of the Seraphim and Cherubim turning away their Eyes and covering their Faces with their Wings we should not think that they have Eyes and Faces for this saith he is the Figure of Bodies but that the Prophet doth hereby signifie to us their knowledg and vertue But after all whether these Spirits the Angels may not yet for a time really assume a Body and make use of it or whether they have not also some corporeal Vehicles of their own wherein they reside of a more refined nature and substance than any elementary matter we converse with such as Epicurus calls his quasi corpus I shall not dispute so it be granted me that they themselves differ from them as the Soul from it's Body or the Inhabitant from the House he lodgeth in The supposition I confess of Vehicles doth most facilitate the account of their determinate locality motion and appearances and converse yea and the corporeal punishment expresly allotted in holy Scripture to some of their number in the infernal flames And it cannot be denied but that several of the Fathers have reputed them after a manner corporeal but then it was chiefly comparativè in respect of God who is the most simple and absolute Spirit Invisibilia illa quaecunque sunt habent apud Deum suum corpus suam formam Tertul. adversus Praxeam s. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damascen Comparatione Dei corpora sunt nostri spiritus Gregor 1. Tom. 1. moral in Job l. 2. c. 2. quam distinctionem secutus est Beda alii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nazianz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serm 2. Vide Zanch. de operib Dei part 1. l. 2. c. 3. Otho-Casman Angelograph part 1. c. 3. And to this opinion the second Nicene Council under Constantine and Irene inclines allowing God only to be perfectly incorporeal but none of the creatures so ex toto though the Angels are there confess'd to be not so grosly clothed as we verùm tenui corpore praeditos aereo â—ive igneo and their chief reason is quod taliter circumscribuntur sicut anima quae carne clauditur whereas God is infinite and unbounded But yet many of that Council consented not thus much as Carranza notes being of the belief Angelos omninò esse incorporeos whom they of the Lateran Council seem to have followed And so the Jewish Rabbies conceived of them too as Creatures that have form without matter or body Most certain it is that they are a sort of Beings above humane Souls in their greatest perfection and yet we have sufficient evidence that this lower rank of Spirits within us are immaterial and incorporeal even from their known and familiar operations abstracting and self-reflecting thoughts simple apprehensions of notions Universal Mathematical Logical Moral and remote from sense inferences and deductions from them compared and compounded in propositions syllogisms c. which I shall not here enlarge further upon Lucretius himself who asserts the Soul to be corporeal is yet forced to invent a fourth substance besides the wind and heat and air which he cannot find a name for and therefore calls nominis expertem and which is as he saith anima quasi animae the Soul of the Soul As Aristotle was constrained to excogitate a fifth essence nomine vacantem out of which the Soul was made distinct from the four Elements Cicero 1. Tuscul. In a word needs must the Angels even considered with their Vehiclâ—s whatever they are be of another nature from those bodily â—ubstances we are acquainted with when we read of a Legion of them together in one man and a Legion as Hesychius computes it is 6666. SECT II. Created That they were created by God is evident from that place of the Apostle to the Colossians By him were all things created that are in Heaven and in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him where as Theodoret well notes passing over things visible he more distinctly and particularly mentions the Orders of Things invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers And to a like purpose Theophylact. And from that of the Psalmist who when he had call'd upon the Angels by name to praise God as well as the Sun and Moon and Stars and Heavens adds this reason concerning them all in common as Saint Augustin rightly observes For he commanded and they were created he hath also established them for ever So also Iustin Martyr in expos Fidei de rectâ confess p. 372 373. Who also observes that when the Apostle had mentioned Rom. 8.38 Angels Principalities Powers c. he adds to make up the list complete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor any other creature thereby sufficiently intimating the Creation of all these id p. 375. And accordingly as Theodoret further adds we have them named first in the Benedicite or song of the three Children among the Works of the Lord which are to bless praise him and magnifie him for ever From hence also they are call'd Sons of God in holy Scripture agreeably to which Hierocles stiles the Heroes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Max. Tyrius gives this as a Law or Maxim universally acknowledged throughout all the World That there is one God the King and Father of all and that the many Gods are the Children and Off-spring of this one God Therefore is he named by the Apostle the Father of Spirits viz. in a more peculiar manner than of other Beings they partaking most of his Image and likeness So Iupiter too among the Heathen Poets is often paraphrased by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divûm Pater atque hominum Rex Sator Deorum And the Angels in Apollo's Oracle own themselves derived from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This their production by God is the foundation of their natural necessary and perpetual subjection to him dependance on him and being imploy'd by and under him with reference to which also some apply that of Saint Paul to Timothy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 King of the AEon's or Angels And if so we may expound Hebr. 1.2 too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom also he made the AEons But I am rather of Theodoret's mind that the word doth not import so much aliquam subsistentem substantiam any distinct sort of Beings as distantiam quae tempus significat Time or Age and 't is used in Scripture comprehensively for quicquid in saeculis unquam extitit the whole world Hebr. 11.3 omnia quae facta sunt in tempore as Primasius hath it all things that were made in time To be sure that famous stile of Dominus Deus exercituum Lord God of Sabaoth or of Hosts hath a more special reference unto these Beings than to the Hebrew trained Bands as a late Author applies it But now at what
have not the power of understanding Beings that are simply and absolutely immaterial and incorporeal And again Thosâ— that pretend Angels are merely incorporeal must needs err and put force upon their own faculties which cannot conceive a thing that is not continuate and corporeal Now if no man have or can have the notion of a spiritual and immaterial Being if our cognitive powers cannot understand it if our faculties cannot conceive of it what I pray will become of the Being of God in the World as a Spirit and the Father of Spirits How ready is every one to discard what he cannot frame a notion of what he cannot possibly conceive or understand Nay how should his mind ever entertain or assent to it And we must needs infer upon this supposal that he who professeth God is a Spirit as our Author doth makes of him only nomen inane a bare and empty name gives him an insignificant attribute and believes and speaks he knows not what But then farther our Author excepts against the Idea of God in particular God in his own nature being infinite and incomprehensible there can be no true and adequate notion of him And again Much more must the being of God which is infinite and incomprehensible which are attributes incommunicable be utterly inconceivable to any of our faculties Let him go now and dispute the case with the Apostle Saint Paul Rom. 1.20 21 c. That which may be known of God is manifest in them even the Gentiles for God hâ—th shewed unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he saith to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no other than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The invisible things of God which I mention'd before even his eternal poâ—er and Godhead And these too are so far said to be manifested to them as to leave them without excuse or apology For not glorifying him as God even the invisible God but changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to â—orruptible man c. i. e. a corporeal Image Which if I mistake not sufficiently includes incorporeity among the rest in the Idea to be had of him And here I call to mind two notable sayings of the Fathers worthy to be written in Letters of Gold The one of Saint Cyprian of the Vanity of Idols Haec est summa delicti nollâ— agnoscore quem ignorare non possis The other of Lactantius who is a strenuous Asserter of Religion 's being the chief property and distinction of man from the Beasts Quam sibi veniam sperare possunt impietatis suae qui non agnoscunt cultum ejus quem prorsus ignorari ab homine fas non est This Gentleman should do well to consider better that it is one thing to conceive that there is such a Being whose perfections we cannot fathom and another fully and adequately to comprehend him one thing to conceive truly and another to understand adequately for there is somewhat incomprehensible to us in the nature and essence of all things else as well as God's and we may every-where almost write Mystery and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the commendation I think of the Idea or Notion of God in our Souls if it be such for perfection as had it not been implanted within us we could scarce collect our selves from any thing without But whatever there be in that I would gladly know if this All-perfect Infinite and Incomprehensible Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Simplicius well stiles him is utterly unconceivable to any of our faculties how he or any other comes to believe and assert the Divine Nature to be thus Infinite and Incomprehensible in all Perfections or how there can be an obligation upon others to believe and profess what is utterly unconceiveable And now I pass on to what he discourseth of the Nature of Angels I have endeavour'd in the Treatise of Angels to give as plain familiar and useful a description as I could of the notion of Spirits from a serious reflection made upon our own Soul or Spirit Ch. 2. Sect. 1. and represented them by such attributes as I conceive most proper and characteristical The Delphick Oracle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sends us to study our selves directs us certainly to the readiest course of natural as well as Moral Philosophy and the genuine knowledg of the little World of Man is the best preparative for the understanding of the greater and him that made both Our Author grants that All substances are known by their properties and Modifications If then we can find out any such properties or attributes as are no ways agreeable unto matter we have sufficiently the notion of a Spirit that is an immaterial or incorporeal Being And such we may be satisfied of by inspection made into our selves Were there no other but those two powers we may every one be conscious of a power I mean of reflecting upon our own thoughts and a power of moving and determining our own wills as well as bodies this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I may so speak and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—he root and foundation of all morality is altogether incompetent unto Matter For where is there any thing of Matter that can possibly reflect upon its individual self or freely move it self Those who own nothing in the World but Body must banish Conscience and subscribe to Fatal necessity c. It is confess'd when we have sum'd up all that we know but very little of any thing and may have Sense enough of our own Imperfection and Ignorance to keep us humble Yet since we know so little we had not need to make that little less and 't is sufficient I should think that we know as much or rather more of Spirit as we do of Body And of Body our Author himself tells us over and over The Intrinsick Nature of Body as such is utterly unknown to us It 's Internal Nature quatenus Corpus is utterly unknown and again We know not the Intrinsick Nature of Body And yet but a little before he had said We must with all the whole company of the learned assign Extension to be the True and Genuine Character or Characteristical Property as he else-where phraseth it of Body And if this be yielded what should reasonably be desired more when himself confesseth that All Substances are known by their properties and modifications as I even now observed I will not stay to dispute the point farther or to examine whether that wonderful Body as he calls it Image or Idolum in a Mirrour or Looking-Glass be as really a Body as any in the Vniverse as he affirms Let him admire and play as he please with his own Shadow But this I observe that Contradictions seem frequently to lie in his Head together if we may guess at
the reasonable or humane Soul to be such The Rational and immortal Soul he owns expresly to be a Spirit quoting that of our blessed Saviour for it Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit An incorporeal substance and therefore immortal saith he out of Gassendus And so he expounds that Text of Saint Paul 1 Thes. 5.23 which makes the whole of man to consist in Spirit Soul and Body The Spirit that is saith he the ratiâ—nal mind And he well approves of Doctor Willis his arguments and proofs â—or two distinct Souls in man The one sensitive and corporeal and the other ratiâ—nal and incorporâ—al Nay saith he The Soul by the â—nanimous consent of all men is a spiritual and pure immaterial and incorporeal substance And It is manifest by divine Authority that the Spirit that is the rational immortal and incorporeal Soul doth return to God and exist eternally And again It is most evident that there are not only three essential and distinct parts in man as the gross Body consisting of Earth and Water which at Death returns to Earth again the sensitive and corporeal Soul or â—stral Spirit as he calls it consisting of Fire and Air that at death wandreth in the Air or neer the Body and the imâ—ortal and incorporeal Soul that immediatâ—ly returâ—s to God that gave it But also that after death they all three exist sâ—parately the Soul in immortality and the Body in the Earth though soon consuming and the Astral Spirit wandring in the Air and without doubt doth make these strange Apparitions and Bleedings We have then here a notion a manifest and most evident notion and that as he saith by the universal consent of all Men as well as Divine Authority of a spiritual and pure immaterial and incorporeal substance and that existing sepâ—â—atâ—ly and by it self in immortality which is the thing he said our faculties cannot conceive of And this I suppose whatever is pretended was the principal inducement to his excepting so sollicitously the humane and rational Soul from his intended discourse of the corporeity of Angels But we will view his three Reasons alledged for this Exception more distinctly as they lie in order First saith he because the humane Soul had a peculiar kind of Creation differing from the Creation of other things as appeareth in the words of the Text Gen. 2.7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of Life and Man became a living Soâ—l Upon which the Note of Tremellius and Iunius is Anima verò hominis spiritale quiddam est divinum Or more at large as he cites it p. 314. Thus in English That the difference between Man and oâ—hâ—r Animals might appear more clearly for the Souls of these came out of the same matter from whence they had their Bodies but his Soul was a certain Spiriâ—uâ—l and Divine thing Now it is evident upon first sight that Tremellius and Iunius here for I take his word for the Quotation not meeting with it in their Notes oâ— the place did not intend to lay down any difference between the creation of the Soul of Man and of Angels which alone would serve his purpose but of Man and other Animals only produced out of matter And therefore this could not be a reason for excepting the humane Soul from the dispute of Angels But yet it may be worth the while to stay a little upon the Text referr'd to for our better acquaintance with our selves and so a greater preparedness for the conception of material and immortal substances The Lord God saith the Text formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his Nostrils the breath of life and man became a living Soul His Body made of Earth but his Soul the Breath of God Divinae particula Aurae We must not understand it grosly for so Breath is not attributable unto God who is a simple and perfect Spirit but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a figurative expression of God's communicating unto Man that inward Principle whereby he lives and acts not only in common with but in a degree above other Animals Vatablus therefore renders it by injecerat sive immiserat He put or conveyed into his body a vital Spirit And so Iunius and Tremellius in their Notes upon the place tell us humanitus dictum pro eo quod ex virtute sui aeterni spiritûs c. It is spoken after the manner of men and the meaning is this that by vertue of his Eternal Spirit without any Elementary matter he inspired a Vital Soul which is by nature a simple form into that Elementary Body that it might use as an Instrument And Man became a living Soul that is say they quum virtute Dei fuit anima corpori adunata in unitatem personae c. ' when by the power of God the Soul was thus united to the body in one person the Earthy Statue became indued with life and was reckoned a principal species of Animals To a like purpose saith Clarius The Souls of other living Creatures were de materiâ eductae brought forth of matter Gen. 1.20 21. Let the waters bring forth the moving Creature that hath life and let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his kind But the Soul of Man was for ìs inspirata from God immediately And thus much Iob also acknowledgeth The Spirit of God saith he hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life Ch. 33.4 The Learned P. Fagius takes notice of three things in the Text of Moses which do conclude the Immortality of the Soul of Man I. Insufflatio illa Dei This Inspiration from God spoken of For he that breaths into another contributes unto him aliquid de suo somewhat of his own And therefore saith he when our B. Saviour would communicate his Spirit to his Disciples he did it with Insufflation breathing on them thereby to signifie se Divinum de suo quiddam illis contribuere II. The Original word Nischmath which we render Breath or Spirit derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven imports somewhat Divine and Celestial III. The word Hajim added to it sounds plurally spiraculum vitarum the breath of lives Non simpliciter vitam sed longaevam significat a long and continuing life or as some will have it being of the dual number praesentis futuri saeculi vitam the life of this and the other world Or if I may add a farther conjecture both the rational and sensitive life What is here declared by Moses of Man's Origination was notably emblem'd out in the Fable of Prometheus which is by interpretation Providence where the Body is said to have been è molli luto of soft and yielding Clay And such we must suppose the dust of the Earth in Genesis Earth temper'd and prepared with moisture è pulvere sub jam macerato ac
most fully confutes And now I see not from hence any shew of Reason why our Author should except the Rational Soul or Spirit from his enquiry into the Nature of Angels I pass on therefore to his third Reason and will be briefer in all that remains lest my discourse swell beyond the bounds I intended it 3. Saith he because it is safer to believe the Nature of the Soul to be according to the Analogy of Faith and the concurrent opinion of the Learned than to sift such a deep Question by our weak understanding and reason I hope he is not of the opinion of Atheo-Pol that Theology and Reason have two distinct and separate Kingdoms between which there is no commerce or affinity viz. Reason the Kingdom of Truth and Sapience Theology of Piety and Obedience only and accordingly that our Faith requires not vera sed pia dogmata But I rather constre this as an expression of his tenderness and modesty only And yâ—t as deep a Qâ—estion as this is he tells us elsewhere The unanimous consent of all men which is more than the concurrent opinion of the Learned hath agreed it as I shewed before whatever become of Solomon's Who knoweth in the precedent Reason And we find him not so over-shy as here he would seem of siâ—ting some Questions of as deep Philosophy to the full as this such as that towards the close of his Book of the Astral Spirit and the Efficacy of Charms by Astral Influences c. But is it in good earnest a deeper enquiry to look into the nature of our own spirit which we are most privy to For who knoweth the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in him than to search into the Nature of Angelical Spirits without us Is not that Candle of the Lord our weak Understanding and Reason more like to discover somewhat within doors than to administer any steady light abroad where the stronger winds of uncertainty and opposition puff and blow about it Or lastly Is there not as much of the Analogy of Faith and the concurrent opinion of the Learned about the Angels as about the Humane Soul I conclude therefore from the Premises that there was no reason at all why he should thus once for all exclude and except forth the Humane and Rational Soul as not to be comprized in the same limits with Angelical Spirits unless this only that it was like to prove unserviceable to his Cause nay an irreconcileable Enemy to it And so I come at length more directly to reflect upon what he discourseth of the Nature of Angels which yet I should not at all have concern'd my self with were not his Arguments levell'd against their Incorporeity as a thing utterly inconceiveable which we can in no wise understand or if they proved no more but this that Angels have certain Vehicles or Bodies joyned to them as the Humane Soul hath though of a more noble and refined sort to which purpose I'have also granted somewhat in the precedent Treatife Ch. 11. § 1. But he seems to me confused in his own understanding about them and therefore he shuffles or blunders in the stating of this Question making it all one to prove that Angels are Corporeal and that they have Bodies or Vehicles joyned to them whereas there is an apparent difference between these two and the one may securely enough be granted as by many it is where the other is yet denied Take his own words As much saith he as we contend for is granted by Dr. More in these words For I look upon Angels to be as truly a Compound Being consisting of Soul and Body as that of Men and Brutes And therefore saith he they must needs have an Internum and Externum as the Learned and Christian Philosopher Doctor Fludd doth affirm in these words Certum est igituâ— inesse ipsis sc. Angelis aliud quod agit aliud autem quod patitur nec verò illud secundum quod agunt aliud quam actus esse poterit qui forma dicitur neque â—tiam illud secundum quod patiuntur est quicquam praeter potentiam haec autem materia appellatur So much the less reason still say I to exclude the Humane Soul from this Enquiry But if this were all he needed not to have taken so much pains about it being done to his hands or he might have spared at least those arguments which prove somewhat more if they prove any thing He might have kept those Arrows by him which are shot besides and beyond this Mark These Arguments do sufficiently and evidently prove that Angels are either Corporeal or have Bodies united to them which is all one to our purpose whether way soever it be taken And again We have sufficiently proved saith he that they are corporeal that is that they have Bodies naturally united to them and so have an Internum or moving power and an Externum or a part moved To me therefore he seems to hide himself only and darken the business by those terms of simply and absolutely incorporeal which are so usual with him and the only retreat he hath upon occasion to betake himself unto To be short that which I search after is thâ— Internum in Angels or pars movens or actus or forma illud quod agit in Dr. Flud's Philosophy or the spiritual part of these compound Beings or whatever Name he please to call it by what that is And if we can once find out that as we have already the Humane Soul incorporeal and capable of self-subsisting what will become of that which he affirms so dogmatically that our Faculties cannot conceive of an incorporeal Being But now let us see the scuffle and how demonstratively he lays about him 1. Saith he we lay it down for a most certain and granted truth that God simply and absolutely is only a most simple Spirit in whom there is no corporeity nor composition at all And what other things soever are call'd or accounted Spirits are but so in a relative and respective consideration and not in a simple and absolute acceptation And this is the unanimous tenent of Fathers School-men and all other Orthodox Divines agreeing with the plain and clear words of Scripture as God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth And again Now the Lord is that Spirit That God is a Spirit whatever some dispute is I grant affirmed in holy Scripture and that he is the most simple and excellent Spirit I as readily believe But it is no-where in our Bible said that God is the only Spirit or that there are no other Spirits but God In the very same verse which asserts God to be a Spirit we also are allowed a Spirit too to serve and worship him in And if we once take the liberty to turn all other Spirits so call'd into Bodies I doubt the
an old Verse to construe and chew upon Carpere vel noli nostra vel ede tua A Table of the chief Contents THe Introduction and Partition Page 1 Ch 1. Of Angels in General 3. Sect. 1. That there are such real Subsistences 4. Sect. 2. That for excellency they are above us 6. Ch. 2. Of the Nature of Angels 11. Sect. 1. Spirits 12. Sect. 2. Created 22. Sect. 3. Intellectual and Free Powerful Agile and Immortal 27. Ch. 3. Of their Number and Distinction 35. Sect. 1. Of their Multitude Ibid. Sect. 2. Of their Order 39. Ch. 4. Of the Offices of Angels 49. Sect. 1. Their Ministry unto God 50. Sect. 2. Their Ministry unto Christ. 61. Sect. 3. Their Ministry to the whole World especially of Man-kind 66. Sect. 4. Their Ministry to the Faithful 78. Sect. 5. An Objection touching the superfluousness of their Ministry removed 100. Ch. 5. The Character of the Persons for whose good especially they are Commission'd 104. Sect. 1. Heirs of Salvation 105. Sect. 2. A farther account of the same and therein of things necessary to Salvation 109. Ch. 6. Practical Inferences from the whole 118. Sect. 1. The Christians Priviledge and Comfort Ibid. Sect. 2. The Christians Dignity not to be despised 123. Sect. 3. Why no more mischief donâ— in the Worlâ— and why so much permitted notwithstanding the presidence of Angels 126. Sect. 4. No disparagement to â—ny to Minister â—nto and serve others 131. Sect. 5. Angels to be revered but not adored 135. Sect. 6 God in and for them to be admired and glorified 144. Sect. 7. Why and how the Ministâ—y of Angels is to be obliged by us 150. The Conclusion with Prayers 163. The Contents of the Appendix FOr the Reader 's ease and benefit I have pointed to the chief Contents already in the Margin as so many rests and pauses for his thoughts as here I present him with a view of them together The Occasion and Scope of these Reflections Page 169. The denial of Spirits a step to Atheism asserted and justified against Master W. 171. Dangerous Positions of Master W. against the Idea of a Spirit and of God 173. Self-study and Reflection the right and ready method to the notion of Spirits 176. Master W's Contradictions both about Body and Spirit 177. The Humane Soul excluded by him from his disquisition about Angels for three pretended Reasons 178. This method of procedure unreasonable 179. Master W. confounds Imagination and Intellect which else-where he knew well to distinguish 180. Master W. asserts the Incorporeity of the Humane Soul 181. An examination of his three Reasons for excepting the humane Soul from this enquiry 183. Of his First Reason Ibid. A short Comment upon Genes 2.7 concerning Mans Original 184. Of his Second Reason 186. An Explication and Vindication of Eccles. 3.18 21. from Atheistical and profane Epicureans 187. Of his Third Reason 194. Master W's Speculations about the Corporeity of Angels and how he blunders in the stating of this enquiry 195. The Critical point of the present Controversie 196. God a most simple and absolute Spirit but yet not thâ— only Spirit 197. Angels are not such Spirits in perfection as God iâ— and yet truly Spirits 198. Mr. W. asserts Devils more spiritual than he allows other Angels 199. His mighty Arguments against the Incorporeity of Angels examined and found weak 200. Rules and Laws of Bodies ineptly applyed unto Spirits 202. The difficulty of explaining the manner of Things must not make us deny what is otherwise evident 203. Some Texts of holy Scripture considered and vindicated from Master W's Exceptions 206. Saint Mark 12.24 207. 1 Cor. 15.44 208. Psal. 104.4 Ibid. His clear Reasons against the Scholastick Interpretation of this last Text proved defective 211. OF ANGELS AND THEIR Ministries Hebrews 1.14 Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation The Introduction and Partition of the â—nsuing Discourse THE chief scope and design of the Apostle in this Chapter is to declare the exaltation and preference of Christ Jesus above the Angels To which purpose not to lead you through the whole contexture in the Verse immediately before-going he thus argues But to which of the Angels said he at any time Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine Enemies thy Footstool So God had said expresly to this his beloved Son Psal. 100.1 thereby to intimate that peculiar state of Royal Majesty and Honour whereto he had advanced him But he never said the like to any of the Angels no not to the most excellent among them all They are not therefore Lords like him but Servants under him for the good of his Disciples So much the Interrogation of the Text imports with emphasis leaving the matter to be decided by the Reader 's judgment and making an Appeal to every one upon it as in a case known and granted Are they not all that is undoubtedly all the Angels are ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Abstracting then from the coherence of the words we will observe for the more orderly and profitable consideration of them these six points First The Persons spoken of they the Angels in the precedent Verse as to their Name Angels and the certainty of their existence Are they not Secondly Their Nature Spirits Thirdly Their number and multitude all and therein their order and distinction Fourthly Their Function and Office ministring Spirits sent forth to minister Fifthly The Character of such for whose good and benefit this their Ministry is chiefly intended for them who shall be heirs of salvation And Lastly By way of Application those practical Inferences which are most proper and pertinent to be made from the whole In which severals now that we may proceed with due success I do here in compliance with the well-grounded piety of the Ancients prefix the Prayer of a Learned Divine in his Proem to Cases of Conscience about this very subject Lead us O Lord our God into the right way we beseech thee and direct our goings by thy good Angels but command the evil ones to be as far as is possible removed from us Amen CHAP. I. Of Angels in the General I Begin with the Persons here spoken of Angel is a Greek word made English and it signifies a Legate Embassador or Messenger employed upon another's Errand So of the Disciples of Iohn the Baptist whom he sent to enquire of Jesus whether he was indeed the Christ it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the Angels or Messengers of Iohn were departed But the word is more restrainedly taken both in holy Scripture and our common way of speaking for a peculiar and divine sort of Messengers certain coelestial Spirits made and commissioned and employed by and under God Concerning whom all that I shall offer under this head will be 1. That there are such real Subsistences and 2. That they
are of a Rank and Degree above us a more excellent sort of Beings than Men are SECT 1. That there are such real Subsistences 1. That there is such a Species of Beings that there are such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 real and external Subsistences and that they are not â—mia rationis Notions only Creatures of our brain Chimera's of our fansie or impressions made upon the imagination or meer Dreams and Appearances or Visâ—oâ—s or a Noise in the air as some have representâ—d nor yet only certain Divine inâ—luences and inspirations or certain aâ—fections and dispositions in Men Vâ—rtues or Vices as others have conceived but true personal and pâ—rmanent Subsistences that have of themselves a real pâ—rfect and actual Being The Sadducâ—es say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thâ—re is no Râ—surrâ—ction neither Angel nâ—r Spirit Act. 23.8 They believed that there was a God saith Grotius but nothing else besides which was not perceptible by their bodily Sâ—nses They looked not on Angels as really subsisting nor on the Soul of man as continuing afâ—er its separation â—rom the body and consequently denyed a Reâ—urrection But the following words as he wâ—ll observes seem to intimate their opinion of Angel and Spirit as one and the same thing The Pharisees confess both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not making three distinct particulars of the before-named but two onely which is also favour'd by the verse immediately succeeding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a Spirit or â—n Angel have spoken to him Where those two words are equivalent It seems very strange now to conceive That the Saddâ—â—â—es should say There were no Angels or Spirits whom all agree to have owned the five Books of Moses wherein are many evident Reports on Record of their Appearances and Operations and more wonder still if what Iosephus is said to relate be true of them that they received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Scriptures of the old Testament and rejected onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unwritten Traditions And therefore the Learned and Judicious suppose that their meaning was not to deny Angelos esse that there had been and were Angels so call'd but onely Spiritus esse immortales per se subsistentes that they were immortal and self-subsistent Spirits looking upon them but as certain apparitions â—or a time and such as vanished away when their Embassie or Message was dispatch'd And yet the whole Story of the Bible is a sufficient confutation of this vain conceit also which tells us those things of their Nature Multitude Order Ministries Rewards and Punishments from whence we must needs conclude them to have a real personal and permanent Subsistence I will not go about to mention the particulars here because they will be plentiful enough in the following parts of this Treatise It shall suffice therefore to set it down as a Point de Fide clearly deliver'd in the Holy Scriptures from whence we have all our certain and distinct knowledge about the Angels that there are undoubtedly such Beings Maximus Tyrius enquires of those who doubted of Socrates his Daemon whether ever they had read Homer speaking of the same thing under other Names as Minerva Iuno Apollo Eris and such-like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he calls them not that they were such as described by the Poet but that those Names imported certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assisting of excellent Persons both sleeping and waking And then he concludes his conviction thus If once thou thinkest that there are no such Beings take notice that thou must proclaim war against Homer and renounce Oracles and Prophecies and disbelieve credible Reports and declare against Dreams with their Interpretations And at last bid Adiâ—u to Socrates I may with greater Authority ask our Modern Sadduceâ—s Whether ever they have read the Book of God and therein observed the many and various passages concerning Angels set down at large and seriously admonish them to beware in time how they oppose or dispute against Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles In like manner as our B. Saviour said to their Ancestors Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God Or as S. Mark hath it Do ye not therefore err because ye know not the Scriptures neither the power of God SECT II. That thâ—y are for Excellencie above us I add 2. That they are of a rank and degree above Men. Man is the Top of the visible Creation To whom God hath given Dominion over the works of his hands as the Psalmist witnesseth And therefore our B. Saviour puts the Question as to other Creatures Are ye not much better than they poâ—nting to the Fowls of the Air And the Apostle S. Paul having mentioned a Law providing for â—eaâ—ts commâ—nts thus upon it Doth God take care for Oxen or saith he it altogether for our sakes And before them Iob's Friends Bildad not without indignation Wherefâ—re are we accounted as the Beasts And Elihu positively God our Maker teachâ—th us more than the Beasts of the Earth and maketh us wiser than the Fowls of the Heaven With all whom agrees well that of Ovid Sanctius his animal mentâ—sque capacius altae dâ—erat adhuc quod dominari in caetera possit Factus homo est That also of Iuvenal separat haec nos i. e Ratio à grege mutorum atque ideò venerabile soli sortiâ—â—â—ngemum divinorúmque capaces c. Sat. 15. Man is no fortâ—â—â—nous careless and uncontriv'd piece of work hundled up in haste as Seneca hath it but such as Nature hath none greater to glory of among her rarest and most exquisite draughts Cicero also to a like purpose Animal hoc providum sagax multiplex acutum memor plenum rationis consilii quem vocamus Hominem praeclâ—râ quâdam conditione generatum à summo Deo c. Lib. 1. de Legib. Hierocles placeth him between Heaven and Earth as participant of both Lives the lowest of Superiour but the first of all Inferiour Beings and by the possession of Vertue or Vice becoming by turns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God or a Beast He hath indeed his Body in common with the Beasts but his Soul and Reason with the Gods as Epictetus tells us This briefly of Man's Excellency But yet no disparagement to him the Angels are his betters Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels saith the Psalmist which our Apostle applies even to Christ too wiâ—h reference to that Mortal Nature of ours which he assumed We may therefore note our B. Saviour's climax when he speaks of the uncertainty of the time of future Judgement But of that day and hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels of Heaven Where if Angels were not supposed beyond Man it had been â—lat and dull to have added no not the Angels of Heaven And as they excel us thus in knowledge so also in
the one and onely uncreated and the Angels are created Spirits Substantiae spirituales as Tertullian also calleth them whatever he thought of their incorporeity Here brieâ—ly we must examine what a Spirit is and then what kind of Spirits Angels are SECT I. Spirits Not to search into the different significations of the word Spirit as it is sometimes taken we mean by it here according to the most proper and known acceptation and use of it which is the best rule of speech An incorporeal or bodyless Being endued with understanding will and active power And whatever incompossibility jargon or non-sense some haughty scorners have talked of in the Notion of an immaterial or incorporâ—al substance as if the words flatly contradicted and destroyed each other and were such as however men put together they could never have the conception of any thing answerable to them those who have inured their minds to a more sober thoughtfulness and skill the difference between intellect and imagination find it as clear and distinct and no whit more intricate perplexed or difficult than that which the ablest Philosophers can give us of a Body The immediate Attributes or intrinsick Properties of the one being as plainly and easily intelligible as of the other and naked Essences we have no knowledge of Essence or Being is the common Term under which all things are represented to our minds and we distinguish them only by their proper and peculiar adjuncts or attributes and from thence divide them into their respective Classes of Substances and Accidents entia per se per aliud material and immaterial corporeal or incorporeal res extensa res cogitans or whatever else it is that others chuse to describe them by for I list not here to enter upon that Controversie Theodoret in his Dialogues hath enough to serve my turn Q. What are the properties of the Soul or Spirit A. To be endued with Reason simple immortal invisible Q. What is proper to the Body A. To be compounded visible mortal Spirit stands opposed to Body We read when the Disciples were affrighted supposing they had seen a Spirit Iesus said unto them Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have In the same Phrase as Homer speaks of the Souls of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to a like purpose the Platonist The Natures of Demons are not flesh nor bone nor blood nor any thing else that is corruptible and capable of dissolution or liquefaction It is remarkably explained in the Nazaren's Gospel cited by Ignatius and Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bodyless Demon or Spirit without a body And accordingly Dr. Hammond here paraphraseth it Ye doubt or suspect me to be a Spirit without a body It is very I body and soul together But lest any should here object that in some Manuscripts the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which also we find elsewhere S. Matth. 14.26 and S. Mark 6.49 a spectrum or apparition though I conceive that supposeth our Doctrine of Spirits they may please to note farther how the Apostle S. Paul contra-distinguisheth these two Flesh and Blood on the one side and Spirits on the other For we wrestle not against flesh and blood saith he but against spiritual wickednesses or wicked Spirits as the Syriac there hath it A Spirit is a Being which we cannot touch with our hands or see with our eyes as we do Bodies which is not the object of our external senses nor can be pointed at with the finger or pictured out to us in its proper nature there being nothing like it in the whole visible world of Bodies and nothing so near of kin to give us any sensible resemblance of it as the wind or animal Spirits are whose force and power we feel but yet cannot behold either of them Whence probably anima and animus were derived from the old Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the most positive best and easiest conception we can frame of a Spirit is certainly by reflecting upon our own Souls For the Soul of man is also a Spirit The Spirit of man within him opposed to his body of Flesh. And they are strangely out who take the measures of man by his outward appearance and Carcase only Solomon speaks of man's dissolution with reference also to his original Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God that gave it Agreeable to which are those excellent Verses of Phâ—cylides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Our Spirit is the Gift and Image of God For we have our Body out of the Earth and as to that part all of us being dissolved into the same become dust again but then Heaven receiveth our Spirit again which came from thence The words of Lucretius do fitly enough express as much provided onely that we construe them in a Diviner sense than he intended Cedit item retrò de terrâ quod fuit ante In terras quod missum est ex aetheris oris Id rursùm coeli rellatum Templa receptant When our B. Saviour had cried out on the Cross Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit He gave up the Ghost saith the Text that is emisit Spiritum he sent forth his Spirit and Ghost is the most proper word for a separated or departed Spirit Accordingly we read of the Spirits of just men made perfect Now the Spirit or Soul within us is the principle of all our thoughts and knowledge of all our will and choice of all our Life and motion These then are the proper attributes of a Spirit Understanding Will and Vital motion or self-activity and power of moving other things And this notion we shall find applicable both to God and Angels When we speak of God we must think of nothing material 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither dimensions nor colour nor figure nor any other bodily passion We may indeed define him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the most conspicuous Beauty but not a beautiful Body He is a Spirit and the Spirit of Man his imperfect image And by so affirming we not onely exclude him from the number of visible sensible and Corporeal Beings whose Understanding and Knowledge is infinite who wills and nills chuseth and refuseth according to that infinite Understanding and Knowledge who hath Life in himself and acts according to his will and choice a Being of most soveraign wisedom goodness and power Such is the Idea of the most excellent Spirit Thus Anaxagoras defined him Infinitam mentem quae per scipsam moveatur and thus he is described by Cicero Mens soluta libera segregata ab omni concretione mortali omnia
sentiens movens In like manner Angels are Spirits that is living and understanding Beings capable in a more eminent way and manner than our Souls are by reason of their bodily cloggs and impediments of Knowledge Will and Action The Soul separated from the Body is the clearest representation we can have of a Spirit or Angel Whence Bellarmin saith very well that an Angel is Anima perfecta a perfect or compleat Soul and the Soul is Angelus imperfectus an imperfect and incompleat Angel Onely the Soul of Man perhaps hath that intrinsic habitude and inclination unto Body which the Angels have not The Soul saith Dr. More consider'd as invested immediately with that tenuious matter which is her inward vehicle hath very little more difference from the aerial Genii or Angels than a Man in prison from one that is free or a sword in the scabbard from one out of it or a Man that is clothed from one that is naked A Soul is but a Genius in the Body and a Genius a Soul out of the Body Thales Pythagoras Plato and the Stoicks call these Beings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 souly Substances if I may so speak and the Peripatetick School generally Formas abstractas separatas so that we may pertinently enough stile them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most sacred Choire of bodiless Souls or Ghosts S. Chrysostom I am sure frequently names them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodiless Powers Hereunto well agrees the distribution which Apuleius gives us of Daemons or Genii viz. such as were sometime in an humane body and such as were always free from the bonds of Bodies And so Plutarch in the person of Ammonius the Philosopher makes two sorts of them Souls separated from Bodies or such as never dwelt in Bodies at all Of the former sort he makes 1. The Soul of man etiam nunc in corpore situs even now in the body Whence some conceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dici quorum daemon bonus i.e. animus virtute perfectus est And so M. Antoninus often calls the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. s. 13. l. 5. s. 27. c. and so others also speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h.e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas ex innominato 2. The humane Soul emeritis stipendiis vitae corpore suo abjurans dismiss'd and parted from its Body by death whom the ancient Latines as he saith call'd Lemures Lares Larras and Manes To which purpose also Max. Tyrius tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diss. XXVII The Soul laying down or putting off its Body becomes forthwith of a Man a Daemon And such as these also as Plutarch notes they called Heroes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De placit But then for the latter sort he adds There is yet a more excellent and noble kind of Demons than these two specified qui semper à corporis compedibus nexibus liberi which were alwaies exempt from the fetters and ties of Body and of this sort and number saith he Plato supposeth every man to have a select witness and keeper And these he desines to be Genere animalia ingenio rationabilia animo passiva corpore aerea tempore aeterna A Definition I shall not stay to examine Saint Augustine sufâ—iciently exagitates and quarrels with it and especially for ascribing to them those passions which arise in us from folly or misery with whom Fulgentius consents in the same particular But I have offered enough to explain the notion of a Spirit and so of Angels from a reflection upon our own Souls which was the thing I aimed at They pass 't is true sometimes in Scripture by the name of men Thrâ—e men appeared to Abraham Gen. 18. So at our blessed Saviour's Sepulchre Behold two men in shining Garments Saint Luk. 24. Ovid hath it of Iupiter himself Et deus humanâ lustro sub imagine terras And Homer whom Apuleius in his Apology calls omnis vetustatis certissimum Authorem relates of these lesser Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is That in the habit of divers Pilgrims they perambulate Towns and Cities and take inspection of the good and evil doings of men Which calls to my mind that of the Apostle Hebr. 13.2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares But this was only say some because they assumed the likeness of men In specie virorum apparebant And so the Devil saith Drusius is call'd Samuel whose form he appeared in and he quotes it for one of Saint Augustine's Canons Specie's rerum appellantur de nominibus ipsarum rerum The appearances of things are call'd by the names of things themselves And whereas we read of the Angels eating Gen. 19.3 the Hierusalem Thargum hath it videbantur ac si ederent ac biberent And they seemed or appeared as if they eat and drank And so the Angel said to Tobit's Son and Daughter All these daies I did appear to you but I did neither eat nor drink but you did see a Vision Sed ità vobis videbatur as the Latin renders it Saint Augustin indeed glosseth on it Not that he imposed on the eyes of Tobias and others but that he did not eat in the same manner as they did or thought him to eat to wit out of a necessity of receiving nourishment or bodily refreshment But Theodoret having proved the verity of our blessed Saviour's Body from his feeding on Butter and Honey his Mother's Milk and other meat and drink agreeable thereunto starts this Objection of Abraham's Guests the Angels and answers it to this effect If any one shall out of folly urge the nourishment that was in Abraham's Tent let him know that he speaketh foolishly For those things seemed to be done but were consumed in another manner which he best knows that consumed them But if any one should also foolishly grant that the incorporeal nature was partaker of these Kates yet he can never find hunger or thirst there I need not explain the contents of this censure 'T is undeniable that we find many things in Sacred Writ spoken of Angels which border upon Body But then we must know it was the property of the Jews Language as a learned Man observes indeed of all other to give denomination to things unseen from analogical and borrowed expressions of things visible And here we may remember the saying of Saint Augustin concerning them Locutiones humanae etiam in eos usurpantur propter quandam operum similitudinem non propter affectionum infirmitatem They are sometimes clad in the dress of our passions as God himself is to shew forth a likeness of working but not of infirmity As also the admonition of Saint Chrysostom that when we hear
proceeds from their spiritual nature which is not subject to weariness heaviness or fainting with the like infirmities which necessarily attend Bodies nor obstructed and hindred by external impediments in the way as Bodies are and so they need not such a space of time neither to pass in as Bodies do And besides this it is much help'd forward in the good Angels by their promptitude and readiness propensity and zeal to dispatch the errand and Ministry upon which they are sent and imploy'd 'T is not here Timor but Amor addidit alas Lastly that I be not tedious They are Immortal and such as cannot Die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Immortal is used absolutely by Hesiod for their name and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The immortals of Iupiter In like sort as we use Mortals for Men So Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which also he adds an Epithet of the same importance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This follows too from their being Spirits and so not having within themselves a principle of corruption nor being liable to destruction from other created Power For nothing is so immortal as not to be annihilable by God and destroyed by that power which at first produced it As to him therefore all things are mortal and in this sense he only and no other hath immortality as the Apostle tells us 1 Tim. 6.16 For he only is absolutely immutable and hath omnimodam necessitatem essendi as the Schools speak an every-way necessary Existence and all other Beings have an essential dependance upon him and so a possibility of ceasing to be with respect to his Will nay I may add a necessity of not-being when he pleaseth Hence possibly the Angels are call'd by Max. Tyâ—ius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Immortals of the second Rate and Damascen puts it into his Definition of Angelic Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receiving by Grace a natural Immortality It being a known maxime of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatever was made is also mutable And with this interpretation it may be we may somewhat qualifie that of Tatianus concerning the Soul of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is of it self mortal but yet in a capaâ—ility of not dying The rather because he accuseth Aristotle quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for rejecting or impeaching the immortality of the Soul But this by the way Theodoret decides the matter well God saith he is properly immortal for he is so essentially and independently but Angels and the Souls of Men hold of him and must conseâ—uently own their immortality as his gift But yet â—arther Spirits as I said have not that principle of corruption within themselves which Elementary Bodies have nor are they lyable to a pernicious and destructive violence from Creatures without as our Life is sometimes from the meanest and most inconsiderable Fear not them that kill the Body saith our blessed Saviour and after that have no more which they can do are at their ne plus ultra The Soul or Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quite out of their reach kill that they cannot but only manumit and set it free And that the Angels are such Spirits as cannot Die is sufficiently intimated when this is made the demonstration of our immortality who shall be raised hereafter and consequently our not eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage then which are the appendagâ—s of this mortal decaying and perishing state on Earth The children of this world marry and are given in marriage but they which shall be accounted worthy to attain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more For they are equal unto the Angels And therefore the Apostle Saint Paul calls the Body too that is raised up in incorruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual Body But thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the Nature of Angelical Spirits so far as we understand it who skill but little exactly and distinctly of our selves whereby we conclude of them and therefore may add safely and modestly without the danger of Scepticism in the Case as Damascen doth in the close of his Description of these Beings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God alone who made them knows comprehensively the kind and limits of their Being CHAP. III. Of their Number and Distinction THirdly We pass on next to their Number and Multitude and under that Head to treat somewhat of their Distinction and Order For the Apostle refers to all of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Are they not all SECT I. Of their Multitude The Angels are many Consider them as they are divided now into two sorts Good and Evil the Angels that stand and the Angels that fell you will find very many a great number under both Heads The Scripture of the Oâ—d Testament is somewhat silent in relating to us the manner of the fall of Angels though it evidently enough suppose it and refer to it But in the New we have more express and frequent mention thereof Our blessed Saviour speaks of the Devil as a murderer from the beginning who abode not in the truth a Lyar and the Father oâ— Lies Saint Iohn also saith The Deâ—il sinneth from the beginning And the woâ—d Devil includes all the Apostate Spirits who are sometimes call'd plurally Devils Saint Iames 2.19 and sometimes more distinctly The Devil and his Angels Saint Peter puts their sin and punishment together If God spared not the Anâ—els that sinned but cast them down to Hell and deliver'd them into chains of darkness to be reserv'd unto Iudgment And in like mannâ—r Saint Iude The Angels which kâ—pt not their first estate but left their own habitation 〈◊〉 hath resâ—rved in chains under darknâ—ss unto the judgment of the great day All without question innocent and holy at the first being made by a good and holy God but some of them in the abuse of their liberty or free-will prevaricating and rebelling against their Maker and Soveraign were thereupon cast down from the Regions of Light above and left under an irreversible sentence of condemnation But these Devils were not such by Nature or Creation as the Manichees and Priscillianists taught of old but by a voluntary degeneracy Theodoret conceives it sufficiently demonstrated from the goodness of their Maker and the righteousness of their Judg. How saith he could he be call'd good were he the creator of vice or how just and righteous should he punish a nature which could do no good and were ingaged by him in a necessity of sin Many things are said by the Fathers of their Fall or Sins in particular as Pride and Envy c. nay and by some of them lust applying to that purpose Gen. 6.2 But Theodoret whom I just now quoted censures that opinion for a piece of gross ignorance and dotage I will not digress further into
its Rest and Happinesâ— Such a priviledg belongs unquestionably even to the poorest and meanest of God's Servants For so it is recorded of Lazarus for our encouragement The Begger died and was carried by Angels into Abraham ' s bosom Saint Luke 10.22 that is by them he was translated into the place of his refreshment in the Kingdom of God with that Father of the Faithful And such probably was Elias his Fiery Chariot and Horses wherein he mounted to Heav'n 2 Kings 2.11 They rejoice at the return and conversion of Sinners unto God as hath been said before from Saint Luke 15.7 10. and thâ—ir joy is increased by the receiving of them at last into their own number in the Regions of Bliss and Happiness as those per quos ruinae suae scissuras restaurari expectant saith Saint Augustin by whom they expect the Rents among themselves by the fall of so many to be made up again and restored Thus the Angels are all along and every-where ministring Spirits to the Elect to keep off evil from them and to supply them with all the good they stand in need of and God sees fitting for them watching all opportunities â—or the preservation health and safety both of their Bodies and Souls goods and good names guarding them from thâ— invasion of evil and hurtâ—ul Spirits making an â—edg about them and all that they have working â—â—â—ir pâ—osperity and suâ—cess in matters oâ— importance relating to the most considerable turns of their lives assisting them in their Vocations providing for their escape and deliverance in danâ—erâ— extraordinary healing of their Sicknesses 〈…〉 comâ—orting and relieving of them in 〈◊〉 of the greatest perplexity and trouble never leaving them destitute in any condition encouraging and strengthning of them at their death yea and after death too waiting upon them till they have brought them safely to those Regions of Felicity where no hazard or danger can farther reach them These saith Saint Augustin are the Guardian-keepers upon the Walls of the Nâ—w Jerusalem and the Mountains that encompass her about watching and observing the vigils of the night over her Flock that the old Serpent our Adversary the Devil may not as a Lion snatch our Souls whil'st there is none to deliver They are sent to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation to free them from their Enâ—mies and keep them in all their ways to comfort them also and admonish them and offer up their Prayers to God For they love these thâ—ir fellow-Citizens and therefore with great care and a vigilant industry are present with them at all times and in all places ready to come in for their relief and provide for their necessities and solicite to and fro as acâ—â—ve Messengers between them and Heav'n They assist â—â—em in their labours protect them in their rest hearten them in their Fights and crown them upon their Victories SECT V. An Objection touching the superfluousness of Angelic-Ministry removed Now lest any should object or say within their hearts That this Ministry of the good and holy Angels is altogether needless and superfluous since God himself is Omnipresent and Omnipotent every-where at hand and of Power unquestionably sufficient to do all that for us which we â—an desire and much more than we can look for or receive from them I will offer a few things here for the extirpating of this prejudice Far be it from any Christian to think or imagine such a necessity of the Angels interposure as those Heathens did who confining of their Gods to the upper Regions and looking on it as a diminution and disturbance of their ease and happiness to concern themselves with the vast variety of affairs in the sublunary World found out this expedient of certain middle natures as Agents and Messengers for dispatch between them and Mortals Inter terricolas coelicolâ—sque vectores hinc precum inde donorum qui ulâ—â—â— citróque portant hinc petitiones inde suppetias ceu quidam utriusque interpretes salutigeri Apulâ—ius de Dâ—o Socr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Symposio The knowledg we have of God's ubiquity and inâ—inite perfection forbids to surmise thus of him as if he were pent and coop'd up any-where or as if any thing could be concealed at any time or in any place from his notice or as if the efâ—ecting any thâ—ng were â— trouble disturbance or burden to him who created the Universe with a word speaking Ignoratio rerum aliena naturae Deorum est sustinendi muneris propter imbecillitatem difficultas mâ—â—imè cadit in majestatem Deorum Balbus apud Ciceronem de Nat. Deorum l. â— But then the same knowledge forbids us also once to opine or imagine that any of his Constitutions and Appointments are in vain We are not 't is true competent Judges of his Works so as to give the full and adequate reason or account of them but yet both may and ought to conclude from his own Excellencies that in the greatest and exactest wisdom mensurâ numero pondere Wisd. 11. he hath contrived and made them all We cannot possibly tell the need or usefulness of sundry sorts of Beings nevertheless it is not for us hastily to pronounce that they might therefore be spared and serve not to any worthy purpose M. Antoninus I remember speaking of such things as are apt to offend and trouble us as Thorns and Bryars c. bids to decline them if we can for our own safety but not to start that bold and idle question of curiosity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why were these things at all in the world This were the way as he adds for us to be laugh'd at by those that understand Nature better than we do in like manner as he would deserve from an Artificer who should come into his Shop or Work-house and blame thiâ— and that Tool or Contrivance for superfluous and unnecessary which the Master well enough knew the design and use of That profound reverence we owe unto God as he instructs us else-where to pronounce even in things not only beyond our reach but contrary to our wills and inclinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This hath a good and sufficient Reason though we ken it not nay and to conclude that he would have contrived otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if the matter required it or it were not best as it is This I premise in the general to silence all importunate and presumptuous Enquiries into the Reason and Account of God â—â—mighty's Works and Providence It should suâ—â—â—ce at any time for us to be assured that â—hings are so and so though we are not able to reach the Quare or Quomodo the Grounds or Ends of them As Iustin Martyr said well abouâ— the Mysteries of our Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a conviâ—tion of manifest unbelief to start the Question How of God But the case before us admits of a fair and equal satisfaction
what was there by that which drops from his Pen as if he were really 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partaker of two distinct and contrary Souls in another Sense than St. Iames useth the word which we English double-minded ch 1.8 or Dr. Willis physically defends the thing For my part I am no ways able to reconcile his Thus we find him thwarting of himself both about Body and Spirits As to Body besides what I have already noted he tells us Penetration of Bodies is simply unintelligible and impossible to conceive as certainly it is And yet we have him afterwards very favourable and yielding to his most admired Helmont's Penetration of Dimensions The Arguments saith he that he bringeth to prove Penetration of Dimensions to be in Nature or something equivalent thereunto seem to be strong and convincing There may it seems be convincing Arguments with him for what is simply unintelligible and impossible to conceive or equivalent thereunto But then as to Spirits which is the subject I am chiefly concern'd about I fix â—specially upon his tenth Chapter and shall make the charge of Contradictions abundantly good as I pass along in the examining of certain Periods of it compared with what he there or elsewhere offerâ—th dispersedly in his Book In the handling this point saith he of the corporâ—ity or incorporeity of Angels we do here once for all exclude and except forth of our discourse and arguments the humane and rational Soul as not at all to be comprized in these limits And that especially for these reasons 1. Because the humane Soul had a peculiar kind of Creation differing from the Creation of other things as appearâ—th in the words of the Text Gen. 2.7 And the Lord God formed man of the Dust of the Ground and breathed into him the Breath of Life and Man became a living Soul Vpon which the Note of Tremellius and Junius is Anima vero hominis spiritale quiddam est Divinum That note of theirs he gives more at large Ch. 16. Vt clariùs appareat discrimen inter animam hominis reliquoâ—um animantium horum enim animae ex eadem materia provenerunt unde corpora habebant illius vero anima spiritale quiddam divinum 2. Because I find Solomon the wisest of men making this question Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth downward to the Earth Eccles. 3.21 3. Because it is safer to believe the nature of the Soul to be according to the Analogy of Faith and the concurrent opinion of the Learned than to sift such a deep question by our weak understanding and reason Now it is to my apprehension extrâ—mely unreasonable that in the entrance of this enquiry the Soul of Man should be exempted from it and seems like the odd practice of cunning men at Law who secure such as are like to give in a casting evidence against their Cause For it is manifest enough that Angels are a sort of Beings superiour unto the humane Soul as I have shewn in the foregoing Treatise Ch. 1. Sect. 2. If then it be apparent and undeniable as I shall make good anon from this Author's concessions that the Soul of Man is truly incorporeal the conviction and evidence from hence as to Angels will be as great as can be desired to which purpose I have also reasoned Ch. 2. Sect. 1. And if it be certainly true that we can conceive such a spiritual Being as the humane Soul is granted by him to be it will then be utterly false that an immaterial Being is utterly unconceiveable by us as he asserts I have quoted this saying from him already but shall take occasion once more to repete it together with the proof such as it is which he tenders for it Those that pretend saith he that Angels are meerly incorporeal must needs â—rr and put force upon their own faculties which cannot conceive a thing that is not continuate and corporeal Now this conclusion or inference of his he grounds upon a School-Maxime as he tells us thus Imaginatio non transcendit continuum And this saith he if we perpend it seriously is a most certain and transcendent truth for when we come to cogitate and conceive of a thing we cannot apprehend it otherwise than as continuate and corporeal In which discourse he grosly confounds Imagination and Intellect together as if they were one and the same thing and we could not cogitate apprehend and conceive that at all which we cannot imagine or draw a Picture of in our phansie An assertion which argues somewhat of a stupified understanding He himself hath else-where better distinguished It is one thing saith he truly to understand and another thing to imagine or fancie And he had learn't as much as he tells us had he but seriously perpended it here from the learned Doctor Willis De animâ Bâ—utorum in these words which he cites with commendation out of him Intellect and Imagination are not wont to agree in many things And again In man there is a double cognitive power to wit the Intellect and Imagination So there is a double appetite the Will proceeding from the Intellect which is the Page or Servant of the rational Soul and the sensitive appetite which cohereing to the Imagination is said to be the Hands or Procuratrix of the corporeal Soul Imagination then is a sensitive and corporeal faculty and therefore no wonder if it cannot transcendere continuum but Understanding or Intellect a rational and incorporeal power and therefore able to conceive and apprehend things like it-self The Objects as well as Acts of the one and other are vastly different Though the neer and intimate union of our Souls to these Bodies of Earth wherein they dwell makes it difficult for us to abstract our thoughts altogether from sensible and corporeal Images In quo nihil est difficilius quam à consuctudine oculorum aciem mentis abducere as Balbus in Cicâ—ro hath it Yet difficult though it be 't is not impossible but the dayly experience of contemplative minds Every faculty is concern'd in its proper object and to be imployed about it The Eye for seeing the Ear for hearing the Palate for tasting c. So among the external senses And so in like manner it is with the internal powers The Fansie is for imagining and the Intellect for abstract thinking or conceiving even what we cannot imagin Metaphysical Logical Moral Universal Verities rationes veri falsi boni mali God and Divine things c. We may as well taste Light and Colours and see Sounds as imagine a Spirit but yet for all that we may think and conceive of it I will dismiss this with the words of Max. Tyrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And now I will shew as I promised that our Author had some notion of an incorporeal Being because he plainly and often asserts
temperato imbre qui deciderat q. d. ex massâ quadam terrae madefactâ as Vatablus hath it but the Soul ignis de Caelo a fire or spark taken from Heaven And agreeable to this first Production of Man is the description which Solomon gives us of his dissolution Eccles. 12.7 whereof I have spoken in the foregoing Treatise comparing it with Phocylides and Lucretius Ch. 11. § 1. from whence we learn saith Drusius how far this wise-man was from their Heresie who think that the Soul of man is mortal and doth unà cum corpore interire perish with the body A Note I shall have occasion to make farther use of by and by And Elihu in the Book of Iob phraseth man's dissolution much like Solomon If he i. e. God gather unto himself his spirit and breath all flâ—sh shall perish togethâ—r and man shall turn again to his dust But enough of this digression I proceed to our Author's second Reason 2 saith he because I find Solomon the wisest man making this Question Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the Earth Eccles. 3.21 How well now doth this second Reason hit and accord with the first There he told us from Iunius and Tremellius the plain distinction between the spirit of man and the souls of other Animals as a more Divine Being and here he starts forthwith upon it a sceptical doubt or question out of Ecclesiastes that seems plainly to confound both together And he sets it off too with the commendation of Solomon's Eximious Wisdom as if he had given us in it the inward sense of his own wisely-searching mind We had need of good assurance of our Authors right belief in this matter to construe his meaning in this alâ—edgment It were seasonable here to immind him of his own saying in another case It is a very froward and perverse way of arguing to make one place of Scripture to clash with another And to bring into his memory one of his Rules for the interpretation of H. Scripture That there be a due comparing of the Antecâ—dents and Consequents in the Context that the purpose scope theme arguments disposition and method may be perfectly and maturely considered otherwise by the slighting or omitting any one of these partiâ—ular points the whole place may be mistaken and an errour easily fallen into Turpe est doctori According to this good Rule therefore I will endeavour an Explication of this Text of Solomon's which the Friends of Atheism Epicuâ—ism and Profaneness are fond enough of and our Author it seems leaves them to chew the Cud upon The entire period runs thus I said in my heart concerning the state of the sons of men that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are beasts For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth the beasts even one thing befalleth them As the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath so that a man hath no preheminence above a beast for all is vanity All go unto one place All are of-the dust and all turn to dust again Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the Earth These words now at the reading of them may be thought by some to herd Man absolutely as a Fellow-commoner among the Beasts But if we duly consider them together with the Context and the several constructions which they admit of otherwise we shall be able to satisfie our selves and others to the contrary The wise Solomon in the Verses immediately precedent to this discourse rationally infers a future Judgment of God from the irregularities and disorders apparent in Humane Judicatories Vers. 16 17. I saw under the Sun the place of Iudgment that wickedness was there and the place of Righteousness that iniquity was there I said in my heart God shall judge the righteous and the wicked For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work Now what can be more directly cross and destructive to this Pious Inference of a Judgment to come which shall rectifie and set streight the enormities of Earâ—hly Tribunals than an Opinion that Men are as the Beasts and so are not accountable for what they do or end their accounts with this present life and therefore need not at all trouble themselves with the fore-thoughts and fears because they are not in a capacity of being call'd to a future reckoning What I say can be more contradictory to his Religious scope and purpose than this Some other sense then we must of necessity fix upon Iunius and Tremellius whom I the rather mention for our Author's sake tell us that the Wise Man having before express'd a true account and judgment upon those oppressions confusions and disorders which he had observed under the Sun doth here subjoyn judicium ex sensu carnis profectum another-guise sentence or opinion arising from Carnal Sense And this whole period say they is Narratio carnalis disceptationis ac judicii a Declaration of Carnal Reason only in the case Thus therefore they read the words Dixeramego cum animo meo secundum rationem humanam I said with my heart according to humane reasoning thus and thus And then of the 21 Vers. particularly they add Ironica confutatio quâ utitur caro adversus piam doctrinam de differentiâ inter animas eventu ex morte It is an Ironical or Mockconfutaton which the Flesh useth against the pious Doctrine of the difference between Souls and that which follows upon death q. d. I hear I know not what whisper'd of the substance of Man's Soul that it is heavenly and that it goes to Heaven at death And on the other side that the soul of beasts is a certain Earthy faculty so adhering unto body that iâ— cannot be separated without it's own destruction But who I wonder hath seen the one or other either or both of these It is a more certain course therefore to pass a judgment of both from those common facts and events which are before our eyes Thus far they And this also is the perswasion of Munster that these things are here spoken secundum stultam opinionem pecuinorum hominum according to the foolish opinion of bruitish men who conceit that the whole Man doth perish by death as other Animals and therefore repute it the chiefest happiness to increase themselves in all voluptuousness while they live seeking their portion in this life only To which purpose also it follows immediately by way of inference Vers. 22. Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoyce in his own works for that is his portion for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him As the Apostle reasons in behalf of a future state 1 Cor. 15.30 32. Why stand we in jeopardy every hour c. Let us
eat and drink for to morrow we die The right Epicurean reasoning here in Ecclesiastes Ede bibe lude post mortem nulla voluptas But S. Paul adds a peculiar Caution against it as dangerous kind of talk whatever wisdom some think in it Vers. 33. Be not deceived saith he evil communications corrupt good manners The Learned Grotius too gives us in effect a like gloss upon this period Contra illam cogitationem de judicio futuri aevi de quâ Sâ—rmo praecessit alia mihi cogitatio suborta est c. Against that meditation of judgment in the world to come of which the words before made mention another thought rose in my mind that God doth permit men thus to live together ferino more in the manner of beasts thereby the better to declare and shew that men are as the beasts And to this thought in his mind saith Grotius he adds it's Arguments But then on the 21 Vers. he paraphraseth thus Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward whether it abide and remain as a thing Celestial And the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the Earth whether it perish as the body that iâ— laid under ground And his Note upon it is That Man by his meer Natural Reason solà nativâ ratione hath no evident certainty about this matter and the doubts saith he of Socrates Tully and Seneca shew as much They had not I confess the compleat assurance vouchsafed us by the help of a Diviner Revelation which hath brought Life and Immortality to light But yet we find in them even in their state of darkness such strength of Reason and Argument sometimes urged that might well lay the Foundation of a greater confidence than at other times they discovered And Simplicius as I remember acquaints us that Socrates spent the time immediately before his death the season of greatest Tryal in discoursing strenuously of the Immortality of the Soul and recommending a Philosophical preparation for another life Vatablus lets us understand that some read the Words thus AEstimavi autem in animo meo conditionem hominum c. I have weighed in my mind the condition of Men how God made them most excellent and yet they may seem or one would think that saw them that they are Beasts to themselves in their own Judgment as the Beasts q. d. so great Ignorance nevertheless doth rule in Mens Hearts that they seem not to differ from the Beasts That therefore of the Psalmist is by some accommodated to this place Man being in Honour without understanding becometh like the Beasts that perish Now therefore though he was made to be Immortal he is excused no more from Death than other Creatures Drusius And so possibly when the Wise-man saith Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward c. By Spirit here may be meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aura vitalis aer spirabilis the Vital Breath in which sense we say Spiritum accipere reddere And this Spirit or Breath may be said to go upward or downward according to the different positure of the Body of Man and Beast the one with his countenance erect the other inclined to the Earth Pronaque cum spectant animalia caetera terram Os homini sublime dedit coelumque tueri c. But if we take Spirit here for the Soul it self we may render Quis novit with Drusius by pauci noverunt or with Clarius Quam rarus est qui interim id novit How few know the difference between the Spirit of Man and that of the Beast As when the same Wiseman saith elsewhere A vertuous woman who can find his meaning is not that such an one is not at all to be found but rara est inventu she is hard to be found as the good and wise have been in all ages rari nantes in gurgite vasto So here tantum sciunt sapientes qui ab illâ—s didicerunt ' none but the wise and such as have learn't of them ken the difference Or rather thus Quis novit Scilicet eventis communibus nam inde discerni nequit spiritus hominis à spiritu bestiarum Who that looks only upon common events who that keeps only to the visible effects ordinarily taken notice of at the death of either can understand the difference And yet notwithstanding all this a wide difference there is When Man's breath goeth forth and he giveth up the Ghost his Soul or Spirit doth undeniably return unto God that gave it as this Wiseman plainly asserts afterwards Ch. 12.7 to God to be judged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 9.27 And such a judgment he had spoken of immediately before this period Ver. 17. which could not possibly be if Man died as the Beasts and his Soul perished with his Body So that by the help of our Author 's wholsome rule comparing the words of Solomon with their Antecedents and Consequents we may be able to vindicate this wisest of men from an imputation of siding with sensual Fools and Epicures in the matter before us And the Rule prescribed hath this real commendation that it hath long since been given Qui non advertit quod suprà infrà est in sacris libris pervertit verba Dei viventis To conclude this subject It is lively represented to us in the second Chapter of the Book of Wisdome as the speech of the wicked and unwise The ungodly said reasoning with themselves as we have found it in Solomon but not aright Our life is short and tedious and in the death of man there is no remedy For we are born at all adventure and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been For the breath in our Nostrils is a smoak and a little spark in the moving of our heart which being extinguished our body shall be turned into ashes and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air Come on therefore let us enjoy the good things that are present These are our only portion Let us oppress the poor righteous man Let our strength be the Law of Justice c. Such things they did imagine and were deceived for their own wickedness hath blinded them Vers. 21. And then in the next Chapter he speaks excellently of the happiness of good and godly men The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and there shall no torment touch them In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die and their departure is taken for misery and their going from us to be utter destruction But they are in peace for though they be punished in the sight of men yet is their hope full of Immortality I have taken all this pains to shew that the wisest of men was not of the same opinion with these unwise and ungodly ones but that he did act or rather say their part only and sub aliena persona loqui without any design to assert or confirm what he
as when a man with a Rod or Line doth draw a thing forth of water Both of these do require a corporeal Contact But what is absolutely incorporeal hath no superficies c. And this is an argument he seems to triumph in as a Mathematician in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore is he pleased so much to repeat it For so he had said before If the Devil be consider'd as an incorporeal Nature simply and absolutely then it will follow low that he cannot act upon any corporeal matter because an incorporeal substance can make no contact upon a body unless it were it self corporeal For quicquid agit agit per contactum vel mediatum vel immediatum but both these are caused by the touch of one body upon another But that which is meerly incorporeal can perform neither And again I take it saith he to be one of the most firm Maxims that ever the Schools had that immateriale non agit in materiale nisi eminenter ut Deus Which alâ—o he cites again in another place Now the Leading Mistake in all this Philophizing is the inept applying of the Rules and Laws proper and peculiar unto Bodies unto Spirits also Tangere enim tangi nisi corpus nulla potest res As before we observed his confounding of Imagination and Intellect And indeed he seems to allow of no mental notions or apprehensions which do not first strike upon the senses And this is that which makes him place the Idea of spirits or incorporeal beings among the unintelligibles The substance of a created Spirit conceived as immaterial and incorporeal must of necessity be utterly inconceiveable to any of our faculties Elegant conceived as immaterial and incorporeal and yet at the same time utterly inconceiveable But passing that hear we his reason Because it hath no effects operations or modifications that can or do operate upon our senses This is gratìs dictum But the general importance of it relies upon another School-Maxim which I wonder that hâ— forgets to quote to us Nihil est in intellectu quod non priùs fuerat in sensu And I could furnish him with more to this purpose But now what will become of the poor humane soul among the rest of its fraternity of Spirits which is as he hath told us by the unanimous consent of all men as well as Divine Authority a spiritual and pure immaterial and incorporeal and to be sure created substance How come men to an unanimous consent in a notion utterly unintelligible and unconceiveable Nay what will become of all the spiritual and invisible World Well but the great difficulty remains How can an immaterial act upon or move a material This certainly is Nodus vindice dignus But what if there be no Oedipus to unriddle it to us What if neither we nor any body else can sufficiently explain it It is no more than that ignorance we must be contented with in other matters of occult Philosophy where we subscribe often to the thing though we cannot declare the manner of it Our Author himself in other cases trains us up to this degree of modesty and humility The ultimate sphere of Natures activity and ability saith he is not perfectly known And as it is thus in general saith he so in many particulars We are ignorant of many Natural Agents that do work at a great distance and very remotely both to help and to hurt the Weapon-salve the Sympathetick-powder the curing of Diseases by Mumial applications by Amulets Appensions and Transplantation which all have been and commonly are ascribed unto Satan when they are truly wrought saith he by Natural Operation But he cannot satisfie himself or others I presume by what contact mediate or immediate of suppositum or virtus all these are performed Or by what influence of the Stars quibus nota sunt omnia quae in naturâ existunt as he tells us out of Paracelsus and his Mystical Authors for whose vain traditional fancies he hath a profound Veneration whatever he hath for Doctor Hammond's or under what right and favourable Constellations Words Charms Images and Characters do receive their energy and vertue Or how certain Celestial Vertues and actions are sown into Gems from whence they afterwards spring up no otherwise than seed which doth fall from a Tree and doth regerminate Though here I confess he hath some advantage from a speculation of Phantasms Quid te fatigas haec minuta scrutando Pernice pennâ fretus Icari more Scrutare potius digna mentis alatae One great means saith he elsewhere of advancing those Tenents of Witch-craft c. hath been men's supine negligence in not searching into and experimenting the power of Natural Agents but resting satisfied in the sleepy notions of General Rules and Speculative Philosophy by which means a general prejudice hath been created against the most occult operations of Nature and Natural Magick And may we not here retort this supine negligence upon himself in not observing the common experience which he and every one else hath of the incorporeal spirit within him actuating and moving of the body whilst he industriously opposeth this common experience by sleepy notions of General Rules and Speculative Philosophy concerning Bodie ill adapted unto Spirits and their way of operation It is enough that we have this Domestick Argument of our own experience in the case to oppose to all his subtil arguings As to a Sceptick disputing against the possibility of motion it were a sufficient and silencing confutation to move from him and turn away Let him resolve us how God who is a Spirit the most simple and pure Spirit acts upon matter how the Spirit of God moved upon the waters c. for the word Eminenter is not intelligible enough to our faculty to be Englished But because this is too hard a Task let him resolve us how the immaterial and incorporeal Soul of Man moveth upon the body or it 's corporeal and animal Spirits or by what Gluten or Vinculum and contact of superficies it is united to it's body or how the body vice versa works upon and affects the immaterial Soul which yet as to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or quod sit are matters of common sense and universal experience Nam corpus onustum Hesternis vitiis animum quoque praegravat una Let him resolve us how the Internum or moving part of Angels acts upon the Externum or part moved and we shall soon be able to return him a satisfactory answer to this curious question How an immaterial can operate upon and move a material But in the mean while it is unreasonable to disclaim a certain Truth because we cannot give account of the Quomodo or manner of it And this is also abundant Answer to another of his puissant Arguments If Angels saith he be absolutely incorporeal then they cannot be contained or
Zanch. de Oper. Dei part 1. l. 4. c. 17. Otho-Casm Aâ—gelogr part 2. c. 26. Balduin de Cas. Consc. l. 3. c. 2. qui citat e Theatro Diabol p. 1. Maimoâ—id in Misnae Tract 1. c. 2. s. 7. I. Cappell in Hebr. 1.14 Vide Episcop Instit. Theol. l. 4. Zanch. de Oper. Dei part 1. l. 2. c. 14. Otho-Casm Angelogr part 2. c. 8. Q. 1. * D. Tho. Part. 1. Q. 112. Art 2 3. 〈…〉 Enchâ—rid c. 58. Mentes funt Ministerio destinatae Erasm. par in Loc. See hiâ— Par. and Annotat. See Mr. Mede on Eccles 5.1 Vatablus in Ps. 34. See Exod. ch 25. ch 36. ch 37. 1 Kings 6. Groâ— in 1 Cor. 11 1â— Hom. 26. in â— Cor. Hom. 4. de incompr Dei nat Hom. 36. in 1 Cor. Hom. 4. de incompr Dei nat Hom. 15. in Ep. ad Hebr. Soc. l. 6. c. 8. Medit. c. 25. L. de com essent Patr. Fil. Spi. sancti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. D. I Gerhard Med. xxvi Fr. Spaâ—bem Dub. Evangel De Ascens Domini Zanch. de Oper. Dei par 1. l. 3. c. 1. See Revâ—l 7.1 P. Fag in Genes 18.2 Suarez Metaph. Disp. 35. s. 3. s. 6. Zanch. de Oper. Dei part 1. l. 2. * Ch. 11. sect 11. In Timao Vide Rhodigini Lect. Antiq l. 2. c. 10. Orig. contra Celsum l. 8. p. 398. Vide Suarez ut antè Lips Phys. sto l. 1. Diss. 20. Vatab. in Dan. c. 10. c. 12. In Ezech. 28. Grot. in S. Matt. c. 18 1â— Ainsworth in Deut. 32.8 Divin Decret Epitom Hom. 60. in S. Matt. 18. L. Gyrald Syntagm 15. Suet. in Calig D. Thâ— part 1. Q. 13. Art â— Dub. Eâ—aâ—gel LXâ—I Zaâ—ch de Oper. Dei part 1. l. 3. c 15. Ibid. Id. l. 2. c. 1. De Oper. Dei part 1. l. 3. c. 15. In S. Matt. 18. L. Med. c. 12. Tract 5. in S. Matt. cit à Balduino de cas consc l. 3. Dr. More Antidot against Atheism l. 3. c. 14. Alexand. ab Alexandrâ— Genial Dier l. 6. c. 4. Hom. 12. in S. Luk. Epist. 3. Alâ—x ab Alex. ubi suprâ— Zanch. de Oper. Dei part 1. l. 3. c. 15. Balduiâ— de cas consc l. 3. c. 1. Otho-Casm Angelogr p. 2. c. 7. Q. 1. See Aiâ—s worth in Ps 34. and Ps. 8. See beforâ— Sect. 1. of this Ch Dan. 9. S. Luke 1. Acts. 5s 19 20. D. Tho. part 1. Q. 113. Art 4. â— Teâ—a in Ep. ad Hebr. Grot. in S. Matt. 18.10 D. I. Gerhard Med. xxvi Vide apud Tenam in Ep. ad Heb. Vide Lips Phys. Stoic l. 1. Diss. 19. Zanch. de Oper. Dei par 1. l. 3. c. 14. Bâ—lduin Cas. Consc. l. 3. c. 1. I. Vide Ceâ—â—â—is Tabulam †Sect 1. of this Ch. †Sect. 11 of this Ch. * Ibid. †Ch. 1. Sect. 11. De Oper. Dei par 1. l. 3. c. 14. †Ch. 2. Sect. 3. Vide Tenam in Ep. ad Hebr. Othocaâ—m Angelogr part 2. c. 7. v. 6. Iosephus de Bello Judaico l. 2. c. 12. †Sect. 2. Melanchton comment in Dan. c. 10. Id. Ibid. Antidote against Atheism l. 3. ch 13. Of divine Dreams p. 120 c. Ibid. Apul. de deo Socratis †◠Ch. 1. â—ect 2. †Sect. 2â— of this C◠†Ch. 2. sect 3. Exercit. Sacr. in Nonnum â— 20. L. 1. s. 17. †Sect. 2 of this Ch. and before in this Section Angelin Gazaeus Angelo custodi D. I. Geâ—hard Med Sacr. De animâ c. 52. Soliloq â— 27. Vid. Max. Tyrium Diss. xxvi Solil c. 27. L. 8. s. 50. L. 7. s. 4. L. 11. s. 6. L. â— 2. s. 5. Expos. â—id de â—ect â— confes p. 38â— Tâ—eodâ—râ—â— Dial. 1. See Dâ—ut 2â— 29 〈◊〉 3 21.1â— 24. Vid. Zaâ—â— de Oper. Dei part 1. l. 3. c. 14. 16. Vid. Erasm. par in loc Ignat. Ep. ad Magnes Salv. de Gubern Dei Tract Theol. pol. c. 14. p. 235. See Eâ—sâ—b Eccles. Hist. l 5. c. 1. Leviath c. 42. Tract Theol. Pol. c. 5. p. 90. c. 16. p. 258 259 c. 19. p. 308 309. Vid. Gâ—ot in Heb. 1.4 Dr. Hen. More Immort of the Soul L. 2. c. 3. s. 13. See Bish. Andrews Serm. 1. on â—he Nativity D. Bern. in Ps. 91. Soliloq c. 27. Med. xxvi Collect fâ—r Saint Michaâ—l and all Angels Tertul. de anima c. 52. 1 Cor. 13.12 Tract Theol. Pol. c. 2. p. 42. St. Chrys. in Loc. †Ch 4. Sect. 4. Vid. Brâ—nt in S. Mat. 18. homil 1. Vid Span hem Dub. Evangel LXI Munster in Ps. 91. L. 6. Sect. 10. Ibid AElian l. 2. c. 20. Grot. in S. Matth. 20.25 †Ch. 1. Sect. 2. †Ch. 4. Sect. 1. Noct. Attic l. 12. c. 11. L. 4 10. Reipub. 〈…〉 Vâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Ep. 11. Ep. 25 Vid. Zeâ—spâ—oâ—â— Memorabil l. 4. Grâ—eco Lat. p. 802 803. Isocr ad Dâ—mon Cic. ad Attic. l. 12. Ep. 27. Seâ— Ep. 43. D. Berâ— Med. c. 13. 〈…〉 l. â— c. â—7 〈◊〉 l. â— c. 14. Sâ—â— Ep. 10. Id. Ep. 83. Ex Ciâ—erone Lacâ—aâ—s inâ—it l. c. 24. Booth de consol l. 5. L. 11. sect 13. Epist. Diff. l. 2â— c. 13. Diss. l. 1. c. 14. Ap. de Deo Socratis D. Berâ— in Ps. 91. Serm. 13. Id. Serm. 10. â— Id. Serm. 22. Grot. in S. Matth. 18.10 Id. in Eccles 5.6 Vid. Eras. par †Ch. 4. Sect. 1. Soliloq c. 27. Theoph. in Hebr. 1.14 Orat. contra Graecos See Dr. H. Par. Annot. in Loc. De Haeres ad Quodvult Deum De Civit. Dei l. 10. c. 7. Id. c. 16. Contra Faustum Man l. 20. c. 21. Id. de verâ Rel. c. 55. Contra Max. Arrian Epis. l. 1. Lact. Instit l. 2. c. 17. Orig. contra Celâ— l. 5. p. 233. Id. l. 8. p. 416. Concil Laod. Can. 35. Vid. Carranzae summam Concil Laod. Can. 35. Theodor. col 2.18 cited by Dr. Stillingfleet Idol of the Ch. of Rome c. â— sect 11. p. 1â—5 Zanch. de oper Dei part 1. â— 3. c. 22. Ps. 8. ult 19.1 145.10 Diss. â— 1. c. 16. Ibid. Ps. 8.1 Inter opera Teâ—tul Hom. 4 de incompr Dei nat See Zanch. de oper Dei part 1. l. 3. c. 14. Ch. 4â— Sect. 4. â—ud Cappellus in Hebr. 1.14 In cap. 2. Heb. D. I. Gerâ—ardâ— Med. Sacr. Mystery of Godliness l. 4. c. 6. Act. 19.19 L. 10. Sect. 25. L. 11. Sect. 9. Cit. in Cat. D. Ibo Ephes. 6.1 Pet. 5.8 9. S. James 4.7 Spanhem Dâ—b Evang In Ps. 33. Solil c. 27. De Civ Dei l. 8. c. 25. Antidote against Atheism l. 3. c. 13. Ibid. Ibid. D. I. Gerhardi Med. Sacr. In Isa. 6. Med. Sacr. Id. ibid. Othâ—-Casmaâ— Angelogr par 2. c. 7. Q. 3. Ep. 75. Vide Orig. contra celsum l. 8. p. 399 400. Vide D. Berâ— Med. c. 6. D. I Gerâ—ard Med. Sacr. The occasioâ— and scope of thâ— ensuing Reflections Pag. 51. Pag. 275. Pag. 277. Chap. 4. p. 49 50. Pa. 44 45. Ibid. Pag. 47. The Denyal of Spirits a step to Atheism Chap. 3. p. 37. P. 38 39. Ibid. Râ—m 11 20. Dangerouâ— Positions of Mr. W. against thâ— Idea of a Spirit and of God P. 198. Ibâ—d P. â—07 P. 201. Ibid. 〈…〉 In c. 21. Epict. Enchirid Self-Study and reflection the right and ready Meâ—hod to the Notion of Spirits P. 199. P. 203 P. 200 P. 203â— 204. Master W 's coâ—tradictioâ—s both abouâ— Body and Spirit De animâ Brutorum c. 7. P. 205. P. 255 256 c. The humane Soul excluded by him from this disquisition about Angels for three pretended reasons P. 202. P. 314. This method of procedure unreasonable p. 207. p. 206. Master W. confounds Imagination and Inâ—ellect which elsewhere he knâ—w well to distinguish p. 20â— p. 317. Ibid. De Nat. Deorum l. 2. Dissert 1. Master W. asserts the Incorporeity of the humane Soul P. 314. p. 315. p. 316. p. 317. p. 318. Ibid. p. 320. Aâ— Examinaâ—ion of â—is thâ—ee Reasons for exceptidg the humane Soul from this enquiry Of his fiâ—st Reason A short Comment upon Gen. 2.7 concerning Man's Original Horat. Of his second Reason P. 105. P. 137. An Explication and Vindication of Eccles. 3 18-21 from the Atheistical and Profane Ovid. Mâ—t. Of his third Reason Theol. Polit. c. 14. 15. p. 318. Mr. W 's Speculations abouâ— the Corporeity of Angels and how he blunders in thâ— statiâ—g of this Enquirâ— p. 2â—7 Ibid Ibid. p. 21â— The Critical point of â—he present Controversie p. 202. Iohn 4.24 2 Cor. 3.17 God a most simple and absolutâ— spiâ—it buâ— yet not the only Spirit p. 207. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nonnus in S. Iohn 4. Zaâ—ch de oper Dei par 1. l. 2. c. 4. p. 202. Angels arâ—â—ot such Spirits in perfection as God is and yet truly Spirits Master W. asserâ—s Devils more spiritual than he allows other Angels p. 47 48 49. Ibid Ibid. His mighty â—rguments against â—he incorporeity of Angels exâ—mined p. 207. p. 205. p. 207. p. 208. p. 147. p. 148. p. 198. Râ—les and Laws of Bodiâ—s ineptly applied to Spirits Lucret. p. 203. Ibid p. 318. p. 50. Thâ— difficâ—lty of â—xplaining the manner of things must noâ— make us deny whaâ— is otherwise evident p. 267. Ibid. p. 338.340 p. 339. Augelini Gazaei pia Hilaria p. 268. Horat. p. 208 Some Texts of H. Scripâ—ure considered and vindicated from Mr. W's Exceptions p. 214. Of St. Mark 12.24 p. 44 Of 1 Cor. 15.44 Of Psal. 104.4 p. 211. †Vatablus in Loc. * Vicaâ—s Decapla in Ps. P. 211. 12. p. 29â— p. 175. p. 183. p. 46. Dr. G. in Hebr. 1.7 Sect. 81. His clear Reasons against the Scholastick interpretation of Ps. 104.4 short and defectivâ— p. 211. p. 106. Divin Decret Epit. de Angelis P. 211. P. 212.
giv'n to hurt the Earth and Sea saying Hurt not till we have sealed the Servants of our God in the foreheads Revel 7.2 3. King Hezekiah in a great strait and distress begirt with the Assyrians whose Power and multitude he was no-ways able to resist prayeth to God and he sends his Angel to work a sudden and wonderful deliverance for him destroying in one night as hath been touch'd before an hundred fourscore and five thousand of the insulting Enemy 2 Kings 19. And such another story we have of the great deliverance of Maccabeus and the Jews by an Angel or helper from Heav'n in the Apochrypha 2 Maccab. 11.6 8 9 10 11. with his prayer at another time for the like aid encouraged by this example of Hezekiah Ch. 15.22 23 24. The three famous Confessors Shadrach Meshach and Abednego whose proper names were Hananiah Michael and Azariah Dan. 1. when cast into a Fiery Furnace heated seven times hotter than ordinary were yet strangely preserved from all harm and indemnified amidst the raging Flames by an Angel of God who appeared there with them so that that most furious and devouring Element had no power upon their Bodies nor was an hair of their Head singed neither were their Coats changed nor did the smell of the Fire pass upon them though it was so fierce and scorching that it consumed the men who cast them in Dan. 3. And when Daniel another of the Confessors of those times as they are reckon'd up Ch. 1. call'd there The four Children to whom God gave great knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom when he I say was cast into the Lions Den on purpose to be devoured an Angel of God there restrains the wild appetite of those greedy beasts of prey and after a most unwonted manner preserves him in the very Jaws of Death Dan. 6. My God saith he hath sent his Angel and hath shut the Lions mouths that they have not hurt me for as much as before him innocency was found in me and also before thee O King have I done no hurt Ver. 22. And these four are the persons plainly referr'd to in the Apostle's Martyrology Hebr. 11.33 34. Who are said through faith to have stopt the mouths of Lions and quenched the violence of Fire viz. God by his Angels as hath been said rescuing and delivering them When the Apostles were by the procurement of the High-Priest put in the Common-Prison the Angel of the Lord by night open'd the Prison-doors and brought them forth and animated them to speak openly to the People in the Temple Acts 5.18 c. And Saint Peter after that imprisoned by Herod and deliver'd over for security to four Quaternions of Souldiers to be kept was thence notwithstanding all their care set at liberty by an Angel loosing of his Chains causing the Iron-gates of the City to open to him and conducting of him through the Streets thereof in such a manner as he thought himself but in a Dream for a great while till he came at last to acknowledg Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his Angel and hath deliver'd me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the People of the Iews Acts 12.4 c. Thus the Angels we see are the Commissioned Instruments of extraordinary Escapes Preservations and Deliverances Sometimes too they are sent as Physitians to cure and heal in case of Hurt Sickness or Disease Hence we read of the Pool of Bethesda where lay a great multitude of impotent Folk Blind half-wither'd waiting for the moving of the Water For an Angel saith the Text went down at a certain season which Heinsius tells us out of Cyril was yearly at Pentecost into the Pool and troubled the Water and whosoever then fiâ—st after the troubling of the Water step'd in was made whole of whatsoever Disease he had Saint Iohn 5.3 4. To this head we may refer perhaps those choice Receits which M. Antoninus acknowledgeth himself a Debtor for to the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the Book of Tobit we are told of the Angel Raphael whose name as I have said elsewhere signifies a Divine Physitian sent to heal old Tobit of his blindness and Sarah the Daughter of Raguel his daughter-in-Law of her reproached barrenness To scale away the whiteness of Tobit 's eyes and to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel for a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit and to bind Asmodeus the evil Spirit that had kill'd her seven former husbands before they had lain with her Tobit 3. And the good old man was so ready in his belief of this Divinity concerning the help and protection of God's Angels vouchsafed to his Servants upon occasion that he cheers and comforts his troubled and discontented Wife upon his Son's journey from her with it Take no care saith he he shall return in safety and thine eyes shall see him for the good Angel will keep him company and his journey shall be prosperous and he shall return safe Ch. 5.20 21. Hitherto I have given sundry apposite instances as I conceive of the Ministry of Angels to pious and good men throughout their life instructing defending comforting helping and delivering them And we may be sure their aid and assistance is then most ready at hand when they have most need of it At the Agony of Death therefore they may look for strength and support from them even as they ministred to our Lord and Saviour in his as hath been more than once suggested already That is a time certainly wherein their help cannot but be very acceptable all other visible help then failing and the Devil plying of his assaults because he knows his time is short which gave occasion to Gazaeus to insert this intercalare Distichon in a Poem of his to his Angel-keeper Angele mi bone dux animae bone mentis Achates Quo sine non possum vivere nolo mori In death as Gerhard speaks we fear especially the craft of our Adversary that Serpent who doth insidiari calcaneo ply at the heel The heel saith he is the extreme part of the Body an th extreme term of Life is Death In that agony of death therefore the custody of Angels is chiefly necessary to keep us from the fiery darts of the Devil and convey the Soul whâ—n it leaves the Body into the heavâ—â—ly Pâ—â—adise Tertuâ—â—â—â—â— stileâ— them 〈…〉 the Câ—â—lers forth of 〈◊〉 and â—uch a◠〈◊〉 â—hem 〈◊〉 â—uram diversorii 〈◊〉 pâ—â—paration 〈◊〉 those Mâ—nsions they are 〈◊〉 to agreeably â—o which we â—ave â—omewâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 among the Platonists Vide 〈◊〉 de Deo Socratis Plato docuit â—bi vâ—â—a edit◠〈…〉 est cundem illum Genium raptare illic◠〈◊〉 veluâ— custodiam suam ad juâ—â—â—ium c. And then after the separatâ—on of Body and Soul asunder they are careful and diligent in their attendance to Lodg the departed Spirit safely in
men imploy'd by and under them yet no more mischief is done in the world The Devils are many as hath been said and their power and malice very formidable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Matth. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 13. There is the Great Dragon and his Angels having great wrath Rev. 12. They are vowed Adversaries to our happiness and go about like roaring Lions seeking to devour 1 Pet. 5.8 Saint Paul warns us of a terrible host of them Principalities Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and Spiritual wickednesses or wicked Spirits in high-places Eph. 6.12 that is The Prince of the power of the Air and all his Militia the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Ch. 2.2 And as the Devils are thus many malicious and powerful so also crafty and watchful to accomplish their designs of mischief I fear saith the Apostle lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.3 and afterwards he speaks of Satan transforming himself into an Angel of Light and his Ministers fals-Apostles deceitful workers c. Ver. 14. Elsewhere lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices Ch. 2.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his machinations or contrivances Else-where again The wiles of the Devil Eph. 6.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his methods of deceit How many ways he assaulted Iob and brought mischief upon his Cattel and Goods his House and Children and lastly his own Body and what miserable vexations and tortures those that have been possess'd with evil Spirits have labour'd under and what a vast power they sometimes exercise both over the outward and inward senses of men the holy Scripture and other approved Histories do plentifully attest And then if we add the great numbers of evil instruments slaves and vassals Devils incarnate which these wicked subtle and malicious Spirits have at their service in league and combination with them how many there are that have no fear of God before their eyes to restrain them but make their own wills and humours the only Law of Justice how many Infidels and Heretic's that are profess'd enemies to the Church of Christ who rage furiously and take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed how many of those ungodly ones who have no â—aithfulness in their mouth and whose inward parts are very wickedness who for their own lust persecute the poor and imagine crafty wiliness against them lying in wait secretly and saying in their heart Tush God hath forgotten he seeth not or he careth not for it how many of those that have bent their Bow and make ready their Arrowâ— within the Quiver that they may privily shoot at them who are true of heart how many of those who are full of cursing and bitterness and whose feet are swift to shed blood who are greedy of the prey and spread their Nets cunningly to destroy the innocent whose delight is in lies and who plot and contrive wickedness upon their Beds continually how many of these and of the like malignancy whereof we have frequent complaints throughout the Book of Psalms If I say we consider our selves encompass'd thus with a numerous Host of evil Spirits and their hellish Agents and Instruments we may begin to wonder that the Earth we live in is any tolerable habitation or be ready to say with Elisha's Servant when the Enemies Army with Chariots and Horses surrounded the City Actum est de nobis periimus Alas my Master how shall we do 2 Kings 6.15 only God be thanked the answer is ready at hand for us too which the Prophet then gave him Ver. 16 17. plures sunt qui stant à partâ— nostrâ quà m qui sunt pro illis Fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them referring to the heav'nly Legions We have Michael and his Angels against the Dragon and his Angels the good against the evil more in number wiser for understanding greater in power more vigilant couragious zealous and successfull Magna quidem est adversarii nostri Diaboli potentia sed erigit nos Angelorum custodia c. D. I. Gerhard Med. xxvi When God asked of Satan that had been walking his rounds and compassing the Earth to and fro whether he had consider'd of his servant Iob upright and good Iob he readily replies as to him upon it Hast thou not made an hedg about him and about his house and about all he hath on every side Job 1.10 which Hedg is conceived by Expositors to be the Guard of Angels as hath been said before And Satan can do nothing against Iob or other good men so long as this Hedg remains the Angels of God encamping round about them and taking charge of them to keep and defend them But then if it be so may some say how comes it to pass that even those who fear God and shall inherit Salvation do yet often fall into divers sufferings and calamities afflictions and troubles as well as others or sometimes more than others To this I answer briefly in two particulars I. Sometimes they offend and provoke God to make a breach or gap in this Hedg and to say as he did to his Vineyard I will take away the Hedg and Wall thereof Isay 5. They sometimes foolishly leave God's ways and wander in by-paths which have no assurance of the Angelical custody and Protection The Devil when he quotes that of the Psalmist in his temptations to our blessed Saviour He shall give his Angels charge over thee craftily omits that clause of importance in all thy ways that is Si modo ambules in rectitudine viarum Domini non tentes Deum if thou keepest a direct course in those paths which he hath chalked out for thee to walk in and dost not tempt him by the forsaking of them If we wittingly run upon precipices and throw our selves into dangers we have none to blame but our selves for what we suffer by so doing Qualis via haec de pinnaculo Templi mittere se deorsum Non est via haec sed ruina Et si via tua est non illius as Saint Bernard speaks upon occasion of the Devil's suggestion to our blessed Saviour upon this motive to cast himself down from the Temple on the presumption of the Angels attendance What an odd way is this to cast himself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple This is no way of safety but of ruine or if it be any way it is the Devils and none of Gods When we forsake God's way no wonder if his Guard fail us II. At other times God himself thinks it fit and meet to try his servants Faith Patience and Submission and other Graces as is evident in the case of Iob before-mentioned to difference and distinguish this World from the other that their affections
we must not gratifie or hold league and amity with their and our professed Enemies but as the holy Scripture directs us Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might be sober and vigilant and putting on the whole Armour of God for our help and safe-guard stand it out against the Devil and resist him stedfastly that he may fâ—ye from us And Diabolo sâ—cedeâ—ti succedunt Angeli his flight will be an invitation and encouragement to the holy and good Angels to resort to us and dwell witâ— us Resist we the Devil more especially when he tempts us by Allurements or Threatnings to revolt and apostatize from our Religion and that Oath of fidelity whereby we were devoted unto God at Baptism The four resolute Confessors whom I have mentioned else-where out of Dan. ch 3. and ch 6. found the blessed Angels then most ready at hand for their wonderful deliverance when they generously exposed their lives and fortunes rather than they would deny their God with-hold his Worship from him or give it to any other And so did the Apostles of Christ too when they freely hazarded all of this world rather than to desist from the preaching of the Gospel committed to them Acts 5. and Acts 12. Fifthly We are to shun and avoid with all the circumspection we are able whatsoever we know to be offensive and grievous to them Such to be sure is all wilful transgression and disobedience for which God threatens to remove this Fence from about us They are at hand unto Believers saith S. Basil if we drive them not away by our wicked doings For as smoke chaseth away Bees and a noisom smell the Doves so do our filthy practices our Guardian Angels from us We do not only by base and sinful actions wound our own Spirits and grieve the holy Spirit of God Eph. 4.30 but offend these good Spirits too that wish us well and attend us S. Augustin writes excellently to this purpose in his Soliloquies The Angels love saith he to God those whom thou lovest and keep those whom thou keepest but forsake those whom thou forsakest and do not love the works of iniquity because thou hatest them As often as we do well the Angels rejoice and the Devils are troubled but when we depart from the ways of goodness we make the Devil to rejoice and defraud thy Angels of their gladness for there is joy among them over one sinner that repenteth but with the Devil over a righteous man that forsakes repentance Grant therefore O Father grant that they may always joy concerning us by our continuing good and righteous that both thou mayest evermore be praised by them in and For us and we may be brought with them into thy one Sheepfold there to confess together jointly unto thy holy name O thou Crâ—ator of men and Angels Sixthly that I may draw towards an end we shall certainly oblige and secure their attendance and ministry by doing of those things wherewith they are most pleased and delighted the exercise I mean of such Vertues and Graces especially whereby we most of all resemble and imitate them per bonae voluntatis similitudinem as S. Augustine speaks by a likeness of good and holy temper and disposition For nothing conciliates Friendship more than similitude of manners The main Reason as I conceive saith a Reverend Author why the Examples of the consociation of good Spirits are so scarce in History is because so very few men are heartily and sincerely good And again The safest Magick is the sincere consecrating a mans Soul to God and the aspiring to nothing but so profound a pitch of humility as not to be conscious to our selves of being at all touch'd with the praise and applause of men and to such a free and universal sense of Charity as to be delighted with the welfare of another as much as our own And he observes it particularly concerning that person whose story we had before out of Bodinus That he was not only frequent in Prayer but used to spend some hours in Meditation and reading of the Scriptures And once among the rest while he was busie in his Enquiries about the matters of Religion that he light on a passage in Philo-Iudaeus his Book dâ— Sacrificiis where he writes that a good and holy man can offer no greater nor more acceptable Sacrifice to God than the oblation of himself and therefore following Philo's counsel That he offered his Soul to God And that after-that amongst many other Divine Dreams and Visions he once in his sleep seem'd to hear the Voice of God saying to him I will save thy Soul I am he that before appeared unto thee It is noted of Socrates among the Heathens so famed for his Demon that conversed with him upon all occasions that he was a person most remarkable for righteousness and innocency purity and goodness sobriety and exactness in the Government of himself piety towards God and holiness among men and therefore upon that account that it was no wonder he should enjoy so great a Priviledge while those Coelestial Spirits shun the habitation of wicked and polluted Souls For the exemplifying whereof I refer the Reader to the Quotations here annexed whereby he may perceive himself upon the like terms a Candidate for the like Benefits Hic quem dico prorsus custos singularis praefectus domesticus speculaâ—or proprius curator intimus cognitor assiduus observator individuâ—s arbiter inseparabilis Testis malorum improbator bonorum probator si ritè advertatur sedulò cognoscatur religiosè colatur ità ut à Socrate Iustitiâ innocentiâ cultus est in rebus incertis prospector dubiis praemonitor periculosis tutator egenis opitulator qui tibi queat tum insomniis tum signis tum etiam fortasse corà m cum usus postulat mala averruncare bona prosperare humilia sublimare nutantia fulcire obscura clarare secunda regere adversa corrigere Apuleius de Deo Socratis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Max. Tyrius Diss. XXVI eodem de argumento 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id ibid. And now let me close all with a serious recommendation of some of those particular Excellencies wherein we are to endeavour an imitation of the Angels in order to the more effectual securing and obliging of their Ministry to our selves The principal of them I shall comprize under the ensuing heads viz. I. A ready chearful and sincere obedience unto all Gods commands For so we have found them described by the Psalmist Ye Angels of his that excel in strength that do his Commandments hearkning unto the voice of his word Ye Ministers of his that do his pleasure Psal. 103. who are upon the wing as hath been said more than once already at every beck or intimation from him And now in order unto this we must certainly study the knowledge of Gods will that we may obey it as they do
bestows as also that aspersion which he casts upon the Pious and profoundly Learned Dr. Hammond That he is â—lmost eveâ—y-wâ—ere guilâ—y of vain Traâ—itioâ—â—l Fancies These aâ—â— Epâ—thâ—â—es which howeâ—er they might be pardoned in a Practitioner of Physick whoâ— Age â—nd â—nfirmities may â—aâ—e 〈◊〉 froward and waâ—pish are not so agreeable to his other Character as a Presbyter of this Church ordained long since by the Right Reverend Dr. Tho. Morton Bishop of Durham and Câ—rate of Kildwick about the Year 1634 as himself acquaints us though he wholly baulk his Spiritual Titles in the Frouâ— of his Book as one that glories rather in another Function I do heartily both approve and commend his Piety in acquieâ—cing as he professeth in the determinations of holy Scripture and fully accord with him in what he lays down for the Rule of proceeding in these Controversies The Word of God saith he is the most proper medium with sound Reason to judge of the power of Spirits and Devils by And again That the Scâ—iptures and sound Reason are the only true and proper Medium to decide these Controversies by is most undeniably apparent beâ—ause God is a Spirit and the invisible God and therefore best knows the nature and power of the spiritual and invisible world and being the God of truth can and doth inform us Nay he is the Father of Spirits and therefore truly knows and can and doth teach us their Naâ—ures Offices and Operations And again The Scriptures and found Reason are the most fit Medium to determinâ— these things by Particularly he speaks of the Humanâ— Soul Angels and Devils 1. The Word of God saith he doth particulâ—rly teach us the state and condition of Souls after death that they shall be like the Angels in Heaven and all other things necessary to move and draw us â—o beliâ—ve the immortal existence of Souls 2. Hath not God in the holy Scriptures amply and plainly laid down the state of the other world in describing to us such a numerous Company of Seraphims and Cherubims Angels and Arch-Angels with their several Ordâ—rs Offices Ministries and Employments 3. The Scriptures do fully and abundantly inform us of the Devil 's spiritual and invisible power and against the same declare unto us the whole Armoâ—r of God with which we ouâ—ht to be furnished as the Apostle saith Ephes. 6. Now that which I purpose to observe and examine is chiefly this how consistent our Author is to himself and how well he hath acquitted him according to these Rules and Measures in his Discourses of Angels and Spirits And that so far only as I apprehend my self concern'd by some things which I have asserted and declared in the precedent Treatise I have suggested in the Epistle Dedicatory that the general dis-belief of Spirits may well be thought an Introduction to all manner of Irreligion and Profaneness which brings me in part under that condemnation wherein he involves both Dr. Casaubon and Mr. Glanvil The one for saying One prime foundation of Atheism as by many ancient and late is observed being the not belief of Spiritual Beings The other for affirming Those that will not bluntly say there is no God content themselvâ—s for a fair step and introduction to deny there are Spirits In opposition to whom he asserts that the denying of the Existence of Spirits doth not infer the denying of the Being of God because God might be without them and God was before them and the Sadducees believed a God allowing of the Books of Moses c. as he discourseth more at large Now this formal arguing of his as I conceive is weak and trifling For to say nothing that such Ethical propositions as these should not be scann'd over-rigidly but construed sometimes cum grano salis as holding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However therâ— might be a God though there were neither Angels nor Devils in rerum natura yet those that deny in general the being of Spirits do therein implicitly impugn the being of God who is a Spirit whether themselves know and consider it or no. And as some have justified the Truth of that Royal Maxime No Bishop No King against them who would prove in like manner as this Author pleads that there is no necessary and immediate connexion of the terms Bishop and King or no essential dependence of King upon Bishop because nevertheless they that have opposed Bishops in the Church have been generally also against a King in the State and the same Antimonarchical principle inclines them to oppose both so may we answer here and 't is to be observed among our modern Atheists and Sadducees especially that their antipathy and aversation as to the notion and being of Spirits universally hath carried them on and naturally doth so to the dethroning of God the Supreme Spirit and Father of Spirits And although as he farther saith God had been God though he had not been Creator or there might be a God though there were no Creation Such a God as Epicurus and his Followers aâ— vitandam invidiam acknowledg yet should not I question to tax that person with real Atheism who denies a God under that notion as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first cause of all things the Maker and Governor of the World especially since the Apostle hath taught us that The invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are cleerly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead so that they even the Heathen are without excuse Those persons certainly suppose we never so charitably as Salvian saith of the Arrians that they may bono animo errare contribute very much towards the countenancing and support of Atheism among men who banish the belief of Incorporeal Beings out of the World as mere jargon and a thing which no man whatever he talks can possibly understand And though I am far enough from insinuating this Author to be such an one since he openly professeth his belief of God the humane Soul Angels and Devils and of all the holy Scripture which declareth these things to our faith and because there are some who by the goodness of their nature and prevalence of some better principles may not be effectually and in practice what otherwise certain evil tenets would incline them to be Many are too dull and stupid to understand or consider of the fatal and pernicious consequences of their own Opinions and others are too vertuously qualified to be influenced by them Yet it may not be amiss for him seriously to reflect and weigh within himself what a bad use others at least may make of such assertions of his as these are that follow There is no common notion saith he of a spiritual and immaterial Being in all or any man And again confidently We assert that our faculties or cognitive Powers how far soever some would magnifie and extol them
Incorporeity of the Godhead will be hardly defensible by it self Because though he be never so plainly and clearly named a Spirit in sacred Writ yet for all that according to our Author 's reasoning he may be really corporeal since other Beings that are also stiled Spirits there are avouched so to be But in truth a corporeal Deity is a dull and strange idea of that omniperfect Being and the very next step unto down-right Atheism or the denial of him For then he should be divisible as our Author rightly notes which he is not nor can be c. Well it is generally agreed among us that God is a Spirit a true Spirit and the most perfect Spirit and so absolutely of himself necessarily-existent increate and independent and most simply and purely such without all manner of composition so much as that Metaphysical one of Actus Potentia allowed by the Schools to Angels being immutable It follows then from hence Si Deus est animus that we are able to conceive and frame a Notion of a most simple and pure Spirit wherein there is no corporeity For otherwise as I have before mentioned we affirm of God we know not what and that which for ought we understand might be as well denied as affirmed of him But then that there are no created and dependent Spirits properly so called no incorporeal Beings in the Universe besides in a simple acceptation but only so accounted in a relative and respective consideration hath no evidence at all from hence 2. Therefore saith he we shall lay down this following proposition that Angels being created Substances are not simply and absolutely incorporeal but if they be by any called or accounted Spirits can but be in a Relative and respective sense but that really and truly they are corporeal And this we shall labour to make good not only by shewing the absurdities of that Opinion of their being simply spiritual but by laying open the Unintelligibility of that Opinion That Angels are not cannot be such Spirits in perfection as God is every one will grant But are they not therefore truly Spirits Doth not Holy Scripture plainly and clearly call them Spirits as well as it doth God Are they not all ministring Spirits Is not Angel and Spirit equivalent there as I have noted in the foregoing Treatise Ch. 1. Sect. 1. Or dare he presume to limit the Almighty And say of the omnipotent God to whom all things are possible that he cannot create a truly incorporeal as well as a corporeal substance Is the one more unintelligible to us than the other Are all created substances therefore of necessity corporeal How is God then the Father of Spirits How is the Soul of Man a created substance for certain inspired by God yet a pure immaterial and incorporeal Spirit as hath been plentifully acknowledged Nay what will become of the internum actus of Angels too He himself how consonantly to his own arguings I cannot tell doth else-where seem to assert the Devils or Evil Angels to be wholly or merely spiritual in opposition to corporeal The Scriptures saith he do fully and abundantly inform us of the Devil 's spiritual and invisible power It is a spiritual not a carnal corporeal or bodily armour because the warfare is not against Flesh and Blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places Against spiritual Enemies not against corporeal and carnal ones For as the Enemies are and the Warfare so are the Armor and Weapons ' Satan and his spiritual Army ' No other kind of assaults but merely spiritual Must not these Enemies now spoken of the Devils be concluded merely spiritual if they are as their Assaults Or if our spiritual Weapons of Truth and Faith and Hope c. are suitable to their nature Or will he at last change these into Bodies too And if the Evil Angels are merely spiritual why should the Good here be corporeal The only reason I think of his inconstancy is zeal and eagerness to serve his present Hypothesis There he was to oppose the tenet of a corporeal league with the Devil c. Here he is to defend that All created substances are corporeal But really he is concern'd as much as any man to solve or confute his own Arguments I will only touch upon the principal of them wherein his greatest strength and confidence lies and suggest Responsions if I may borrow that word so frequent in his Book as I pass along If the Angelical nature saith he were simply and absolutely spiritual and incorporeal then they would be of the same essential Identity with God which is simply impossible For the Angels were not created forth of any part of God's Essence for then he should be divisible which he is not nor can be his Essence being Simplicity Unity and Identity it self and therefore the Angels must of necessity be of an Essence of Alterity and different from the Essence of God This is such a piece of sublime Gibberish as might tempt one to return back the Epithet which he bestows upon Suarius as he calls him ' The great Weaver of fruitless Cobwebs At this rate of arguing like a Metaphysical Mountebank he might prove every creature as well as Angels to be God and of the same essential Identity with God because every creature partakes of some real excellency or other communicated from God and all excellencies as well as Incorporeity unum verum bonum are of and in God and all that is in God is God The Soul of Man doubtless was breathed in by God and in a peculiar manner after the Image of â—od according to the holy Scriptures and thâ— Spirits of Just men made perfect are partakers of a Divine Nature and Angels there too are the Sons of God who is as hath been often remembred the Father of Spirits But will any one therefore be so mad as to say These have God's Essential Identity as he phraseth it or no alterity to distinguish them from the Essence of God Do not uncreate and created infinite and finite independent and dependent c. set these Spirits and the Father of them far enough asunder or is eternal and necessary existence and Essential Attribute of the Idea of Spirit This then is too weak and sandy a Foundation to support that Fabrick which he builds upon it that If men will trust their own cogitations and faculties rightly disposed and not vitiated then they must believe that Angels are corporeal and not meerly and simply spirits for absolutely nothing is so but God only Again saith he If Angels be simply incorporeal then they can cause no Physical or local motion at all because nothing can be moved but by Contact and that must be immediate or vertual Contact for the Maxim is certain Quicquid agit agit vel mediatione suppositi as when one's hand doth immediately touch a thing and so move it vel mediatione virtutis
circumscribed in place and consequently can perform no operation in Physical things Contained and circumscribed in place are corporeal phantasmes and so is place it self as he describes it proper unto bodies But let him tell us how the incorporeal spirit of man is in it's body and that so as to perform undeniably Physical operations there and we shall soon inform him of the Vbi of Angels and their definitive being in it Let us see briefly whether he hath better success from Scripture than from Reason and I have done The Scripture saith he informeth us that in or at the Resurrection the bodies of men shall be as the Angels that are in Heaven Sicut Angeli Mark 12.25 Now this Analogy Comparison or Assimilation would be altogether false if Angels had no bodies at all but were meerly incorporeal Then it would follow that bodies after the Resurrection were made pure Spirits and so ceased to be bodies which is false according to the Doctrine of S. Paul who sheweth us plainly that after the Resurrection they are changed in qualities into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual bodies 1 Cor. 15.44 From whence we conclude that Angels have bodies and that they are pure spiritual ones I will not dispute against the matter of his conclusion viz. that Angels have bodies and that those bodies are pure and refined such as he calls spiritual ones For my concern is only to defend that they are nevertheless incorporeal Beings as the Humane Soul is though united to a grosser body But yet I must add a word or two of his Scripture-premises And first here is violence offer'd to the Text of our B. Saviour by foisting in the word Bodies to it for the Text is only thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they shall rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are as the Angels which are in Heaven And it is known well enough to be our Saviours Answer to the Question propounded concerning the Woman which had had seven Husbands In the Resurrection whose Wife shall she be of the seven Elsewhere I remember our Author puts in Souls instead of his Bodies here The Word of God doth particularly teach us the state and condition of Souls after death that they shall be like the Angels in Heaven But whatever Truth there may be in either Proposition apart and by it self the H. Text I am sure mentions neither Bodies nor Souls And if it did we must not stretch Similitudes to make them argumentative beyond the thing they are brought for They run not we say on all four It is enough that our B. Saviour there resolves us that we whether in Body or Soul or both shall at the Resurrection be like unto the Angels in Heaven in Immortality and an estrangement from the sensual inclinations and entertainments of this present imperfect state such as Marrying and giving in Marriage And we may be like the Angels in many perfections as we are said to be like to God himself though they should have no Bodies so that even upon that supposal this Analogy Comparison or Assimilation as he speaks would not be altogether false nor would it follow that Bodies after the Resurrection are made pure Spirits and cease to be Bodies as he infers Secondly for Saint Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or spiritual Bodies Though upon the supposition that Angels have Bodies which for my part I gain-say not it may be an ingenious translation Such Bodies as Spirits or Angels have yet it is sufficient to the purpose of the Apostle there that our Bodies are participant of the spiritual perfection of immortality Or put on immortality Ver. 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod ad tempus vivit dum anima adest Anima est vox hujus vitae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habens in se vice animae Spiritum immutabilem c. Grot. in Loc. See Ch. 3. Sect. 3. of the fore-going Treatise And so he cannot conclude from hence that Angels have Bodies That I be not over-tedious I will end all with some few Reflections upon that noted Text of the Psalmist Who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming Fire Psalm 104.4 From whence saith our Author the persons of the other opinion such as Aquinas and the rest of the Scholastick Rabble would positively conclude that they are spirits and absolutely incorporeal but fail of their purpose for these clear Reasons His clear Reasons I shall examine anon when we have first viewed the Text it self I can scarce pass over that Rude and Detracting Term of Scholastic Rabble He should have been obliged I think to a greater sweetness and civility to those whom he owes so much to and of whom he hath borrowed the chief ornaments of his Book as to this Subject those dear Maxim's I mean which he relies so much upon Imaginaâ—io non transcendit continuum Quicquid agit agit vel mediatione suppositi vel virtutis per contactum immediatum aut mediatum Immateriale non agit in materiale nisi eminentâ—r ut Deus And not to immind him of his own essential Identity and Alteriâ—y he can easily match their most Bombast and Barbarous Terms among his Occult and Magical Sophies But to the matter before us It is confess'd that the original word sometimâ—s signifies Winds as well as Spirits and the Hebrew Doctors so read it Ventos Angelos suos non ex accidente spirant sed sunt Dei nuncii Ignem ardentem fulgura So R. David And Munstâ—r translates it Facit flâ—tus nuncios suos ignem flagrantem ministros suos q. d. Violent and sudden Winds to execute his commands and Fire performs his pleasure fulfilling his word Ps. 148.8 And this is a great Truth But the holy Ghost in Hebr. 1.7 as Master Ainsworth well notes shews it to be spoken by the Psalmist of Angels properly who are named ministring Spirits Ver. 14. And our Physician allows The Author of the Epistle to Hebrews must needs be taken for the best Expositor of the words Yet among those that conceive them of Angels properly so call'd there is some difference Some refer them to the respective Vehicles of Angels either AEreal for Wind is but Air in motion or AEthereal and Ignâ—ous Thus Grotius Sunt enim Angelorum alii Acrei alii Ignei Angelis corpora sed subtilissima non Pythagorae tantùm Platonis Schola sensit sed Judaei veteres veteres Christiani And to the same effect Doctor Hammond paraphraseth Who though he be able to do all things by himself to administer the whole World as he first created it by a word by saying and it was done yet is he pleased to make use of the Ministry of Angels who some of them in subtile Bodies of Air others of Fire come down and execute his Commands here upon Earth And in his Annotations he tell us As Angels and Ministers are but several names of the same
Divine Creatures so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Fire are but expressions of the several appearances of them sometimes in Airy sometimes in Flaming Clouds And hence I suppose Bâ—za in his Marginal Notes to Hebr. 1.7 puts Cherub with Ps. 18.11 and Sâ—raph with Isa. 6.2 Iunius and Tremellâ—us interpret it Angelis utitur nunciis administrisque voluntatis judiciorum suorum adcò commodè ut ventis igne uti solet He useth Angels for Messengers and Ministers of his Will and Iudgments as readily as he is wont to do Winds and Fire And to this same effect our Author chuseth to sense it As the Winds which is but a strong motion in the Air and the shining of flaming Fire are two of the most agile and operative Agents that are known to us in nature so the Angels and Christ's Ministers are strong quick anâ— most nimble and powerful in performing their Offices and Administrations For my part I see not any considerable inconvenience in these Expositions unless where men will dogmatize with this Author and say the words cannot otherwise be rationally understood And the nature of Angels may be yet incorporeal for all these vehicles assigned them or notwithstanding the comparison of their operations to those most powerful and subtile Agents among Bodies Wind and Flame Our God who is a Spirit most simple and absolute is also said to be a consuming fire Hebr. 12.29 Who maketh his Angels Spirits i. e. saith Master Ainsworth spiritual substances So differing from Christ who is no made or created Spirit but the Maker of all things And his Ministers a flaming fire i. e. effectual in their Administrations Whence the Angels have appeared like Horses and Chariots of Fire And Saint Augustine who was none of the Scholastick Rabble finds here both Nature and Office of these Celestial Creatures Quaeris nomen ejus Naturae Spiritus est Quaeris Officium Angelus est Ex eo quod est Spiritus est Ex eo quod agit Angelus Enuarat in Ps. See Ch. 11. Sect. 1. of the fore-going Treatise The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Doctor â—ouge whose judgment possibly may bear some sway with him as he tells us Master Baxter's doth with other Reformed and Orthodoxal Divines such as tread not in the steps of Arminius True Sons of the Doctrine of Church of England intimates two things 1. Creation So God is said to have rested from all his Works which he had made Gen. 2.2 And to have made Heaven and Earth Revel 14.7 is meant created 2. Ordination or disposing things to this or that use And in both senses is this phrase He maketh here used He maketh them Spirits that is he createth them spiritual substances He maketh them a flame of Fire that is he ordereth and disposeth them to be as a flame of Fire in doing his Will Now let us hear our Author 's clear Reasons against this later way of interpretation 1. Saith he The Text there cannot be rationally understood of their Creation or of their creaturely Nature but of their Offices and Administrations because the word used there is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to create or form forth of nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fecit that is by ordering them in their Offices and Administrations And again the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not always or of necessity signifie an incorporeal thing but that which is a Body as the Winds c. With all becoming deference to his skill in the Hebrew Lanâ—uage whereof and Greek he hath been a ' Teacher in his younger years as he acquaints us the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fecit is sometimes usâ—d for Creation as I noted even now out of Doctor Gouge and Maker of all things in our Creed is as much as Creator And therefore so also it may be taken by us here And so Theodoret none of thâ— Scâ—olastick Rabble neither understands it alledging this for a proof of the Angels creation And so the Arabick version reads it Qui creavit And thougâ— the other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not always and of necessity signifie an incorporeal thing 't is enough to decline the force of this Reason of his that sometimes it doth signifie such and possibly may do so And the Arabick if Vicars in his Decapla have rightly noted is absque corpore But the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrâ—ws as he adds must needs be taken for the best Expositor of these words who doth quote them only for this purpose to prove that Christ in Dignity and Office is far above the Angels who are all order'd to serve and obey him and are by their Offices all but Ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation By which it is manifest that this place is to be understood of their Ministrations and Offices and not of their nature and substances I readily consent with him that the Author to the Hebrews is certainly the best Expositor But then I positively deny that he quotes them only to shew Christs superiority in Office above the Angels For his design there is to manifest our blessed Saviour to be superior to them in Nature as well as Office as God above these Creatures who are the best of Creatures as well as Lord above these Ministers But to the Son he saith thy Throne O God as it follows immediately Ver. 8. by way of opposition to what is here said of Angels And so it is far enough from being manifest as he avers that this place is not to be understood as inclusive of the nature and substance of Angels their Creaturely nature but of their Ministration and Offices only He yet adds 2. They can no more be merely and literally said to be Spirits understanding Spirit to intend an absolute incorporeal substance than his Ministers can be literally understood to be a flaming Fire They must either be both literally true which is absolutely absurd or else this word must have a metaphorical interpretation as they he means I suppose the other words may and must have Now I find nothing in this clear reason but clear confidence which asserts boldly but proves nothing and may therefore be answer'd by as bare a denial or saying that there is no must in the case but the words may still be otherwise understood For why may not one word or sentence in the same period be literally true and the other metaphorical and so accordingly intended Or what if we should transpose the Subjects and Predicates as some do Who maketh Spirits his Angels and flaming Fire his Ministers Then both may be literally true without the least impeaching of Angels Incorporeity Or what if we should affirm both were literally true only with this different respect the former to the internum of Angels the later to their â—xternum the former to their intrinsick nature the later to their subtile Vehicles Or what if
we should render it by a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who maketh his Ministring Angels Spirits cloathed with aetherial Bodies Or Who maketh Spirits cloathed with flame-like Vehicles his Ministring Angels I mention these things only by way of instance to declare that there are divers ways of escaping his clear Reasons in this matter without any absolute absurdity And now I leave it to the Christian Readers judgment to chuse his interpretation of these words and pronounce of the whole Controversie as he sees cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS â— Gellius Noct. Att. l. 11. c. 8. Ver. 13 Baldwin in Proaem l. 3. de cas consc Luk. 7.24 * Hobbs Pâ—â—s paâ—t 4. c. 25. Art 9. Ieâ—â—athan c. 34. Tract Theol. Pol. c. 4. p. 73. †H. Nicâ—olas cited by Dr. More Myst. of Godliâ—ess B. 6. c. 17. s. 4. Vide porâ—â—â— Episcop Instit Thâ—ol l. 4. c. 2. Et Zanch. de Operib Dei paâ—t 1. l. 2. c. 2. Eâ— P. Raâ—â— Comment de Fâ—de l. 1. c. 6. Grot. in loc Id. ibid. Antiq. lib 13. c. 18 cited by Dr. Templer in his Idea Theol. Levâ—ath p. 135. Cameron in loc Diâ—s xxvi Ibid. S. Matth. 22.29 S. Maâ—kâ— 12.24 Psal. 8.6 S. Matth. 6.26 †1. Cor. 9.9 10. Iob 18. â— Chap. 35.10 11. Metaâ—orphos l. 1. De Benef. l. 6. c. 25. In Pythag. Carm. Dissert lib. 1. cap. 3. Psal. 8.5 Hebr. 2.7.9 S. Matth. 24.36 2 S. Pet. 2.11 Ps. 78.25 1 Coâ—inth 13.1 â—â—ts 6.15 Malacâ— 2.7 Iudges 2. Hâ—ggaâ— 1.13 Munster in Malacâ— â— 1 Malach 3.1 S. Mark 1.2 Iust. Martyr Dial. cum Tryphoâ—e passim Novatian de Trin. c. 26 27. Athanas contra Arrianos Orat 4. Chamier Panstrat Tom. 2. l. 20. c. 2. c. Gal. 4.14 Rev. 2. Ch. 3. Diss. de Episc. c. 4.4 5. Viâ—dic S. 1 2 c. 2 Sam. 14.17 20. S. Matth. 22.30 S. Mark 20.26 In Pythag. Carm. De Resurr â— 26. Ser. 1. of the Naâ—iâ—â—ty Ps 8.5 89.7.8.97.7 Contra Câ—â—sum l. 5. p. 233. Suarez Metaph. Disp. â—5 Sâ—ct 1. D. August de Civiâ— Dâ—â— l. 12. c. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist. 1 11. Lact. Iustâ—punc l. 1. c. 5. Diss. 26 27. Enarratâ— in Ps. 103. Hebr. 1.7 Ps. 104.4 J. Lipsius Physiol stoic l. 1. Diss. 20. Apol. c. â—2 Leviathan c. 12. 46. Hum. Nat. c. 11. Art 4. Dr. Mâ—râ— of the immortality of the Soul l. 1. Contra Haeret. inter Eranistem Orthodoxum Dialog 2. S. Luke 24.39 Vide Grot. in loc Max. Tyr. Dissert XXVII Dr. Templer Ideâ— Th. Lâ—viat p. 137. Dr. H. in loc Ephes. 6.12 1 Cor. 2.11 Gal. 5.17 1 Thess. 5.23 Vid. Lact. de Opific Dei c. 20. Cic. in â—omnio Scipion. * Eccles. 12.7 Inter minores Poetas Lib. 2. de Nat. Rerum S. Luke 24.46 Hâ—br 12.23 Max. Tyt. Diss. 1. Id. ibid. S. Ioh. 4.24 Balbus apud Ciceronem de Nat. deor lib. 2. Lactant. Instit. l. 1. c. 5. Vid. Auth. Quest. Resp ad Oribod apud Just. Martyr p. 203. L. de Ascens mentis ad Deum Immortal of the Soul l. 2. c. 17. S. 4 8. Plutarch de placit l. 1. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De defect Oraâ— De Deo Socratis Ibid. Ibid. De civit Dei l. 8. c. 16. B. Fulgâ—nt ad Thrasymund l. 3. de passione Domini p. 553. iterum p. 555. Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drusius in Gen. 18 P. Fagius in Gen. 19. Tobit 12.19 De Civ Dei l. 13. c. 22 Divin Decret Epit. c. quòd Dominus susceperit corpus Mr. Medeâ— 1. Disc. 7. De civit Dei l. 9. â— 5 Hom. 4. de Dei naturâ Vide Carranzae summam VII Gen. Nicen. Concil Aiâ—swâ—rth on Gen. 1.1 L. 3 de nat râ—rum S. Mark â— 15 Col. 1. â—6 Theodoreâ— divin decret epit de Angelis Theophylact in loc Psal. 148.5 6. De Civit. Dei l. 11. c. 9. Job 1 6.2.1.3â—.4 In Pythaâ— Carm. Diss. 1. Hebr. 12.9 Lactant. instit l. 1. c. 7. 1 Tim. 1.17 Dr. Ham in Loc. Dvin Decret Epit. de AEonibus Vide Drâ—sium in Hebr. 1.2 Tract Theol. Pol. c. 17. p. 280. Tatian orat contra Graecos Job 3â— 4.7 Rev. 22.16 De Civit. Dei l. 11. c. 19. Concil Lateran 1. de Fide Catholicâ Vidâ— Lips Physiol Stoic l. 1. Diss 20. Lactant. instit l. 1. â— 5. De Civit. Dei l. 11. c. 19. Ps. 33.6 Dr. Pearson on the Creed p. 53 Zanch de oper Dei part 1. l. 2. c. 1 Lips Physiol stoic l. 1. Diss. 18. Damascen de Orth. fide l. 2. c. 3 2 S. Pet. 2.4 S. Jâ—de 6. Apol. 1. p. 45. D. Tho. part 1. Q. 14. Art 1. Ainsworth in loc Hierocles in Pythag. Carm. Lactant. instit l. 2. c. 15. D. Aust. de Civ Dei l. 9. c. 22. Revel 4.6 Job 12.12 Isa. 41.23 A. Gell Noct. Att. l. 14. c. 1. Wisd. 9.16 De Oper. Dei part 1. l. 3. c. 5 6. Isa. 31.3 2 Thess. 1.7 Revel â— 2 Ps. 103.26 2 S. Pet 2.11 Gen. 32.1 2. Vide Munster P. Fag in loc Quaest. super Genes Exod. 12 23.29 2 Kings 19 35. Dan. 3. Ch. 6. Act. 12. Serm. 2. de Pasch. Lactant. Instit. l. 2. c. 17. Pâ— 104.4 V. 3. Fulminis ocyor alis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1 Dissert xxvi Orat. contra Gâ—â—ecos Ibid. Dialog 3. S Lukâ— 12.4 S. Luke 20.34.35 36. 1 Cor. 15.44 Vid. P. Rami praelect in somn scipionis p. 574. De Orthod Fide ut ante cit Vid. Poâ—phyr de Abstin l 2. s. 37 S. Iâ—hâ— 8.44 1 Ep. 3.8 2 S. Pet. 2.4 S. Iude 6. Divin Decret Epit de Diab Daemonibus Vide Lips Physiol Stoic l. 1. Diss. 20. Oâ—hocasm Angelogr p. 2. c. 1. Divin Decret Epit de Angâ—lis S. Matt. 4.11 Act. 5.19 S. Matt. 25.31 24.36 2 Cor. 11.14 1 Tim. 5.21 S. Luke 8.2 9.42 2 S. Pet. 2.4 S. Matth. 25.41 Ephâ—s 6. Metaphys p. 4. Q. 4. Part 1. Q. 63. Art 9. Aristot. Dan. 12. Revel 12. Tobit 8.3 Revel 20.1 2. S. Matth. â—6 53 Iâ—b 25.3 â—Eps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. Lactant. instit l. 1. c. 7. Max. Tyr. Diss. 1 Metaph. Disp. 35. s. 1. D. Aug. Hieron Vide Zanch. de Operib part 1. l. â— c. 13. * Part. 1. Q. 50. Art 3. Lactaâ—t Instit. l. 2. c. 15. Vid. D. Aug. de Civ Dei l. 11. c. 15. Zanch. de Operiâ— Dei part 1. l. 2. c. â— Id. l. 4. c. 2. Sâ—rom 6. Zanch. de Oper. Dei part 1. l. 3. c. 1. Comment in Ezech. 28. Zanch. de Oper. Dei part 1. l. 2. c. 1. P. Fagius in Gen. 3.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cameron in Col. 1.16 D. Thâ— part 1. Q. 108. Art â— See Zâ—nch â—e Oper. Dei part 1. l. 2. c. 14. Exercit. in Ep. ad Trall â— 8. L. Valla in Apoc. 4.3 In Vall. ibid.