N00620:58
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. › Doctrine 1 › Application 2: USE II.
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.
USE II.
God doth not stand in need of us, or of any of our Services. For He hath Angels at His Dispose; an infinite number of glorious Angels, to do any Service, that he would have to be done; and He doth not need them neither. Act. 17.25. God is not worshipped, as though he needed any thing; who hath given unto all, Life and Breath, and all things: So, as for the Angels, God hath given to them their Beings, and their Life, and all those glorious Accomplishments they are adorned with: and therefore he needs them not. Before ever there was any Angel, World, or Creature, God was Blessed in the Enjoyment of Himself: God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, did take Infinite Satisfaction in their own Glory, from the Days of Eternity. Angels can add nothing to his Essential Glory. H• did not make them, because He stood in any need of them: He has manifested, that he did not need them, since He suffered Millions of them to fall down from Heaven, and Dismissed them his Service; and for their Rebellion, committed them to that Dungeon, where there is Blackness of Darkness for ever. God shows to all the World, That he doth not stand in need of any of his Creatures; much less hath he need of us, seeing he needed not Angels. ⟨p. 24⟩One Angel can do more for God in one day, than millions of men can do in a thousand years. Doth he need us then? And though He Commands us to Praise Him, it is not, because He needs us, no, He hath Angels, that never Sinned, who Praise Him continually, after a better manner, than ever we did. There are Creatures in Heaven, saying, Blessing, and Honour, and Glory be to Him that Sits on the Throne, for ever and ever,