N00620:120
Angelographia, or A discourse concerning the nature and power of the holy angels, and…
Angelographia, or A discourse concerning the nature and power of the holy angels, and the great benefit which the true fearers of God receive by their ministry: delivered in several sermons: : to which is added, a sermon concerning the sin and misery of the fallen angels: also, a disquisition concerning angelical-apparitions. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College, in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel at Boston, in New-England. ; [Two lines from Hebrews]Angelographia, or A discourse concerning the nature and power of the holy angels, and the great benefit which the true fearers of God receive by their ministry: delivered in several sermons: : to which is added, a sermon concerning the sin and misery of the fallen angels: also, a disquisition concerning angelical-apparitions. / By Increase Mather, praesident of Harvard Colledge, in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel at Boston, in New-England. ; [Two lines from Hebrews]
printed by B. Green & J. Allen for Samuel Phillips, 1696
A DISCOURSE Concerning the Power and Ministry of Holy Angels. › For the USE of it.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Inference 4. We may here see, that the Angels are not to be adored, although they are to be Loved and Honoured. They are Creatures, and therefore not ⟨p. 75⟩to be adored. We may love Creatures, but must not worship them; we must not give unto them, that which is God's due alone: Religious Worship is so. Psal. 76.11. Bring Presents unto Him that ought to be feared. God is he, and He only, that ought to be feared, as to a Religious Fear. And therefore when the Devil desired to be worshipped▪ the Lord Jesus Christ said, Get th•e hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou Serve, Mat. 4.10. When Manoah would have presented an Offering unto the Angel that did appear to him, Judg. 13.16. saith the Angel, If thou wilt offer a burnt-offering, thou must offer it unto the Lord. Burnt-offerings, and so all Religious Worship, must be Offered unto God, and not unto an Angel. That which we make an Object of Divine-Worship, we acknowledge as the chief good. Now God only is so; Mat. 19.17. There is none good but one, that is God. Angels, yea, the Holy Angels, compared with God, we cannot say, they are good, they have not the goodness, as to be an Object of Divine Worship. That which we worship, we acknowledge to be, The Alpha and Omega, the first Cause, & the last End of all things: which cannot be affirmed of Angels, but of God only. Rom 11.36. Of him, through him, and to him are all things, to whom be Glory for ever. The Glory of Divine Worship is for ever his due, and his due only, for that of him, and for him are all things. Moreover, the Worshipping of Angels, is expressly ⟨p. 76⟩condemned in the Scripture. Col. 2.18. Let no man beguile you •f your reward, in a voluntary humility, and Worshipping of Angels. It is Will-worship, voluntary humility: there is no Command in the Scripture to worship them; and when men do, as the Platonic Philosophers did, (and as some that call themselves Christians in these days do) pretend, that they are not worthy to come to God immediately; but therefore they will go to him by Angels, and worship them, and desire them to present their Supplications unto God: this i voluntary humility. Such do not Own the Head, as the Apostle speaks in the 19th. verse; they put Christ out of his Office, to whom it belongs to Offer up the Prayers of his People to God.