Casuistical morning-exercises the fourth volume /

5. God out of his infinite Wisdom hath given us his Oracles, and sent his Ambassadors in the ministry of reconciliation⁴, men like to our selves, as more suitable to us in houses of Clay, than Angels, which live out of the Sphere of our Commerce. God might think now their Testimonies to his Church here below, would not be so convenient for his Government, and so consequently not so successful for the beginning of Conversion. He could have had the use of the Noblest Spirits for his Errand, and Embodied them, if he would, for expedition, when he chose to employ Moses, notwithstanding his excuses⁵; when the Promise of God's Presence with him on his Embassy might answer all⁶; so that he found be might say with converted Paul, ^‖He could do all things through Christ enstrengthning him. Man is best drawn in such a way as is most agreeable to his Nature: The Head, which is the governing part in the Organical Body, may move most uniformly with Members of the same nature⁷, who have the irrefragable Authority of God's Word to back them, wherein they speak for God to stubborn ones; and tho' the Treasure is presented in Earthen Vessels⁸, yet the excellency of the Power is of God⁹. Converse with good Angels is a Dignity which our present state in the Body cannot well bear, and therefore it is rare. There is indeed a Story related in Bodin ^*of one who had desired much the guidance and assistance of an Angel; and from the thirty seventh year of his Age, he said, he had a Spirit that assisted and followed him to his Death: He would knock and awake him early in the morning; if he spake unwary words, he would reprove him for it by a Dream in the night; if he was reading a bad Book, the Angel would strike o the Book for him to leave it; and give some pre-notice to him in a Dream when some accident was like to befall him, &c. This is related from the Man as matter of Fact. But it concerns us to be wary, and not to be wise above that which is written