SERMON XIII.

Angels Guardians of Kingdoms and States.

HE B. i. 14.

Are they not all miniftring Spirits, fent forth to minifter for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation?

N difcourfing on thefe Words, I fhall fhew the Precedency of Angels over Nations, Kingdoms, and States.

I

Of this we have very clear Traces in the Writings of the Old Teftament: But the clearest of all is in the Septuagint Greek Verfion of the Song of Mofes, according to which the 8th Verse of the 32d Chapter of Deuteronomy runs thus: When the Moft High divided to the Nations their Inheritance, when he feparated the Sons of Adam, he appointed the Bounds of their Nations according to the Number of

the

SERM. the Angels of God. For the Lord's Portion XIII. is his People, Jacob is the Lot of his Inheritance, Deut. xxxii. 8. according to the LXX explained. And conformable to this, and perhaps derived from it, is what is faid in the Book of Ecclefiafticus; In the Divifion of the Nations of the whole Earth, he fet a Ruler (meaning a ruling Angel) over every People: But Ifrael is the Lord's Portion, who being bis Firft-Born he nourishes with Difcipline, and giving him the Light of his Love, does not forfake him, Ecclus. xvii. 17. Both which Places thofe that adhere to the Greek Verfion of the Song of Mofes, interpret thus: When as God diftributed the Gentile World into fo many Nations, as there were Prefident Angels to be their Guardians and Governors ; he referved Ifrael to himself as his own Lot and Portion, over which he intended to prefide in his own Person, and fo to make the Ifraelitish Form of Government a Theocracy: i. e. a State under the immediate Government of God himself.

*

But there is one great Objection that lies against this Reading of the Paffage in Deuteronomy. And that is, that although it be fo

*The Jews reckoned that there were feventy of these Angels. See Ainfaworth on Deut. xxxii. 8.

plainly

plainly alluded to in the Book of Ecclefiafticus; s ER M. and be alfo cited by feveral ancient Fathers XIII. of the Church *, who had the Septuagint Bible lying before them; yet that Translation stands entirely alone, and he has no other Verfion or Paraphrafe. to support it: For all the other Tranflations whatever agree univerfally with the Hebrew Copies, which runs exactly as it is rendered in our Englifh Bibles:When the most High divided to the Nations their Inheritance, when he feparated the Sons of Adam, he fet the Bounds of the People according to the Number of the Children of Ifrael, Deut. xxxii. 8. Now this certainly expreffes fome Sense, 'quite different from what the LXX intended: -What the Senfe is, I fhall not at prefent ftay to enquire; because it is because it is my Business to maintain the Doctrine which the Greek Reading (however faulty in the rendering of this Verfe) defigned to infinuate : But which I fhall now proceed to confirm from more uncontested Texts of Scripture, viz. that though God did govern the Hebrews in his own proper Perfon; yet he fubVOL. III. jected

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*Clem. Rom. Ep. 1. c. 29. Iren. L. 3. c. 12. §. 9. Clem. Alex. Strom. 7. p. 702. Novatian de Trinitate. c. 17. Hieron. in Mic. vi. 1.

SERM.jected the rest of the Nations to the PreXIII. fidency of Angels.

This a bold Writer (who will allow nothing to be either true or Sense, but what he himself advances) represents to be Nonsense, and to be utterly unfupported by Fact*. But with Submiffion to him, the Reading is certainly good Senfe, and true too; The plain and fimple Meaning of the Words, is by a learned Author †, expreffed thus: "God fo diftributed the Earth among the "feveral People that were therein, that he "reserved, or in his Counsel defigned, fuch

a Part of the Earth for the Ifraelites, " who were then unborn, as he knew would "afford a commodious Habitation to a most

numerous Nation." This certainly is Sense, and no fober Man that reads the Text will ever deny that it may bear that Sense. The Question therefore that remains is, whether it be Fact; i. e. whether in Reality, God, when he divided to the Nations their Inheritance, and when he feparated the Sons. of Adam whether he did then really fet the Bounds of the People, according to the Number of the Children of Ifrael? Now if

* WHISTON's true Text. p. 66, 67. in PATRICK on the Place.

by

+ BOCHART,

by the People mentioned here, we may be SER M. allowed to understand, (and why fhould we XIII. not?) the Seven Nations with which He and Joshua had most to do ; and which they were to extirpate out of the promised Land, to make Room for the Ifraelites; nothing can be more literally true and exact, than that their Bounds were fet according to the Number of the Children of Ifrael. For thofe Nations were placed within those Limits which God intended, in his own good Time, the Ifraelites fhould fill; and which when his People were ready to inherit, the Nations (who had beforehand rendered themfelves Veffels fit for Wrath) were destroyed to make Room for them, as inhabiting a Land not defigned for themselves, but allotted for another People by God. This is confirmed by the remarkable Manner in which God introduced his People into the Holy Land, and deftroyed the Nations which had feized it for themselves; which was not done all at once, but flowly and by Degrees, as the Land was wanted. For this we have the Authority of God himfelf: I will fend (faith he) my Fear before thee, and will deftroy all the People to whom thou shalt come; and I will make all thine

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