SER M. bable, that by him we are to understand (as I XIII. have already faid) the one Head and Prince of them all.

But this only by the Way: The particular Point I am aiming at now is to fhew, that though the other Nations and States had not fo great a Prince as the Jews had, to guide and protect them, yet they had Princes, Princes of the invifible World above, to prefide and rule over them. My Meaning is, that they were also under the Guardianship of Tutelary Angels. And this is what Gabriel (who was himself an Angel of no inferior Clafs, as we have feen already) declares to Daniel. The Prince of the Kingdom of Perfia (faith he) withstood me twenty-one Days: But lo, Michael one, or, as the Margin reads, the first of the chief Princes came to help me: And I remained there with the Kings of Perfia.And now

will I return to fight, or contend, with the Prince of Perfia, and when I am gone forth, lo, the Prince of Grecia fhall come; Dan. x. 13-20. Now, these Princes must certainly be understood to be of the fame Nature with Gabriel himself; i. e. not Men but Spirits. And that which ftill confirms this more, is that Michael is faid to be one of them: Lo, Michael (faith Gabriel) one of the chief Prin

ces,

me.

ces, or, the First of the Princes came to helps ER M. Now be he one of them, or be he the XIII. First, or, the Chief, or Head of them; they must be in fome Senfe fuch as Michael was, i. e. Angels or Spirits, and not Men. For Man fure (let him be as great a Prince, or King as he will) can't be thought to oppose an Angel, a principal Angel: A Prince therefore, that could withstand Gabriel for twentyone Days together, and, as far as appears, would have prevailed over him too (whatsoever, or before whomfoever their Contest was) had not Michael come to help him; must be a Prince of fuperior Abilities to any Prince of Flesh and Blood. The Learned therefore of all Ages, have interpreted the Prince of Perfia, and the Prince of Greece, to be two Angels of a high or fuperior Order and Distinction, fet over those two Nations as their Guardians and Protectors.

Some indeed, from the Oppofition they made against Gabriel's Endeavours in favour of the Jews, who were the People of God, and alfo from Michael's Interpofition, whose Contest in the Revelation, is faid to be with the Dragon and his Angels; Rev. xii. 7. See alfo Jude 9. and Zech. iii. 1. Some, I fay, have from hence inferred, that these two Prin

ces

SERM. Ces of Perfia and Greece, were evil Angels. XIII. But I fee no Neceffity for inferring this: Becaufe, fuppofing them to have been good Angels, it must have been natural for them to have been faithful to their Charge, confequently for each of them to have interefted himself in the Profperity of the Nation, over which he was appointed to prefide. Gabriel was for promoting the Return of the Jews, and the Re-building of their Temple; and the Prince of Perfia might probably urge, that this would tend to the weakening and leffening of the Perfian Kingdom. This again might occafion fome Contest between them, whilst neither Party, perhaps, were acquainted with the Pleasure of God; to which, when known, no Doubt is to be made, but the Parties on both Sides were ready to fubmit.

But let that be as it will: Tutelar Angels, Angels interested in the Profperity of thofe Kingdoms, they certainly were; and that all Nations whatever are under the Protection of fome particular Guardian Angels peculiar to themselves, all Nations have ever believed. The Philistines plainly confefs it of the Hebrews: For when the Ark was brought into the Ifraelitish Camp, they

were

were ftruck with a Confternation, and faid, S ER M. Wo unto us; who shall deliver us out of XIII. the Hands of these mighty Gods, (i. e. of these mighty Tutelar Angels, for Angels are called Gods in holy Scriptures, as well as by the Heathens) Thefe are the Gods, fay they, that fmote the Egyptians with all the Plagues in the Wilderness, 1 Sam. iv. 8. Thus again the Syrians acknowledged different ruling Angels over different Kingdoms, though they wildly imagined that those Angels (or Gods as they called them) had more Power in one Part of a Country, than they had in another. For when the King of Syria had been finitten by the Ifraelites, his Servants faid unto him, Their Gods are Gods of the Hills, therefore are they ftronger than we: But let us fight against them in the Plain, and furely we fhall be stronger than they, 1 King. xx. 23. And the fame Notions which they exprefs of the Nation of the Jews here; they exprefs elsewhere concerning all other Nations. in general. For thus Rabfbakeh, Sennackerib's General, triumphing too haftily over Hezekiah Has any of the Gods of the Nations (faith he) delivered at all his Land out of the Hand of the King of Affyria? VOL. III. Where

Y

SERM. Where are the Gods of Hamath, and of XIII. Arpad? Where are the Gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my Hand? Who are they among all the Gods of the Countries, that have delivered their Country out of mine Hand! That the LORD, that JEHOVAH, (which he took to be only one of the common Tutelary Gods, that the LORD faith he) should deliver Jerufalem out of my Hand? 2 King. xviii. 33, 34, 35. So general was the Notion of Tutelar Genius's, or Gods, throughout the World *: Infomuch that the Romans, before ever they fat down before a City to befiege it, would always in the first Place make a folemn Supplication to the Tutelar Deity, to quit their Charge of it, left otherwise they should feem to fight rafhly against heavenly Powers +. But I mention not these to ftrengthen our Evidence, but only to fhow the Universality of the Opinion. For Proof of the Doctrine, I refer to the Texts of Scripture I have produced;

*That the ancient Fathers had the fame Opinion: See Juft. Mart. Apol. 2, c. 6. p. 11. Athenag. c. 22. p. 98, 99. Clem. Alex. Strom. 7. p. 602. And for the Opinion of the Egyptians, JAMLICUS de Myfteriis Ægyptiorum. Sec. 5. c. 25. p. 140. and GALE in Loc.

+ Vide Macrobium, 1. 3. c. 9.