N00620:161
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.
Thus you have seen the first Proposition confirmed? We proceed to the Second.
PROPOSITION. II. That God hath made the Sinning Angels examples of Judgment without Mercy. Therefore it is here said, God spared them not. He never did make any one tender of Mercy to them. He did not pardon their offence, nor ever will do. The truth of this is evident from several things.
1. In that the fallen Angels are for the present i• a miserable condition. They are now at this instant in a state of misery. They have lost their happiness for ever, and did so, from the very moment, when they first sinned against God; they were immediately excluded out of Heaven, and the everlasting Gates were shut upon them. I do not say, nor do I believe, that the Angels did sin in the highest Heaven: for it is said of that Heaven, 1 Pet. 1.4. That it is Undefiled: whereas if the Angels had sinned there, they would have defiled the very Heavens. But when once they sinned▪ they were banished from Heaven, and they never ⟨p. 113⟩came within the Palace of the great King any more. As soon as ever they sinned, they were cast away from the Presence of God for ever; and they are Excommunicated from the Society of those Holy Angels, that once they had an happy Fellowship with. And they are not only banished out of the Heavenly Kingdom to Eternity, being confined to the low Regions of the World; but they are moreover become the Subjects of positive misery: Therefore are they said to be in Darkness, which notes misery, as the Apostle expresses it in this Context, they are delivered into Darkness. Darkness of misery is come upon them already, they being excluded from the Presence of God, in whose favour is light and life: they must needs be in darkness. And they are said to be made Prisoners, and to be Cast into Hell, and to be in Chains there: They are delivered into Chains of Darkness. Those expressions are Metaphorical, alluding to what is customary among men. A Malefactor who is a great Criminal, is committed to Prison, and is there to lye in Chains, until the Sessions comes. So hath the Great God dealt by the Angels that sinned against Him, He hath committed them to Prison, and hath ordered them to lye in Chains there, until the Judgment of the Great Day shall come. They are not only under a Chain in respect of the restraining Power and Providence of God, which does hamper the Evil Angels, that they cannot go where they would, nor can they