know Thee, and thy Rigteousness to Men of upright Hearts. Lord as thou haft made me to know Thee, and bent my Heart to comply with Thee; so preferve me alway in this holy Difpofition; that I may maintain my Uprightness and Integrity to the End, till I come to reap the Fruit of it, in eternal Union with thee.

me,

And for that End, I befeech Thee to settle all thofe holy Truths in my Mind, which I feel fo powerful, to compofe and quiet me into a perfect Peace and happy Tranquility; Make them one with and work them into the Temper of my Spirit, that being guided alway by an heavenly Reafon and divine Wisdom, I may be raised above all the Troubles of this Life, and remain in a calm and undisturbed Expectation of a better : Poffefs thy felf intirely of my Heart, that I may not converfe with Thee as a Stranger, but as a familiar Friend, and as my Father. O! that these heavenly Truths may not be as a Gueft that tarrieth but for a Day with me; but may make their Abode in my Soul, and dwell with me for ever, that fo I may feel the Strength and Virtue of them conftantly in my Heart, overcoming all Inclinations to Covetousness, to Difcontent, to Impatience, to Trouble of Spirit, and unfettlednefs of Mind; and placing me in fuch an immutable Reft and Peace, as may be the Beginning of that eternal reft which Chrift hath prepared for his People.

Now

Now to him that hath loved me, and dearly bought me by his Sons moft pretious Blood, and given me the Comfort of the Holy Ghoft, and the Promife of Immortality, and difpofed my Mind to thefe holy Thoughts, and filled me with thefe pious Defires, and given me a Will to Submit unto him, and made me feel how happy it is, to love him, and to be led by him, and given me joyful Hope of abiding for ever in his Love; be everlafting Praife and Thanksgiving rendred, from a most grateful Heart, by me and by every Creature in Heaven and Earth. Amen.

TWO

TWO

SERMONS

ON

Michaelmas-Day, 1672.

MATTH. XVIII. 10.

--For Ifay unto you, that in Heaven their Angels do always behold the Face of my Fa. ther which is in Heaven.

HAT there are Angels, I mean a kind of Spiritual Beings, much superiour to us, tho' invifible by us, is here fuppofed in my Text. But it is a Truth that hath been acknowledged by all Nations and all Ages of the World, and afferted likewife by very fubftantial Arguments against the Epicureans, and fuch like grofs and drowsy People.

The

The common Sort of Philofophers proved it by fuch Evidences as these.

First, From Spectres and Apparitions, of which all Hiftories, in all Time, are very full. Secondly, From their Oracles, and the Anfwers of their Gods (as they called them) which could not be performed by any Art or Device of Men. Thirdly, From Magick, and all the Wonders that were performed by certain Perfons, whom they could not but conclude to be familiar with fome Spirits or Dæmons; because it lay not within the Compafs of Man's Wit to produce fuch Effects, as their Eyes plainly beheld. And Laftly, From Prodigies and portentous Appearances, fometimes in the Air, fometimes in the Earth and the Sea, which were wont, they fay, to precede great Wars, and the overthrow of Empires, and other fuch notable Mutations in the World.

Now that which the Vulgar concluded thus from Obfervations of Senfe, the more refined and fpeculativeWits concluded from Principles of Reafon, the chief of which was this, That otherwife there would be a great Gap, a vast wide Breach, in the Universe, if there were no Beings at all between us mortal Men, and the most high God, the bleffed Creator of all; they obferved, that from the lowest Degree of being here upon this Earth, (which is but a little Mite of the great World) there is a gradual Afcent unto us Men; from inanimate Creatures (or Things without Life) unto Plants; and from Plants unto Animals (or fenfitive Beings; and from them unto us who

are

are rational: And that in all thefe Kinds of Creatures, there are alfo feveral Degrees, or Steps, whereby Nature rifes to the Top of that kind, which hath fome Refemblance of the next fort of Beings above them. For fome Brutes are more fenfible and apprehenfive than others; and fome Plants more beautiful, and approaching alfo nearer to Sense; and of things without Life, fome are far more fplendid and amazing than their Neighbours. It was incredible therefore they thought, that above Man there fhould be no Degrees of Being, of feveral Sorts alfo, till we come to God himfelf: They conceived the Air, and the Sky, all thofe vaft Tracts of Space, which we behold and imagine, not to be empty Wildernesses and barren Defarts, but as fully replenished and peopled with Spirits and invifible Creatures, as this Earth is with Men and other Bodies. And that it was as abfurd to think there fhould be no Creatures between God and us, as that there fhould be none between us and Stones. This Argument, together with thofe from Senfe, they took to be no less than a Demonftration.

To which if you add the more full Confirmation, which the Revelation of God unto the Jews, and unto us Chriftians, hath given us of this Point, there being feveral Appearances of Angels to the Fathers, and unto Mofes, and ftill more illuftrious, to our Saviour Chrift and his Apostles, who have verified it abundantly to us, I do not fee how we can doubt of this Truth, unlefs we will difbelieve all Hiftory, nay, our Reason, and the very Senfes of Mankind.