SER M. are sometimes called the Sons of God; Job i.
VIII. 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 de-
clared the Object of the Angels Adoration;
ver. 6. and that the Power of Creation, the
Sovereignty, and even the Throne of God, ver.
8, &c. are afcribed to him, whilft the highest
Honour the Angels can afpire to, my Text
tells us, is that of being his Meffengers and
Servants. Of the Angels he faith, (i. e. Da-
vid fays only) He maketh his Angels Spirits,
and his Minifters a Flame of Fire; or, as I
fhould rather tranflate the Words, upon the
Authority of many learned Men before me
He maketh thofe Spirits, or fpiritual Beings,
his Angels, or Meffengers, and Flames of Fire,
(meaning perhaps, the Seraphim, who are
supposed to be the highest Order of Spirits)
he makes them but his Minifters. But unto
the Son he faith, Thy Throne, O God, is for
ever and ever; a Sceptre of Righteousness is
the Sceptre of thy Kingdom: Thou hast loved
Righteoufnefs, and hated Iniquity; therefore
God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the
Oil of Gladness above thy Fellows; ver. 8, 9.
Vide Eftium & Juftinian, in loc.

*

But

But to which of the Angels faid he at any Time, s E R M. Sit thou on my Right Hand, until I make thine VIII. Enemies thy Footstool? Are they not all miniString Spirits, fent forth to minifter for them who fhall be Heirs of Salvation? Ver. 13, 14. The whole Context, as I observed in my last, is defigned to fhew how much inferior Angels are in their Nature and Office, when compared with our Lord: But yet their Nature and Office, are both of them expressed to the Height, to fhew the Dignity of our Lord the clearer. He cites the Pfalmift who reprefents them as piercing, fpiritual Subftances, as Spirits or Winds, for their Swiftness and Speed, and as Flames of Fire, for their Power and Force. He maketh (faith he) his Angels Spirits, and his Minifters a Flame of Fire: A proper Text, which ever way we tranflate it, to fet at the Head of this Difcourfe: In which, having in my laft proved from Reason as well as Scripture, to the Satisfaction, I trust, of any reasonable Mind, that fuch Creatures as Angels do really exift, I am now in the,

II. Second Place, to explain their Nature: Under which, I may also properly speak of their Creation, Orders, Numbers, Hofts, Abilities, Powers, and every Thing that relate

SER M. to them as confidered in themselves, withVIII. out entering upon their Ministry and Office, which will be the proper Subject of two following Heads.

But first let us enquire into their Nature, or Effence. He maketh his Angels SPIRITS, faith my Text: or, thofe Spirits we call Angels, be conftitutes his Meffengers. For Angel, you must know, is a Greek Word, that fignifies Messenger and therefore is a Name not of Nature but of Office: For these happy Beings, of whom we are difcourfing, being in a peculiar Manner the Meffengers of God, whom he fends upon Occafion to execute his Will, or, as the Pfalmift expreffes it, to fulfil his Commandments; Pfal. ciii. 20. Therefore they, above all Creatures, have by Way of Eminence, been stiled his Messengers or Angels, not only in the Holy Writings, but in fome alfo of the Heathen Philofophers *. So that it is from their Office they are called Angels; by Nature they are Spirits. So they are called in the 7th Verfe, which is my present Text; and fo in the 14th, which was the

* Τις δε αυτός καὶ Δαίμονας αγαθος καλεινεθα, ως ούλας δαίμονας και επισημόνας των θείων Νομών Εςι δε οτε καὶ ΑΓΓέλας, ως εκβαίνοντας και δια Γελλοντας ημιν τις TS Ev (wïav Kavoras. Hierocles in Carm. Pythag. fecundum.

Text of my last: Are THEY not all (i. e. all s E RM. the Holy Angels) miniftring SPIRITS. VIII.

And yet I won't venture, from either of thefe Texts, to affert that Angels are entirely pure and naked Spirits, free from Bodies of any Kind whatever: For I know that many great and reverend Men of antient Times, have deemed it the peculiar Property of God, of God alone, to be all pure Spirit, and to have nothing corporeal, and compounded about him *. And if fo; Angels must have Bodies as well as Men: Only their Bodies are not as ours, compounded or made up of Flesh and Blood, earthly and grofs; but thin and aërial, or rather ætherial, or perhaps still nearer to the Subftance of the Heavens where they dwell. And this feems to be hinted, not obfcurely, by our Bleffed Saviour himself; where he tells us, that They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World, and the Refurrection from the Dead (meaning a happy Resurrection) neither marry, nor are given in Marriage: Neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the Angels (iodyJeños, like Angels) and are the Children of God, being the Children of the Resurrection; Luke xx. 35, 36. Now if Angels were pure and naked

* Vide Eftium in Sententias, L. 2. Dift. 8. §. 3.

SER M. Spirits; good Men, one would think, would VIII. be more like them in their State of Separation,

whilst abfent from the Body, 2 Cor. v. 8, as the Apostle expreffes it, than they will be when they are clothed with their Bodies again. But our Saviour feems to intimate, that when at the Resurrection they shall be re-invefted with their glorified Bodies, they fhall then be like Angels and not before. Their Bodies indeed fhall arife, but they shall arife of a fpiritual, or angelick Kind. They fhall neither marry nor be given in Marriage; Neither can they die any more: All which being bodily Properties, it should seem that Angels, to whom they are likened, have Bodies too. Since otherwife we don't fee the Aptness of the Comparison, or how the ceafing of corporeal Beings to propagate and die, can be illuftrated by comparing them with Angelick Beings, if Angels be wholly incorporeal: I fhould rather infer that Angels have such Bodies, as Saints fhall have at the Refurrection; especially when I recollect that St Paul calls the Refurrection-Body, a fpiritual Body: 1 Cor. xv. 44, For if the Bodies of good Men, at the Refurrection, fhall become fpiritual, why may not Angels, though of a fpiritual Nature, have Bodies now? Bodies, as I have