N00620:195
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.
We shall endeavour a succinct Answer to the Enquiry proposed in the Conclusions following.
Conclusion I. Although it must be granted, that i• the Days of the Gospel, Angelical Apparitions are not so frequent as under the Old Testament, nevertheless; some such there have been, and still may be▪ What can he say that cometh after the King? God has been pleased to speak to us in these last days by his Son, who is the Lord of Angels, by whom he has made a sufficient Revelation of His Will in all matters, which he has thought meet to have us acquainted with▪ Heb. 1.1. As the New-Testament Dispensation is more spiritual, so the Ministry of Angels is less visible than in former times. There were ANGELOPHANEIAI, many Appearings of Angels, as also a frequency of Miracles, until such time as the Canon of Scripture was completed, and the Gospel sufficiently confirmed; but since that, both the one and the other are in great measure ceased, yet not so ceased as at no time or on no occasion to make themselves visible. That Learned and Worthy Divine, Dr. ⟨p. 5⟩Owen does (according to his wonted manner) in my apprehension express himself very judiciously as to the Question before us, in his Exposition on Heb. 1.14. p. 148. His words are these, For as many have pretended unto Revelation by Angels, which have been mere delusions of Satan, or imaginations of their own Brains, so to say, that God does not or may not send his Angels unto any of his Saints, to communicate his mind unto them as to some particulars of their own duty according to his Word, or to show unto them somewhat of his own approaching work, seems in my judgment to be unwarrantably to limit the Holy One of Israel. Howbeit, such things in particular are to be duly weighed with sobriety & Reverence. Thus the Judicious Doctor. It is true, that the World has been imposed on by fictitious and fabulous Relations concerning the Appearances of Angels. Some Writers have made themselves very merry with a comical Story of a Nobleman in Portugal, who falling into a melancholy despair, fancied his sins were unpardonable. To care him, some used this Artifice: They privately caused the Tiles to be taken off from the roof of his House, and having clothed a man in white, with a Sword in his right, and a lighted Torch in his Left-hand, at midnight he appeared to him, and bade him be cheerful, for he was an happy man, and so extinguishing his Torch departed.