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graceless grace of slighting aud scorn. Tlicy account it a disparagement to 1)0 sei-ious in these things. They make no mysteries of that Avhich the glorious creatures the angels themselves look upon and pry into, even with admiration, liut it is not to he conceived of, the profanenoss and poison that is in man's nature against divine truths, as I shall shew afterwards, how it slights the means of its own salvation, and stands wondering at bauhles and trifles ; and so men waste away their precious time in admira- tion of that which is nothing but 'vanity of vanities,' whereas we should take up our time in studying these transcendent things that go beyond the capacity of the very angels. Yet these things we dally aud trifle withal.
r«' 2. Again, from hence, that Christ was seen and attended on and admired by angels, there is a (jreat deed of comfort hsueth to us. It is the ground of all the attendance aud comfort that we have from the angels. For this is a rule in divinity, that there is the same reason of the head and of the members ; both head and members are one. Therefore what comfort and attendance Christ had, who is the head, the church, which is the body, hath the same, only with some difiorence. They attended upon him as the head, they attend upon us as the members. They attended upon him immediately for himself, they attend upon us for his sake ; for whatsoever we have of God, we have it at the second hand. We receive * grace for grace ' of Christ. We receive attendance of angels, for the attendance they yielded to Christ first ; they attend upon us, by his direction and commission and charge from him. So we have a derivative comfort from the attendance of angels upon Christ. But surely, whatsoever they did to him they do to us, because there is the same respect to head and members. Therefore the devil did not mistake, he was right in that, when he alleged out of the Psalm : ' He shall give his angels charge over thee, that thou dash not thy foot against a stone,' Ps. xci. 11. He was right in that, applying it to Christ. For however it be true to Christians, yet it is true to Christ too ; it is true to the members, as well as the head ; and to the head, as to the members. For ' he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all one ; ' as the apostle saith, ' one Christ,' Heb, ii. 11.
Now the care of angels concerning Christ and his church, it was shadowed out in Exod. xxv. 17, seq., and xxvi. 31. There the mercy-seat, which covered the ark wherein the law was, upon the mercy-seat there were two cherubins counter- viewing one another, and both pried* to the mercy-seat. They shadowed out the angels that look on the mercy-seat, Christ ; for he is the mercy-seat that covers the law and the curse, in whom God was merciful to us. There they look upon that with a kind of wonderment and attendance,! which St Peter alludes unto in that place, ' into which mysteries the very angels pry,' 1 Pet. i. 12. And so in the veil of the tabernacle, the veil had round about it pictures of cherubins, Exod. xxvi. 31. What did that shadow out unto us ? The multitude of cherubins and seraphins and angels that attend upon Christ and his church. So he was * seen' and attended on by ' angels ; ' and it belongs to all that are his, as you have it, Heb. i. 7, ' They are ministering spirits, for the good of the heirs of salva- tion.' They that serve the king serve the queen too. Christ is the King of his church, and the church is the greatest queen in the world. They attend upon her ; nay, Christ hath made us, with himself, kings. Now, what a king is that that hath a guard of angels ! As they guarded and attended upon Christ, so they guard and attend all that are his ; as you * That is, 'looked into.'— G. f Qu. ' attention ' ?— G.
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have it excellently in Dan. vii. 10, ' There are thousand thousands of angels about the throne continually.' All this is for our comfort, because we are one mystical body with him.
You have in Jacob's ladder a notable representation of this. Jacob's ladder, it reached from earth to heaven ; and that pointed to Christ him- self, who is * Immanuel,' God and man, who brought God and man to- gether. He was a mediator between both, and a friend to both. He was that ladder that touched heaven and earth, and joined both together. Now it is said, the angels ascended and descended upon that ladder ; so the angels descending upon us, is, because they ascend and descend upon Jacob's ladder first ; that is, upon Christ. ' All things are yours,' saith the apostle. What be those ? God is ours, the Spirit is ours, heaven is ours, the earth is ours ; afflictions, life, death, Paul, Apollos, the angels themselves, all is ours. Why? 'Ye are Christ's.' That is the ground. So it is a spring of comfort to consider that Christ was ' seen ' and admu'ed and attended by angels. They are ours, because we are Christ's. Let us consider what a comfort it is, to have the attendance of these blessed spirits for Christ's sake.