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

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

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

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

presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents, Luke xv. 10. we cannot but suppose, that, so far as their own ability and the laws of the invisible world will permit them, they do promote and further our repentance; since in so doing they contribute to their own joy; and, in a word, since the scripture assures us, that the angels are present in our holy assemblies, (which that passage of St. Paul seems necessarily to imply, 1 Cor. xi. 10. For this cause ought the woman to have power over her head, i. e. to be veiled in the sacred assemblies, because of the angels, or out of a decent respect and reverence to those blessed spirits who are supposed to be present there;) since, I say, they are present in our religious assemblies, we cannot reasonably suppose them to be present merely as idle auditors and spectators, who have nothing else to do but only to observe and gaze upon our holy solemnities; and therefore must conclude that their great business there is to assist us in the performance of them, to remove our indispositions, and recollect our wanderings; to fix our attention, excite our affections, and inflame our devotions: for besides, as they are the ministers of the divine Providence, they have many opportunities of presenting good objects to us, and removing temptations from us, of disciplining our natures with prosperities and afflictions, and of so ordering and varying our outward circumstances, as to render our duty more facile and easy to us: besides which, I say, as they are spirits, they have a very near and familiar access to our souls; not that they can make any immediate impressions on our understanding or will, which are a sphere of light to which no created spirit can approach, it being under

the immediate economy of the Father of spirits; but yet, being spirits, there is no doubt but they may, and oftentimes do, insinuate themselves into our fancies, and mingle with the spirits and humours of our bodies, and by that means never want opportunity both to suggest good thoughts to us, and raise holy affections in us. For that they can work upon our fancies is apparent, else there could be neither angelical nor diabolical dreams; and if they can so act upon our fancies, as to excite new images and representations in them, they may by this means communicate new thoughts to our understanding, which naturally prints off from the fancy those ideas and images which it there finds set and composed. And as they can work upon our fancies, so there is no doubt but they can influence our spirits and humours; else they have not the power so much as to cure or inflict a disease; and by thus working upon our spirits they can moderate as they please the violence of our passions, which are nothing but the flowings and reflowings of our spirits to and fro from our hearts; and by influencing our humours they can compose us, when they please, into such a sedate and serious temper, as is most apt to receive religious impressions, and to be influenced by the heavenly motions of the Holy Ghost. These things, I doubt not, the blessed angels can and frequently do, though we perceive it not, and though, by the laws of the world of spirits, they may probably be restrained from doing their utmost for us, that so we may still act with an uncontrolled freedom, and be left under a necessity of a constant and diligent endeavour; yet this we may be sure of, that as the evil angels are always busy to pervert and seduce us from our duty,