The righteous man's habitation in the time of plague and pestilence being a brief…

yet how tender was the Lord of them? But I say, I shall need go no further than the Text: the Lord hath said it, that He will give his Angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways, that you dash not your foot against a stone. So that thus then you see the singular care and providence of God over his servants and children, That's the First.

yet how tender was the Lord of them? But I say, I shall need go no further than the Text: the Lord hath said it, that He will give his Angels charge over you, to keep you in all your wayes, that you dash not your foot against a stone. So that thus then you see the singular care and providence of God over his servants and children, That's the First.

But then 2ly. this care and providence of his is managed by the hands of Angels, the Angels are the people that are especially betrusted with this protection of the Saints. Mistake not; not as if the Lord himself did quit his hands of their protection; though the Angels should be our protection, yet if God should withdraw his protection and presence, we could not be satisfied with the protection of Angels. Look into the 33. of Exodus, and you shall see there, how the Lord by Moses tells the people, he would send an Angel before them, I will send an Angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perezite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way: what then? and when the people heard these evil tidings they mourned, and no man did put on him his ornaments; when they heard these evil tidings: what was this evil tidings, that their enemies should all be driven out before them, and that God would honour them with an Angel to go before them? yes, they called this evil tidings, because they had not the Lord himself to go before them. So that the bare presence of Angels without the Lord himself, could not satisfy a gracious soul: still therefore God himself is our great protector: and ⟨p. 5⟩therefore the angels are said to be sent forth; are they not all ministering spirits sent forth? and who is it that doth send them forth? he whose they are: whose are they? they are called in the first of the Hebrew, the angels of God; and the Text says they are his angels, His: Indeed in the 18th. of Matthew, they are called the Saints angels, Take heed that ye despise not one of those little ones, (10. vers.) for I say unto you that in heaven their angels, &c. their angels, and yet His angels; theirs in regard of profit, for they are sent forth for the good of the elect; but His in regard of authority, they are his servants, his ministers. So that I say still, though the angels have the management of this protection, yet God is the protector of his people: but yet I say, though God be our great protector, and God doth not quit his hands of this protection; ye he hath betrusted the protection of the Saints very much in the hands of the angels; and therefore they are called Cherubims: