two heads what influence the Divell had upon sin and then secondly what influence hee had upon temptations and how hee usually concurred in tempting whether no temptations were without him and how hee either begins or joynes with us in them for the severall manner or wayes of conveying his temptations to us either by presenting sencible objects or by speaking to us from without as the Divell did to Evah and doth to many in apparitions or by applying himself to our fancies by an inward commotion of our humours and stirring of the phantasmes these with the like it will not be needfull to repeate againe but referre you to what I delivered concerning the good Angells in the former part of this discource But before wee finish this head of their ministery there is one thing more which would be touch't How those ministeries are distributed and whether there be Divells appropriated to such vices or to such persons Some have thought that some rankes or kindes of Divells have bene to tempt to pride others to lust others to covetousnes c as being called in some places a lying spirit in other a seducing spirit in others a spirit of fornication c. But it seemes not necessary that these spirits should be ever divers but that the same may doe severall things in divers times and may from the effects on the world gaine those names nor is there any such distinction in the good Angells but the Angell keepers as you have heard before promote to all good oppose all evill So the same Divell tempted Christ to many severall things to distrust in God and to worship him So Iobs Divell had power not onely over his cattle and children but his body also And besides all the evill Angells have knowledge power and will enough to tempt to all vices and as much as in them is they will loose no opportunity to vent their malice and hurt us therefore others distinguish their ministery according to the object of it Persons and States and Societies and therefore quote those places of Dan. 8.20.21 where mention is made of the Kings of Persia and Greecia which opposed Michael their Prince and understand also that place so of 2. Cor. 12.7 There was given unto mee the messenger of Sathan to buffet mee and that curse Psal. 109.6 Let Sathan stand at his right hand and the liberty the Divell obtained upon Iob which are still supposed to be certaine peculiar Divells set out by Sathan their Prince for that particular ministry to such a person or state though they must beg leave of God for the execution This is not improbable for Sathan hath ever bene the ape of God and there is no doubt of his will for this method which hee sees so advantagious for the Saints in the other ministery of which wee have spoken if his power faile him not Now if hee have instruments enough and God permit it there is no doubt of his power and where God permits him to tempt hee will sure permit him to use the best methods and of the other to wit that hee wants not instruments there is as litle doubt the host of heaven was great and there were Angells enough that fell to conflict with all men Sathan could spare a legion for one man to doe a great worke Consider the difference betweene the Saints and the wicked in the point of temptation I shewed you before that the Saints and onely they have good Angells for their Guardians Heb. 1.14 The Divell doth not faile to allot them evill Angells also But what becomes of the wicked an evill spirit is upon them and God is not with them this shewes first the excellent condition of the Saints and the difference betweene them and the reprobates The Saints ly bound under the decree of God under the ministery of Angells the wicked are exposed as a prey to

glory in our condition and to improove it how sweet is our portion the traines the wayes of God are pleasant all his wayes are pleasant and all his pathes prosperity to have naturall desires which exceed not their bound and liberty to satisfy them without the fire the scald the Itch of lusts to have a spirit so great by meeknes and humility as it is above those ills it seemes most to fall under to be be-lowe envye for the world sees not your riches nor your greatnes and above misery and shame to have a spirit so meekned as it cannot breake againe to be above your condition what ever it is and to use it to possesse your estate and not to be possest by it to looke on money as a servant of the lowest forme to pitty them that Idolyze it and to improove more your litle by enjoyment then they doe their riches by looking on it and Idolizing of it Againe to goe further into the consideration of what wee said before and see how you outstrippe them for another life in knowing and loving that which they ignorantly persecute in having your assurance in God whereas they have none at all nor in any thing I could be large heere in the comparison of our service and our way which should be the object of our joy and rejoycing when ever wee thinke of it and thinke of it wee should often for that purpose For since God hath made the miserable condition of the wicked a foyle to the love of his elect wee should do so also and run over by way of comparison the heads and grounds of our comfort but I shall rather in the second place Intreat you to improove these things If you know these things happy are yee if yee doe them if you know the differences of your conditions if you know the wayes of Sathan from your owne and where they part happy are you if you tread those wayes and those paths and for those broade high wayes those common roades these beaten pathes of Hell which wee have described our wisedome and our glory will be to keepe a loofe of to keepe farre from them it will be lesse shame for us to be shamed by other things to be caught by other traines then the common snares Although it be true that in the pursuite of those things Sathan useth his greatest wiles and his finest peeces of subtilty however let us keepe a loofe of let us carry a watchfull eye to those great and common snares the Divell may alter his method but his But and end is the same hee findes these things sutable to corrupt nature and hee improoves all that is within us to worke vilde and base impressions those wayes therefore let us watch him where hee watcheth us and let us not thinke that because wee have escaped the pollution of the world that therefore wee shall escape him hee spinnes his web the finer for you Which is the reason why I have spent sometime in these particulars of his most usuall martches that yee might see the way in some of its foulnesse together with the guide that yee might see the hooke under the bayte and be undeceived in things so greatly concerning you Now therefore having your adversary so fully and largely described to you in his nature in his power in his ministry as hath bene shewed at large in this tract of Angells for some peece of the Divells power you must fetch from what hath bene said of the good Angells that wee might not be obliged to repeate things twise it remaines that wee should fight that is that wee should addresse our selves to the combate for there is in this adversary what ever might prepare you and stirre you up to a most formed and exact warre For first hee is as hath bene shewed a most inveterate and sworne enemy hee ceaseth not to accuse day and night hee knowes all our good lyes in maintaining good tearmes with God Therefore his care is to beget ill blood between us hee inticeth us to offend him and when hee hath done hee aggravates this offence to the utmost capacitie of it Hee goes about like a roaring Lyon hee goes about therefore hee is not idle hee workes continually and it is like a roaring Lyon hee hath not onely a Lyonish nature in him apt to devour and to fall upon the prey but hee is ever roaring that disposition is alwayes wound up to the height and intended in him other enemies not so so that heere is the worst disposition that can be imagined ever acted and mannaged with the greatest intensenesse But then secondly if his evill nature had not much power joyned to it hee were lesse considerable lesse formidable though wee say there is none so weake but hee hath power to doe hurt But I beseech you consider his power is fitted to his nature if hee meane ill hee is able to doe also much ill there is no part or faculty of your soule or body that hee cannot reach and that at all times in all conditions in all postures alone or in company idle or imployed sleeping or waking when you are fit for nothing els you are fit to receive his impressions Nor is hee an enemy of the weaker sort and so lesse considerable an arme of flesh against poore fleshly creatures is great but hee is a spirit Our originall sin our fleshly corruptions wee finde evill enough enemies bad enough even to the making us cry out with Paul of the body of death But we wrestle not against flesh blood this text tells you you have another kinde of combatant for the description of whose power to finde fit names the highest comparisons will faile us Principalityes powers rulers spirituall wickednesses above They are not called Princes but principalityes not Potentes but Potestates not mighty but powers Lord not of a part but of the whole world of the darknesse of the world all the wicked of the world which are darknesse are of their side fight under them against us and all the darknes in our owne harts is with them also all those fumes and foggs of lusts all those mists of ignorance and unbeliefe are part of his armie Againe instead of wicked spirits they are called spirituall wickednesses and that above both in high things and in high places they are above us they hang over our heads continually You know what a disadvantage it is to have your enemy get the Hill the upperground this they have naturally and alwayes Againe there are enough of them they can immediately beleaguer a man cōpassing him round possesse every part of him Seaven Divells can enter at once into one man or if need be a whole legion doe wee beleeve these things and are wee not stirred are wee not affraid if we apprehend the approach of an enemy and the towne wherein wee are be in danger what wringing of hands is there what praying what provision and yet perhaps hee may be diverted hee