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They (believers) are soon to be associated with them, to be sharers of their privileges, partakers of their glory. Infantine as is their present weakness, they are considerable on account of their future greatness. The infant of the family is not neglected or despised by the more advanced branches of it; they anticipate the developement of its faculties. They know the time will arrive when it will attain an equality with themselves. They that shall be thought worthy to obtain that world, at the resurrection of the just, "shall be equal to the angels.' 1. Though they are now mortal, they are the heirs of immortality.

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2. Though they are encompassed with infirmities and imperfections, those blessed spirits well know they will shortly become entirely like Christ.

3. Though they are immersed in trifling cares, and have necessarily much intercourse with the things of time and sense, they entertain noble thoughts, cherish high expectations, and having the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan, earnestly desiring to be delivered. And, ever and anon wet with the dews of heaven, and anointed afresh with the Holy Spirit, they wear upon their spirits the divine impress, which these blessed spirits distinctly perceive.

II. The intimate union of believers with the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom angels are in immediate subjection, [also] entitles them to their benevolent offices. They are members of Christ, his brothers and sisters; they are taken into a

still closer relation than the conjugal one: and are parts of that nature in which the Lord is glorified.

The nature of the benevolent offices [angels] perform for the church. They are not the servants of the church, but the benefit of the church. is to minister in heaven, whence, on particular occasions, they are sent on benevolent embassies for the good of the church. What are these services? What have angels done, and what are they doing for the benefit, and in behalf of the heirs of salvation?

servants of Christ for the Their stated employment

1. The heirs of salvation are indebted to them for much prophetic information, as well as for many important directions. See Daniel. Paul

going to Macedonia.

2. The heirs of salvation have often been indebted to angelic interposition for their protection in seasons of extreme danger; for example, Daniel in the lion's den; Peter's rescue from prison; Peter and John, (see Acts v.); the deliverance of Elisha at Dothan.* "He shall give his angels charge over thee, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." "The angel of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him." Many secret deliverances for which we are indebted to angelic influence.

3. The support which good men have received in the season of extreme pain and suffering. "An angel appeared unto him, strengthening him."

* 2 Kings vi. 15-17.

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4. A moral influence, equal in extent, though of an opposite nature, to that which evil spirits exert.

5. To assist in dying moments; to convey the spirit to the mansions of peace: they let in those gleams of heaven into the soul.

6. To gather the saints [together] in the presence of Christ at the last day, and to vindicate their cause by a final victory over their enemies. "The harvest is the end of the world, and the angels are the reapers." "The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire."

Improvement.

I. How great the dignity of real christians. II. How delightful the prospect of the heavenly world.

VII.

ON THE PERSONALITY OF SATAN.

1 PET. v. 8.-Your adversary the devil goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

It is highly probable, independently of revelation, that there are many orders of beings superior to [man.]* To suppose our own species to be

* Mr. Hall preached three sermons at Leicester on the personality and agency of Satan, besides that which he introduced into his series of lectures on the Socinian Controversy. The substance of these he also condensed into a single sermon, and

the highest production of divine power, would indicate irrational and puerile presumption. When we consider the infinite variety of creatures presented to our notice in the descending scale betwixt us and nothing, it is agreeable to analogy to conceive the number is not less of those which are above us; the probability of which is enhanced by the discoveries now made of the extent of the universe, and of the existence of bodies, compared to which the globe which we inhabit is but a spot. While there are known to be material systems immensely superior in magnitude to that with which we are conversant, what should lead us to doubt that there are, in the intellectual world, beings possessing an equal mental superiority? It surely will not be pretended that there are any properties discernible in man, that mark him out as the most transcendant workmanship of Deity, the masterpiece of almighty power, or that there is any ground for supposing creative energy suspreached at Cambridge in October, 1823, and afterwards at Bristol. Indeed, he thought the subject of so much moment, and so strangely neglected, that he prepared his three sermons for publication; but, by some singular accident, the manuscript was lost, just as he had completed it. After an interval of three or four years, he recommenced the labour of writing these sermons, but never finished it. Some imperfect notes have been found since his death. They appear to belong to different discourses, and were evidently written at different times. Imperfect as they are, they open some interesting channels of investigation, and are therefore inserted in this collection.

For the general course of the author's reasoning, see his account of Lecture XI. in the summary of his lectures on the Socinian Controversy, page 20 of this volume. —ED.

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pended its operations here, rather than at any other point in its progress. The distance between us and nothing is finite, yet the interval is occupied and filled up with innumerable orders of sensitive beings: how improbable is it, then, that the distance between us and Deity, which is infinite, is an empty void!

Nor is it any just objection against the supposition in question, that these superior orders are not usually discernible by our senses. The information derived from our senses, aided and corrected by reflection, is a sufficient guide in the practical concerns of life, but is a very uncertain criterion by which to determine the actual existence of things beyond a very narrow limit. Of those that are known to exist, some beings are so minute as to elude their notice, others so vast as to exceed their grasp. There are, probably, many material substances, whose subtlety exempts them entirely from that cognizance; there are others which can only be perceived by the help of in

Whether there is in the universe any being purely spiritual, any perfectly detached from matter, except the Great Supreme, is a question, perhaps, not easy to solve, nor is the solution of it at all essential to our present inquiry. God is a spirit, and we cannot conceive of any portion or modification of matter as entering into his essence, without being betrayed into contradiction and absurdity. In regard to every other class of

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