Great is the And all this for wherewith Thou Thou lovest, they they forsake whom

Thee. Great is their care for us. ardour of their affection towards us. the honour of Thy inestimable love hast loved us. They love whom guard whom Thou guardest, and Thou forsakest; they love not the workers of iniquity. for Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity, and destroyest all who speak falsehood." (August. Soli Animæ ad Deum, XXVII. A small portion of a most beautiful and eloquent apostrophe.) On the other hand, they war against the enemies of GOD and His saints. Ps. xxxv. 5, 6; lxxviii. 49. (See Illustr. Script. and Texts.)

The practical application of these lofty contempla tions may be comprised under like heads.

from them

We learn

How glo

I. To aspire after the favour of GOD. rious is the nature of those creatures who enjoy it without alloy Yet, if we be but faithful, we shall be their companions now, their equals, or more than equals (S. Luke xx. 36; 1 S. John iii. 2) hereafter! Our bodies of infirmity, sickness, pain, shall be ex changed for strength, health, happiness, inconceivable. Our minds shall be enlarged beyond all that was ever dreamed of by sages on earth. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. How futile the desire of those who, while they almost deify Knowledge, would yet divorce it from Religion! When it is only through Religion that Knowledge can be ob tained in its perfection. And happiness, far beyond man's power to estimate or conceive, (Ps. xvi. 11; Isa. lxv. 4,) shall then be ours for evermore!

II. To cultivate holiness. We cannot expect to be

companions of angels hereafter, unless we bear some likeness to them in the present world. How should their lofty and ceaseless devotion, their complete, untiring obedience, excite us to combine contemplative and active service! Rom. xii. 11; S. John iv. 34; 1 Thess. v. 17. How should their reverent contemplation of divine mysteries, even of such as chiefly concern us, excite us to the study of the Holy Scriptures, wherein those mysteries are stored! How should their pleasure, even in our worship, reproach us when we come to Church with languid hearts and listless bodies! They, veiling their faces before the Throne of lightwe, too proud or too careless to bend a knee before the Divine Majesty! And if we are rarely occupied with our Bibles, rarely found in our Church; if we disregard those things which are the Angels' love, study, delight, how should we hope to live with Angels ? or how, indeed, should we be capable of enjoying their happiness? How does their pure, disinterested love. of us, their carol of peace and goodwill, their joy at the recovery of sinners, their abstinence from all railing, (S. Jude 9; 2 S. Pet. ii. 11,) reproach our coldness, our uncharitableness, our readiness to offend and take offence, our rejoicing in another's fall, our censorious language, our harsh and unbecoming judgments! Man, alas! dealing with his brother in redemption as the Prince of the Angels dared not (ovк ¿TÓλunσe) deal with the adversary of GOD and goodness! O brethren! if we were now like unto the Angels, how should we delight in "peace on earth, good will towards men!" how should we rejoice in returning sinners, lament for those who fall away!

how would our language be gentle and kind, our demeanour loving and peaceable, toward all men! How should we condescend to the humble at the command of GOD, (Rom. xii. 16; S. John xiii. 1-17,) when at the same command beings so far superior to ourselves undertake to minister unto us!

III. To thank GOD for His merciful condescension to us. He might have governed us by an immediate providence in all things. Why He has chosen to do this rather by the ministry of creatures, we may not altogether know; but we cannot be wrong in esteeming this a peculiar proof of His care-that He has assigned the charge of us to beings every way so superior to ourselves. What should we not be, for whose sakes GOD was willing to employ the ministrations of those who stand before His throne! Ps. cxliv. 3.1

IV. Many thoughts of solemnity and elevation. How shall we feel, who know that we are closed about with

"O the exceeding grace

Of highest GOD! that loves His creatures so,
And all His works with mercy doth embrace,

That blessed Angels He sends to and fro

To serve to wicked man, to serve His wicked foe!

"How oft do they their silver bowers leave,

To come to succour us, who succour want!
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant,
Against foul fiends to aid us militant !

They for us fight, they watch and duly ward,

And their bright squadrons round about us plant,

And all for love, and nothing for reward!

O why should heavenly GOD to men have such regard!"

Faery Queen, II. viii. 1, 2.

1

elestial guards, whom nothing but our rebellion cant issociate from us! innumerable spectators, applauding ur every effort, turning with shame and abhorrence rom our failures, hailing with joy our return to the aths of truth and light? How shall we feel here who know that we have Angels worshipping among us, Is our Church triumphantly avows at her Altars! Trisagion.) that we are the companions, fellow serants, fellow worshippers, of thrones, dominions, principalities, powers! that they have charge to minister to us! that we have, in some measure, been exalted above them! (Heb. ii. 5 seqq.,) that we shall partake their nature, if we persevere to the end! It may be that the price of redemption has purchased for man glories which, if unfallen, he could not have attained. And thus the contemplation of our own destiny may save us from the danger of regarding the angelic natures with a reverence detracting from our debt to 'their and our Creator. They seem indeed infinitely above us, but they are infinitely beneath Him. Heb i. 4-14; Job iv. 18; Ps. xcvii. 7; exlviii. 2; Song of the Three Children 37, (The term Xerovpykà πνενμата denotes adoration); S. Pet. iii. 22; Rev. xix. 10; xxii. 8, 9; Col. ii. 18, 19. But we may gaze up the ladder of Providence, and behold Angels crowding it even to the highest heavens, so we lose not sight of the LORD at the summit. "Let us be devoted to them, let us be grateful to so mighty guardians, let us reciprocate their love, let us honour them as much as we can, as much as we ought; notwithstanding, let all our love and honour be referred to Him from Whom both they and we receive the power to honour or to love,—the

qualifications to be loved or honoured." (S. Bernard. Serm. xi. in Ps. xci.) So long as we are restrained from an idolatrous veneration for the holy angels, we can neither love nor venerate them too highly. They are the elder children of the FATHER's house, to each of whom He hath said, "Son, thou art ever with Me, and all that I have is thine.” (S. Luke IV. 31.) We, at best, are returning prodigals, who cast ourselves on the free mercies of the heavenly Parent. Yet they repine not at our exaltation; they rejoice with our common FATHER and with us; they will be foremost to bring forth the best robe, and invest the penitent. Let us be thankful, then, that the Church permits us not to forget our heavenly friends. Let us walk as in their sight, and as they who hope to live with them; confessing their LORD and ours in thought, word, and deed; and looking in faith and hope to the fulfilment of His promise, S. Luke xii. 8. (See Rev. iii. 5.)

[Fathers and Divines are abundant to overflow on the subject. The preacher will find Hooker, Eccl. Pol. i. 4-6, exceedingly valuable: also Bishop Bull, Discourse on some Important Points of Christianity, xi. and xii.]