and the completion of the Redeemer's glory. And at that great and solemn day will whole myriads of them attend, to perform their last kind offices to God's elect ; to assemble them in one collective body ; and to unite with them in ascribing everlasting praises to God and to the Lamb. They cannot indeed say, " He has loved us and washed us ,•" but they will most heartily join in singing, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain."]
Their solicitude about things that relate to us, however strange it may appear at first sight, will not be thought strange, if we consider,
II. The reasons of it —
If we were unable to assign any reasons for their conduct, we might be well assured that their actions were regulated by wisdom and prudence.
But it is not difficult to account for their anxiety respecting these things : they look into them, not to gratify a vain curiosity, but,
1. Because of the glory of God displayed in them —
[The angels have been blessed with many bright disco- veries of the Divine glory, both in the wrorks of creation and of providence. But these have all been eclipsed by the brighter displays of it in the works of redemption. Every thing in the universe bespeaks the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of God : and the punishment inflicted on the fallen angels declares his justice and holiness. But the plan of salvation revealed in the Gospel is represented as being eminently, and beyond all comparison, " the wisdom of God, and the power of God." Terrible as the justice of God appears in the miseries of the damned, it appears incomparably more tremendous in the suf- ferings of the Son of God, which were inflicted on him for our sins, and which were indispensably necessary to satisfy its inex- orable demands. But what shall we say of mercy ? There was not a single trace of that to be found in the whole universe. The angels, after seeing the judgments executed on the apos- tate spirits, could have no idea that mercy could be exercised towards the guilty. But in the Gospel it shines forth as with meridian splendour ; and all the other perfections of the Deity unite and harmonize with it. Can we wonder then, that when they have a prospect of beholding " the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," they should look into that sjlass which reflects it? Can we wonder that they should examine with unwearied attention the prophecies that relate to Christ, the various incidents of his life and death,
i.-.l 1 PETER, I. l--\ [2384.
and the numberless benefits that he confers on all his followers?
This alone were ample reason for all the care and diligence they can possibly exert.]
2. Because of the benefit accruing to themselves from the contemplation of them —
[Wise as those bright intelligences are, we have no doubt but that they are made wiser by their progressive discoveries of the truth of God. The revealing of the Gospel unto man is one way which God has adopted for the further illumination of the heavenly hosts : he makes known his manifold wisdom to the Church, in order that by the Church it may be exhibited before the eyes of angels and archangels'. We have no reason to think that they have any revelations made to them, except through the medium of the Church: and consequently, if they would grow in knowledge, they must search, as it were, the sacred oracles, and " draw their water out of our wells of salvation."
But by their contemplation of the Gospel they are made happier too, as well as wiser. For, in what does their happi- ness consist? Is it not derived principally from the knowledge of God, and their admiration of all his glorious perfections ? But it has been before shewn, that their views of the Divine glory are rendered incomparably more clear and full by the repre- sentations given of it in the Gospel : consequently, their ad- miration of God must continually increase ; and their delight in him be proportionably enlarged.]