_Direct._ I. Be satisfied in knowing so much of angels as God in nature and Scripture hath revealed; but presume not to inquire further, much less to determine of unrevealed things. That there are angels, and that they are holy spirits, is past dispute; but what number they are, and of how many worlds, and of what orders and different dignities and degrees, and when they were created, and what locality belongeth to them, and how far they excel or differ from the souls of men, these and many other such unnecessary questions, neither nature nor Scripture will teach us how infallibly to resolve. Almost all the heretics in the first ages of the church, did make their doctrines of angels the first and chief part of their heresies; arrogantly intruding into unrevealed things, and boasting of their acquaintance with the orders and inhabitants of the higher world. These being risen in the apostles' days, occasioned Paul to say, Col. ii. 18, "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind."
_Direct._ II. Understand so much of the ministry of angels as God hath revealed, and so far take notice of your communion with them; but affect not any other sort of communion.[190]
I shall here show how much of the ministry of angels is revealed to us in Scripture.
1. It is part of the appointed work of angels, to be ministering spirits for the heirs of salvation, Heb. i. 14.[191] Not ministers or servants of the godly, but ministers of God for the godly: as the shepherd is not a servant of the sheep, but for the sheep. It is not an accidental or occasional work which they do extraordinarily; but it is their undertaken office to which they are sent forth. And this their ministry is about the ordinary concernments of our lives, and not only about some great or unusual cases or exigents, Psal. xxxiv. 6, 7; xci. 11, 12.
2. It is not some, but all the angels that are appointed by God to this ministration. "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth," &c. Heb. i. 1, 4. Mark here, that if you inquire whether God have any higher spirits, that are not employed in so low an office, but govern these angels, or if you inquire whether only this world be the angels' charge, or whether they have many other worlds also (of viators) to take care of; neither nature nor Scripture doth give you the determination of any of these questions; and therefore you must leave them as unrevealed things (with abundance more with which the old heretics, and the popish schoolmen, have diverted men's minds from plain and necessary things). But that all the angels minister for us, are the express words of Scripture.
3. The work of this office is not left promiscuously among them, but several angels have their several works and charge; therefore Scripture telleth us of some sent on one message, and some on another;[192] and tells us that the meanest of Christ's members on earth have their angels before God in heaven: "I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven," Matt. xviii. 10. Whether each true believer hath one or more angels? and whether one angel look to more than one believer? are questions which God hath not resolved us of, either in nature or Scripture; but that each true christian hath his angel, is here asserted by our Lord.
4. In this office of ministration they are servants of Christ as the Head of the church, and the Mediator between God and man, to promote the ends of his superior office in man's redemption.[193] Matt. xxviii. 18, "All power is given to me in heaven and earth;" John xiii. 3. Eph. i. 20-22, "And set him at his right hand in the celestials, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church." Rev. xxiii. 16, "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches."[194] Whether the angels were appointed about the service of Adam in innocency; or only began their office with Christ the Mediator as his ministers, is a thing that God hath not revealed; but that they serve under Christ for his church is plain.