N00620:35
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.
PROPOSITION 1. That the Angels are of all Second or Created Beings, the most Excellent and Glorious.
PROPOSITION 1. That the Angels are of all Second or Created Beings, the most Excellen• and Glorious.
There are several things contained in this Proposition.
1. That the Angels are Real Beings. I say, There are such Beings as Angels. They are not mere Entia rationis, Imaginary Beings, or Apparitions only, but true and real Beings. That Opinion was the Error of the Sadducees, they did not believe any such Real Beings, Acts 23.8. It is said there, that the Sadducees Deny the Resurrection, and say, there is neither Angel nor Spirit; the Pharisees confess both. The Sadducees said, there were no such Real Beings as Angels; & no Spirit, no Immortal Sou•, no Spirit of man, really Existing in a State of Separation from the Body, and consequently, that there is no Resurrection. But the Pharisees did believe both these: that there shall be a Resurrection, and that there are Angels and Spirits, or Immortal Souls of m•n. One may wonder, that the Sadducees should deny the Being of Angels, considering they did receive the Books of Moses, in which there is frequent mention made of Angels of God. But therefore some have Observed, that their Opinion was, that the Angels are not Real Beings, but only Apparitions, and Impressions made on the minds of men: whenas the Scripture declares them to be Real Spiritual Substances, that have a Personal Subsistence. Hence they are said to be Spirits, and to be sent forth,