N00620:157
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
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.
1. That all the Angels were once without Sin. As for the Angels that sinned, there was a time▪ when They were in the Truth, as it is said of them, Job. 8.44. Their First Estate was a State of Integrity. They were once adorned with the Glorious Image of God: and on that account they were The Sons of God, Job 38.7. the Sons of God, in respect of their being like unto him, and made after his Image in their First Estate. They did not come sinful out of Gods Hands: that could not possibly be, for then God should be the Author of Sin, which 'tis impossible that he should, as the Apostle James proves. God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning. Jam. 1.13, 17. All good is from God, saith the Apostle: and therefore evil, moral evil, sin, cannot be from him; for then he should be variable and subject to change, as Creatures are, which the Blessed God is not: and therefore He is not the Author ⟨p. 107⟩of sin. The Angels then that sinned, were pure and spotless, as they came out of His Hands: Those very Angels, which are now in Hell, were once in Heaven. Hence it is said, That they left their own Habitation. Jude 6. Heaven was their proper place and habitation, their Native Country, as we may so speak. Those Apostate Angels who are now blaspheming in Hell, there was a time, when they were praising God in Heaven. When the Foundation of the Earth was laid, All the Sons of God sang and shouted for joy: all the Angels; those that are now Blasphemers of him, were then shouting for joy, in admiration at the Wisdom and Power of their Creator, whom they did then behold laying the foundation of this Earth. Those Angels that are now evil, were once good, and they continued to be so for a few days. For on the sixth day God saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good. Gen. 1.31. If all the Works that God had made, were good on the sixth day after the Creation began, the Angels that have sinned, were then good.