N00620:75
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.
2. The Care and Inspection of Angels, is not Limited to the Church only. That in a special manner, is the Object thereof; yet for the Churches sake, their Care and Tutelage doth extend much further. Many a Great man in the World, hath been wonderfully Protected and Delivered by the Angels of God, out of respect to his Church and People; though that man himself did never fea• God. Thus it was with Darius, the Emperor of Persia: an Angel did stand by him, and did confirm and strengthen him, Dan. 11.1. This the Angel did out of respect to the Lord's People▪ For Darius himself was an Idolater, and not a Worshipper of God. So Alexander, Surnamed the Great, he was far from being a true Feare• of God, but he was kind to the Jews, then the only People of God in the World, and he was wonderfully preserved and prospered by the Angels of Heaven. He was delivered in miraculous Dangers: once he was Shot in his Shoulder, and another time sorely Wounded in his Leg, but strangely preserved in the midst of his Enemies, because God did design to humble and break th• Enemies of his People, by the hand of that Alexander: Angels delivered him, until such time, as he had done the Work God had appointed for him. God then doth Govern the whole World by the Ministry of His Holy Angels: They are ⟨p. 31⟩in Heaven as a Watch-Tower, and they keep the World. Hence Daniel saw a Watcher, an Holy One, come down from Heaven. Dan. 4.13. The Angels are those Holy Ones, that Watch the World: They are the great Intelligencers of Heaven, whom the Lord Christ sends throughout the Earth, to observe, and give him an account, how the Affairs thereof are. We see in the first Chapter of Zechariah, that the Angels come unto the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Increated Angel, and the Lord of all the Angels: they say to him, We have Walked to and fro through the Earth, and behold, all the Earth is at rest. v. 11. Thus do they inspect the World, and give an account of their Ministry. Hence it is said, that the Living Creatures, (Angels I told you are meant by the Living Creatures) ran and returned, as the appearance of a Flash of Lightning.