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SERM. courfe of as many Particulars as a modest VII. bounded Curiofity will defire. It is true

indeed, that what the Holy Penman fays in this Place concerning Angels, is brought in accidentally: His direct Defign being to fet forth the transcendent Eminency of our Lord : To beget in the Hebrews a more awful and reverend Regard to the Gospel, he labours to convince them of the great Excellency, Dignity, and Power of him that introduced it. This he attempts by comparing him, not with Mofes and the Prophets, but with the bleffed Angels, the highest and most excellent of all the Creatures of God; and to prove the Superiority of Chrift over thefe, he fhows, that tho' Angels, in Virtue of their Creation, are fometimes called the Sons of God; Jobi. 6. ii. 1. xxxviii. 7. yet none of them all was ever called, in Right of his Nature, his begotten Son; Heb. i. 5. That this begotten Son, when introduced into the World, is declared to be the Object of the Angels Adoration, ver. 6. and that the Power of Creation, the Sovereignty, and even the Throne of God, are afcribed to him, ver. 7, &c. whilft the highest Honour the Angels can aspire to, is only that of miniftring to him. Are they not all miniftring Spirits, fent forth to

minifter

minifter for them, who shall be Heirs of Sal-sER M.

vation.

The Words are expreffed by way of Interrogation, the more vehemently to affirm (according to the known way of reasoning) that undoubtedly they are fo. So that by Way of a Pofition they must be read thus: They (i. e. the holy Angels of God) are all of them entirely miniftring Spirits, fent forth to minifter for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation. But now, though the Text be defigned to fhew how much inferior the Angels are in the Nature and Office when compared, with our Lord; yet their Nature and Office are expreffed to the Height to shew the Dignity of our Lord the clearer. The Words therefore are as full, and as complete as we could defire for a general Text, and evidently point out to me these four Heads following, for the Subject of my Discourse,

viz.

I. First, The Reality of the Existence of Angels.

II. Secondly, The Nature of them, what it is, They are all Spirits.

III. Thirdly, Their Office or Employment in general, They are all miniftring Spirits. IV. Fourthly,

VI.

SERM. IV. Fourthly, Their Special Office, and VII. Employments with relation to good Men,

They are all miniftring Spirits, fent forth to minifter for them that shall be Heirs of Salvation, And,

I. Firft, As to the Reality of the Exiftence of Angels, one would think I fhould have no occafion in a Chriftian Congregation, to say any thing to prove that there are really fuch Creatures as Angels in being. But we know that you were Sadducees among the Jews, who faid that there were neither Angel nor Spirit; Acts xxiii. 8. Though the five Books of Mofes, which they themfelves acknowledged, gave fuch Manifestation and fuch abundant Proofs of their Existence, that nothing but Obftinacy could refift their Evidence: And therefore tho' the Proof of either of my other three following Heads, which relate to the Nature and Office of Angels, muft neceffarily include, that there are fuch Creatures in being; yet for fear there should be any Sadducees amongst us, who suppose every Thing a Fiction, which we cant prove from Reason; I fhall endeavour to prepare you to admit the Evidence of Revelation, by fhewing that you may do so without

giving up your Underftandings. And to do s ER M. this, I need not undervalue the Dignity and VII. Prehéminence you hold above all Creatures

we know. We will allow you, if you please, to be the Principal and Glory of all visible Beings in this lower World, provided you will believe, and for that very Reason, that there must be a World above you filled with fuperior and more exalted exalted Beings, though imperceptible by our bodily Senfes: For to make use of the Thoughts of a very beautiful and judicious Author, (well received and defervedly of all, and better perhaps by fome, than one whofe immediate Business it is' to difcourfe of fuch Points, though I shan't' confine myself precisely either to the Me-" thod or Words of my Author, but borrow-' ing his Thoughts only, shall make use of them' in fuch Manner as beft falls in with my own Defign), "The Sceptick may look down

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upon the Creatures below him, and per"ceive innumerable Species of Beings, af"cending by eafy Steps and Degrees, and in "fuch a continual Series of Things, that in "each Remove the one differs very little "" from the other. He may obferve the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms so nearly joined, that if he will take the highest

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VOL, III,

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SERM. "of the one and the loweft of the other, VII. "he will scarce perceive any confiderable Difference between them. For in fome Vegetables he will fee something that carries a Kind of Analogy to Sense: They "contract the Leaves against the Cold, and

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open them to the Sun's cheering Beams. "And fome of them feem to have a fen"fitive Touch, as that which is called the Senfitive Plant; which feems to be an AdCC vance of the vegetable Nature to a Kind of "Contiguity of the loweft Degree of those "Animals, that are reckoned up in the Ranks "of Senfibles. For fome Creatures again he "will find to have Life, and yet hardly "diftinguishable above dead Matter. Such

as are thofe Shell-Fish which are formed "in the Fashion of a Cone, and grow fixed

to the Surface of feveral Rocks, aud im"mediately die upon their being fevered " from the Place where they grow. There

are other Creatures again, which are only "one Remove from thefe; and that have "no other Senfe, but that of Feeling and

Tafte: Others have ftill an additional one "of Hearing, others of Smell, and others "of Sight. It is wonderful to observe, by "what a gradual Progrefs the World of

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