THE FALL OF ANGELS LAID OPEN, 

I. In the Greatness of the Sin that caused it.  
II. In the Grievousness of the Punishment inflicted for it.  
III. The Honour of Divine Goodness, in permitting the one; and of Divine Justice, in inflicting the other, Vindicated.  
IV. And lastly, Some Inferences relating to practise, deducted from it.   IN A SERMON Preached October 14, 1683. Before the Right Worshipful the MAYOR, RECORDER, ALDERMEN, SHERIFFS, &c. At St. Nicholas Church( on the Afternoon) in the Town and County of New Castle upon tine. By Thomas Davison, A. M. Presbyter in the Church of England, at Balmbrough in Northumberland, and sometimes Student in St. John's college in Cambridge.  {αβγδ}. Be not high minded but Fear, Rom. 11.20. For those that walk in Pride, God is able to abase, Dan. 4.37. 
LONDON, Printed for R. Clavell, at the Peaccck in St. Paul's Church-yard, and are to be Sold by Joseph Hall, Book-seller in New-Castle, 1684.   

To the Reverend, and Right Worshipful John Sudbury, Doctor in Divinity, Dean of Durham, and one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary.  
Sir,  
THE Great Philosopher tells us, that we bring along with our Birth, a 
{αβγδ}. Arist. Metaph.  desire of Knowledge, whose Embryo, or imperfect Faetus( as it were,) is by Speculation( as we grow up in years) formed into the perfect lineaments and proportions thereof: Which, as it improves the mind, though but in quest after the nature of the meanest Creature, the smallest Insect; yet, it is always accompanied with what renders Speculation and Study( things otherwise wearisome to Flesh and Spirit) very delightful and pleasant. Nay, often diverts the natural Appetite or Desire from its necessary Food, and Refreshment: Methinks {αβγδ}, I have found it; and, Conclusum est contra Manichaeos speaks no less: And therefore the more sublime that the Object is, the more sublimated must the Pleasure be, that springs from the Speculation of it. So that the Contemplation of the State and Condition of Angels before the fall, hath, concomitant to it, such satisfaction and pleasure, as makes the nearest approach to that, which flows from the Theory of God himself; whether we consider them in their natural and personal endowments, as Individuals: Or, as they are the most Sacred, Associated Members of the Glorious Assembly of the first born; 
Heb. 12.23.  Or, as they are the most officious ministering Spirits, sent forth with Power and Authority from above 
Hence called, {αβγδ}.  
Heb. 1. ult.  to minister unto them, who shall be heirs of Salvation. In each respect we may behold them with a pleasant Eye, and think on them with joyful Hearts. For their perfections present us with the most refulgent, and brightest displays of Divine Wisdom, Power, and Goodness. Their understandings being comprehensive of the greatest Truth, nay, capable to behold( without a waterish Eye, which no Mortals can do) the brightest exhibitions, manifestations thereof; for they could behold 
{αβγδ}.  
St. Mat. 18.20.  the face of God in Glory. Their Wills being of such rectitude, and uprightness, that the chiefest good( God himself) was then their only delight; and their Affections were then so sweetly composed and regulated with Serenity and Calmness,( like the Heavens, which the Angels inhabited) that they could be affencted with nothing, but the Emanations of a pure Love, unmixed Joy; and, with what did minutely raise their Admirations, new discoveries of the Essence or Being of God. Which, when we seriously ponder and meditate on, cannot but diffuse within us a mighty Pleasure and Delight: If again we consider them, as consociated in a blessed Community, in which we may conceive them not disputing( like Zebede's Sons or Children, St. Matth. 20.21. for Superiority, nor ambitiously coveting the highest Dignity) but most zealously affecting, who should first execute the Commands and Pleasure of his Heavenly sovereign. Hence, by St. Clement, they are proposed to the Corinthians, 
{αβγδ}. And Clem. Epist. ad Corinth. 76. Edit. Vess. Ox. nile. praeter jussum, ac voluntatem Dei faciunt. Lact. de verit. lib. 7. c. 7.  as the most remarkable Instances of Obedience: by our Saviour 
St. Matth. 6.10. ( in that Petition, thy will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven by the Holy Angels) as the fittest Presidents for our imitating of them in the like practise of duty, and submissiveness. And the Psalmist characteriseth them by it. 
Psal. 103.20.  Ye his Angels, that do his Commands. No jarrings could then be heard amongst these morning Stars, these Sons of God, when they shouted for Joy 
Job. 38.7.  but such as rendered their Consort( the music of the Heavens) most ravishing, which was indeed the true and substantial harmony of the Spheres; that of Aristotle's being but Light and airy, which he imagined( to have been) in his solid Orbs. How can then such Angelical strains, such Celestial Harmony, such Spiritual consort but most sensibly affect us? Cannot these raise our Spirits, excite our Delight, and fill us with wonderful and surpassing Joys, in our Contemplations of them? For though we might not be bettered by their Natural or Essential perfections, more than to admire them, and sincerely to bless and praise God,( the Author and Giver of them:) And though their Joys are so sublime and spiritual, that only a state of absolute perfection, is capable of a full enjoyment of them: So that embodied Spirits( as ours are) cannot engross the one, nor sublimate the other into an extract of delight, yet the meditation of both doth minister a mighty Pleasure to Contemplative Souls; which cannot but be greatly inhanc'd, if, Thirdly and lastly, we consider them as ministering Spirits, Heavenly Messengers( their Names 
{αβγδ}. annunciare Hesych.  import no less) in their obsequiousness, and readiness to do all, and these the best of Offices for us: As an Angel did, when he winged from Heaven that surprising Message,( to the blessed Virgin) ( f) Fear not, 
St. Luk. 1.28, 35.  the Power of the most high shall over-shadow thee. As another did, when he declared Christ's Birth, exhibition of his Incarnation, became the first Evangelist of the good tidings 
St. Luke. 2.12.  of the greatest Joy; as a whole Chorus did, when celebrated Christ's Natalitia, Birth day, with Gloria Patri in excelsis, i.e. Glory to God in the highest. As when they ministered to our Saviour in his Agony in the Garden, 
St. Luke 22.43.  became Guardian Angels to his Body, when in its Sepulchre, in its Tomb. 
St. Joh. 20.13.  As an Angel did, who declared and published Christ being risen from the Dead: 
Ps. 24 9, 10.  And as a whole choir of Angels did, when they ascended up on high with Christ, when he lead Captivity Captive, Sin, Satan, Death, and the Grave, and sung his Epinicion, triumphant Song over all these, with, Be ye open, ye everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may enter in:( l) The Care of our welfare and happiness, being delegated to them, as their peculiar Province or Task: So Justin Martin observes. 
{αβγδ}. Just. Apol. p. 44.  Which Athenagoras conceived to be the only reason, why God created them. 
{αβγδ}. Athen legate. p. 27  Hence 
{αβγδ}, Orig. cont. cells. lib. 8. p. 398.  Origen calls them the invisible Husbandmen, sent and set on purpose( as it were) to dig and Till in Christs Vineyard: Nay, so particularly are they concerned for our happiness, that 
{αβγδ}. Orig. cont. cells. l. 8. p. 400.  this Father brings them in, as Assistants to our Devotions, in not ceasing to pray, though ours, not their necessities( for they have none) requiring it: Which should raise our Veneration of them, but not to a pitch of Adoration, which some most wickedly have done, by Invocating of them, Praying to them, and so doth confer Divine Honour and Worship on them, which ought upon no account to be given to them,( as this very Father 
{αβγδ}, &c. Ibid. p. 416.  asserts) both in respect, that God did forbid it, Rev. 19.10.22.9. Besides, as this Father observes, they are as much endeared to us, do as affectionately and as readily promote our good, when they are neglected by us, as if we daily offered up Sacrifices of Praises, and of Prayers to them. For they are such refined Spirits,( not like those grosser ones, which, some do fancy, feed on the Fruits of the Air) that the richest Perfumes, sweetest Incense that can arise from Altars, cannot recreate or refresh, feed and nourish them. So that when we consider them, thus sensibly and feelingly affencted, and concerned for us: As if the Salvation, which they declared, had been wrought to have advanced their Nature, and not that of ours, which is much below, and inferior to theirs. When we consider such an Heavenly temper, surpassing sweetness was then the Grace and Comeliness of these first born of the Creation, and of Glory. How blessed then must their state and condition be, when they stood in the presence of one infinitely wiser than Solomon, even in the presence of that Holy God, who is the fountain of all Wisdom 
St. Jam. 1.17.  being then immediately 
1 Thess. 4.9. {αβγδ}.  taught of God the Precepts and Principles thereof. The delight which flows from the Poetical fancies of the pleasant walks, delightful groves, flowery banks, fruitful Trees, and of the Fragrancy, Lusciousness of the Fruit which grows thereon: Of the swift Currents, pellucid streams, of the musical Harmony arising from the pebbles therein; of the solitariness, and serenity of vital breathings of the circumambient Air, and of fresh Beauties, renewed every moment, to recreate and delight the Sensitive Appetite, in the Elysiums, is but airy and Transient, and like the fancies that forged them, but imaginary: Nay, what springs from the serious consideration of mans Blessedness, in his state of Innocency, is but fading, if compared with that substantial and sublimated Joy, which overflows the Religious Soul, in its Meditations and Contemplations of the most Glorious and Blessed State of Angels before the fall. The remarkable Instances and Indications above-named, of their having once so dearly loved us, should raise our Joy into Transport, and Ecstacy. But alas! how are there of these mighty ones fallen in, nay, fallen from, their Heavenly places? How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the morning? 
Isa. 14.12.  How are they become changed in their Nature, as well as Offices by their fall? For the Angels, confirmed in Goodness, rejoice at the Conversion of a Sinner, 
St. Luke 15.10.  which now becomes the great grief and trouble of the fallen ones; but if he dyes an Impenitent, their greatest Joy. When they were Angels of Light, we might have followed them, as faithful Guides( illuminating Ministers, as St. Barnabas 
{αβγδ} Barnab. Epist. Edit. Voss.  calls them) to Bliss and Glory. But now, when they appear but with the resemblance of such, it's to seduce us into the Precipices of Perdition and Destruction, it being as Marrow and Fatness to their Chieftain, his main business and employ( he going about daily, nay, hourly) to prey on, and to devour us. 
1 St. Pet. 5.8. Rev. 9.11. 〈◇〉 〈◇〉  Hence he is called, the Destroyer. But no wonder, it should be thus with these Apostate Spirits, for it befell them, what the 
Des-Cartes de Princ.& de Meteor.  ingenious Philosopher observes might happen to the forming of Comets( blazing stars) viz. they receding from God, the 
Centre.  Fountain of light, become 
absorbed.  swallowed up in utter darkness, wherein( like blazing stars) they appear, not only to portend, but to project what's fatal, ruinous to Kingdoms, Countries, and to Mankind, as St. 
Istam ind dejectam in hoc aereo caelo tumulantem, Aug. de Civ. lib. 11. c. 33. Non est potestas, quae comparetur Diabolicae supper terram; quantum ode●unt ( speaking of Evil Spirits) quantum possunt nocere sineretur. In cenderent urbes, vasterent agros flumina,& Maria in Region●s mi●tecent, ven●m cibis poculisque diffunderent, homines, bestias torquerent, ac interimerent, lib. 11. c. 33. p. 687.  Augustin observes, & L. Vives, in his Comments on him. For they are become the Principalities, the Powers, the Rulers of the darkness of this World, which war against us, the Spiritual Wickednesses, or( {αβγδ},) wicked Spirits, in high places,, or Heavenly( {αβγδ}) as the Apostle declares, Eph. 6.12. Now since such are become not only wretched and miserable in themselves; but( what is much to be lamented) most mischievous to Mankind, by what's past recovery, their Fall. Well may our Affection and Passion become changed with its Object, sorrow succeed in the place of Joy; the Scene of our Imagination become hung with a mourning Black, whilst wh look on the fall of Angels, in its sable colours, with weeping Eyes, and atone the Funeral of their Felicity, with full Hearts. Whose deplorable state and condition is( attempted to be) described in the following Sermon. Which when Preached, though the Delivery might not command the Attention, excite the Devotion, of most its Hearers( which alas! the most excellent Sermons, how pathetically soever delivered, seldom effect) yet it did not miss altogether of its desired end, on the minds of some, especially on a most Learned Hearer thereof, whose Judicious Observation on part of the Reply 
See page. 31. rism  gave me the assurance( which was my great satisfaction) that the Seed sown did not fall altogether on Barren, but on such Good ground, as not only brought forth what was profitable, even to the sour himself, but what hath ministered an occasion of Printing, what was then Preached; which I was the more inclined to do, in hopes that it might have the good hap, to be better understood( when Metaphysical, and Theological Truths, are brought down to Sense, presented to the Eye,) than, when it was but 
Segniùs irritant animum demissa per aures Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus,& quae, &c. Horat.  cursorily delivered. And so by Gods Grace may gain on more, to become Proselytes to, to believe, the Truths then declared, and to bemoan what mischief Sin did once in Heaven; as, alas! it daily doth on Earth, even in our Holy Places, in our Churches, when at same time we cannot be profited by what becomes edifying to others; when the wicked one, either steals away our Attentiveness, from under Instruction; our Hearts from receiving the good seed, or else chokes them with( what will prove pungent, and pricking in the other World) the Thorns, the Carkings, and the Cares of this. The harsh, and severe Censures of which, I am once more to undergo, foreseing that I shall lie under the Imputation, in being Guilty of( what is condemned, as abominable, in the following Sermon; and, as that, which caused the Angels fall) Pride and Vanity. In presuming to Print my Conceptions of so great a Truth, in so mean a dress, as may neither take the Humour, nor comport with that Gallantry and gaiety of Wit, now in vogue. Which I am no further concerned to take notice of, than to pity it, when what is serious cannot affect it; and if it doth, it's only when a Levity of Spirit, and of Fancy goeth along with it. For I am conscious to myself,( which to me is better than a thousand Witnesses) that as my Conceptions flowed from a profound, and most humble apprehension of the inability of the Self-sufficiency of the best of Creatures, to secure their standing, either in Grace or Glory, without a Divine support and supply: So also that I have no other design in the publishing of them, than to secure firm and unshaken my Readers Salvation, and my own, in that state of Grace, unto which it hath pleased God to call us. And therefore, though this be but as the Widows Mite, cast out of the whole and necessary substance, St. Mark 12.42.( which I have collected, gathered together) into the charitable Corban, for the public good: Which, whilst others that have gone before me in this Subject, have enriched out of their Treasure 
Overplus of Learning, {αβγδ}. As Exemp. Cantab. renders it.  yet I hope( that in the great day of Retribution) it may find acceptance at the hand of that Divine Justice, of that Divine Goodness, which it doth vindicate. Which I should very groundlessly expect, if I did bottom on( what broken the neck of the Apostate Spirits Felicity) Pride; or on a vain conceit of an intellectual super-excellency. On these Reasons therefore it is,( Honoured Sir) that I appear again in Print. And it is also on as weighty ones, that I presume once more to prefix( your Great Name) to another Dedication. Not only in that it's but just and equitable to offer up of the following Harvest; to whom the first fruits hath been already Consecrated; and this the rather, in that the Harvest( related to in the judgement to come, which is insisted on in the Sermon) is, That, in which the Holy Angels shall be the Reapers, St. Matth, 13.41. To whose state, and condition in Heaven, Yours seems eminently to bear a resemblance here on Earth, not only for the sigleness of Your state, and adorned with the Grace thereof, a Caelibate Continency, but also in respect of Your most Penetrating and Piercing judgement, in the clear discoveries of the greatest Truths,( short only of the Angelical) in that it lies under the disadvantage( from which theirs is freed) of being embodied. Not only( I say) on this account, but also in regard of the Dignity and Excellency of those things treated of in the following Discourse, viz. Of the Detection of those wil●ss, and Windings, of those Insidious insinuations( which St. 
St. Ign. Epist. ad Tral. p. 57. Edit. Vost.  Ignatius calls {αβγδ} Insidias Diaboli, St. Paul, Eph. 6. 112. {αβγδ}, i. e. The studied and contrived Plots of the Devil to deceive, and to destroy us. Which nothing, but the unwearied watchfulness and refined wisdom of such dignified Persons, as yourself,( being set apart to watch for the Salvation of Souls) can defeat and disappoint. As also of the Vindication of that Goodness, which hath promised( what generally hath been performed in all Ages) to Persons of Your most Honourable Order, viz. to cloath her Priests with Salvation, in its three most important significations, viz. with Plenty, Protection, and with Dignity, as the Learned Dr. 
Dr. Barrows Consecrat. Serm.  Barrow hath observed. And in that it presents you with the Vindication of the Honour of that Justice, which enjoins double Honour to be given to such painful Labourers in Christs Vineyard, as You have evidenced yourself to have been. These recommend the following Sermon to Your protection, and bespeak Your favourable acceptance of this Dedication thereof. Though Divine Goodness, and Divine Justice be such mighty powerful things, as do rather confer safety on, than stand in need of any defence from, the best of Men. Yet their being publicly owned, in such a degenerate Age as this, by Persons that live under the aweful apprehensions of the one, and under the endearments of the other, as yourself doth; their being publicly owned by such, will give a public Character of the necessity, and advantageousness, as well as of the excellency of detecting the Stratagems of Satan, of opposing that great Interest he hath already made in the World; and of vindicating the Honour of the Justice of God, and of his Goodness: But its the meanness of the management of the Discourse itself, which I am to Apologize for, and to supplicate Your Candour in. Being very sensible that what is delivered in it, may not pass withall( if with any) for Demonstrations; nor the Reasons offered, with that strength as to overthrow all obstinate Gainsayers, or be approved of, as suiting the depth of the enquiry into the Original Sin, which caused the Angels fall; or be esteemed such, as the Vindication of the Honour of Divine Goodness and Justice might require. Yet the fall of Angels being very mysterious, and two such eminent Perfections in the Divine Nature or Essence, as Justice and Goodness are, being most sublime, and High: The darkness of the Mystery will( I hope) excuse the Reasons given, why they appear but as Glimpses to, in the discovery of it; and the height of the Perfections, will pled for the shortness of those shadows projected from( in the Conceptions of) them: And also, for my drawing, in this Dedication, the Happiness of the fallen Angels, which they once enjoyed, Comae Gloriolae encircling their Heads, till error seized these, or so Eclipsed the refulgency and brightness of those. And indeed, their not standing long in happiness, gave me not time enough to draw it to the Life, to the largest proportion. And the darkness, which doth now invelop them, since their apostasy, is too thick for my weak Eyes to penetrate, and so am forced to present it but with faint shadows, and some light colours. A skilful Artist's, a more speculative Soul's Pencilcan only set it, Sir, to Your Great judgement, with such palpableness and affrightingness, as will best svit with, and correspond to the grievousness of the Sin, that caused it, Degeneracy of the Nature in it, and to the Despondency of Fiends and Devils groaning under it. But that I may not any longer interrupt, Sir, those Sacred Hours and Minutes, which you have Dedicated to Devotion; I have only to add, That long may you live an Honour and Grace to this famous Church of England, a Wise and Powerful Watchman to discover, and to discomfit the wicked Machinations of the great Adversary of Souls, that You may yet live to gain many Proselytes to Christianity, to the overthrowing the Principalities of Darkness, and of Idolaty. That Piety may ever flourish in Your Practices, Holiness blossom forth in its Beauties, displaying themselves in Your Religious Couversation, That Your Name may be famous on the Records of time to all Posterity, and that it may be found registered in the Book of Life, studded with Additional rays of Glory, amongst the Names of those wise ones, who have Converted many from Sin unto Righteousness, to shine forth like the brightness of the Sun, to an ever Blessed Eternity, is the sincere Desire, and Hearty Prayer of,  
Sir, Your Worships true Admirer, and most Devoted Servant, Tho. Davison. Balmbrough, May 29, 1684.   
2 St. Pet. II. 4. 
For if God spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to Hell, and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto judgement.  
THE Author of this Epistle, and Apostle of the Circumcision, St. Peter, knowing that as there were false Prophets amongst the Israelites, so there would arise up false Doctors and Teachers amongst the Christians, whose Wolsish inward Ravenings, being covered with the softness of the Sheeps clothing, would Prey on many in Christ's Fold, by seducing of their Intellectuals, or debauching of their Morals: That, by teaching them destructive, damnable 
{αβγδ}.  Doctrines, such as this, viz. That it was consistent with the Salvation of the Soul, for the safety of the Body, in times of Persecution, even to deny the Lord that bought them, v. 1st. This, in gratifying of Sensuality, living in uncleanness( things mighty pleasing to, and prevailing over Flesh and Blood,) as appears from v. 2d. Where several Copies red 
See Oz. Test.  {αβγδ}, lascivious, for {αβγδ} pernicious Doctrines; and that the practise of such Impurities, was co-herent with, and agreeable to the Profession of Purity, and of Holiness. Such unchristian Doctrines, and bestial uncleannesses, were Taught and practised by the gnostic Christians, who having corrupt Nature to work upon, and making use of the sly Insinuations of fair Speeches to set off both; He foretells, they should prevail( as they did) on too too many to believe their Heretical Doctrines, and to follow their Vicious Practices; to the disgrace of Christianity, by reason of whom the ways of Truth should be evilly spoken of, as is declared v. 2d. And therefore the Apostle not only forewarns the Hebrew Christians to whom he writes these Epistles, that they might be fore-armed, both against the unsoundness of the Doctrines, and against the corruptness of the Manners of such false Teachers; but also to prevent their being imposed on, prepossessed with an Opinion, that is both groundless and graceless, yet most prevailing amongst Wicked Men, viz. Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed, therefore the hearts of the sons of Men are fully bent in them to do evil, Eccles. 8.11. They taking an occasion( from Gods forbearing to Punish) of their presuming to commit Sin. Whereas he assures these Jewish Proselytes, that it was a delusion, only embraced by such as were given over to believe Lies: For whilst God is whetting of his Sword of Justice, it's that it may cut with the keener edge, and the longer he's in bringing the blow about, it's to bring it home with the greater force: Hence he tells them that there was a 
{αβγδ}.  sudden Destruction did attend such false Teachers, v. 1st. That their Damnation did not 
{αβγδ}.  slumber even in this State, v. 3d. and that they should be awakened by it, with the greatest consternation and amazement, in the other, v. 9. where they should be reserved unto the day of judgement to be punished. And to confirm the Truth of these his Predictions against false Teachers, He evidently doth it by three famous Instances of Gods appearing against the Wicked with severe Judgments. The first is Gods pouring out the Vials of his Wrath upon the People of the Old World, for their Debauchedness, when he swept them away with a Deluge; A fair President for an intemperate Age to take warning by: Another of the hotness of his Wrath against the Sodomites, which the heats of their Incestuous Lusts had so kindled, that it burnt down their Habitations to Ashes; as if their Sin( like a Plague) had so crept into their Walls, that nothing could cleanse them, but the Flames that did consume them: And the third is set forth in the Text; How Pride broken the Neck of the fallen Angels Felicity; how of being fixed Stars in the Firmament of Glory, they are( by it) become fallen Ones: And how, instead of moving in Regions of Light, and of their being Angels thereof, they are now become the wandering, and affrighting Ghosts of utter darkness, under the Chains of which they are reserved unto judgement, as is expressed in the Text.  
For the better understanding of which, I shall speak to these four things.  
First, show the greatness of the Sin, that caused the Angels Fall.  
Secondly, The grievousness of the Punishment inflicted for it.  
Thirdly, show how the Honour of Divine Goodness in the permitting of the one, and of Divine Justice in inflicting of the other, is vindicated.  
Fourthly, Speak to some Inferences, relating to Practices deducted from it.  
First, As to the greatness of the Sin, I shall consider it,  
First, In itself. Secondly, In its Circumstances. Thirdly, In its Concomitants or inseparable Companions.  
First, As for their Sin, It's generally conceived to have been Pride; their over-valuing, too highly esteeming those perfections, which they had received from Heavens Bounty; their being too fond on what were but lent to them; their doting on them, as their only darlings and peculiars; their saying( as it were) within themselves like nabuchadnezzar, Dan. 4.30. in the height and haughtiness of their Spirits, Are not these the perfections, which we have raised? Are not they preserved by the might of our Power? Are not they established and secured by our own strength, for the Honour of our Majesties? Is there any( within these Dominions) equal to us? Are there any Gods besides us, or above us, to be Worshipped and Adored by us? Pride representing their Perfections( tho' they bore not the proportion of a Point) as commensurate to those infinite ones that are in God: It magnifying what was limited and finite in them, into an incomprehensible Magnitude and Bigness: By which they became so intoxicated in their Understandings, that they could not stand firm in the Firmament above; they could not keep their Principality, 
{αβγδ}  as St. judas expresseth it: Nay, and as a consequence thereof, there seized on them such forgetfulness, that they did not so much as know him for a time that made them: And when they came to themselves, and had the sense of his Deity so awakened in them, as to own him, even then they despised and disdained to think, that he should be infinitely better than, and superior to them. Tho' the free communication of Divine Goodness, the unconstrained issuings forth of Divine Grace, the alwise contrivance of infinite Wisdom, and the Emanations of almighty Power did conspire, and concur to the bringing these Fallen Angels out of a State of Nothing; nay, to the exalting of them into a State of Glory; yet they made no other returns to the boundless Liberality of Heaven, than those base and ungrateful ones of contempt and scorn. For, whereas their Perfections being but limited, should have humbled them; and being but borrowed, should have obliged them beyond expression: In lieu thereof, their Ingratitude was as great as those surpassing Excellencies were Glorious, which God had bestowed on them. For, they 

De Regno cum Deo contenderent,& quasi parum fuiss●t in partem possessionis adinitti, ex a quo d vidi totum volverunt. Aug. de civ. L. 11. c. 11.  
Divisum cum Jove imperium haberent. Idem ibid.& Vives Annot.   contended with God about the sovereignty of Heaven; they would have divided what by Right of Creation did solely belong unto him entire and whole, the Dominion and Rule thereof; and they would have been half Sharers, if not sole Engrossers of its Felicity. Tho' they were advanced to those high and most honourable Dignities, viz. of being Thrones, Principalities, and Powers, Colos. 1. v. 16. Yet their being Thrones did not satisfy them; nothing but their being set thereon as the only Kings thereof, could do it: Nor their being Principalities, unless they were the only Princes; nor their being simply Powers, if they were not the Almighties. So vainly did they affect the highest pitch of perfections! In the midst of these their swelling boundless Thoughts, were those of their Subordination to God, sunk and drowned, the levity of their towering Imaginations, swimming and floating at top. For, as the most Judicious Mr. Hooker observes, 
Eccles. Pol. p. 75.  By the reflex of their Understanding, and being held with Admiration of their own Sublimity, and Honour, the memory of their Subordination to God, and dependency on him, was lost in this conceit. How effronting then must it be to the Divine Majesty, when these his ungrateful Creatures, these his Rebellious Subjects, these his unnatural Sons( for in all these Relations, the Apostate Angels stood to God Almighty) contended for his Heavenly Crown, and this under his most endearing Obligations to them. For them to become Competitors for what they had no right to; nay, were not capable of ( à parte ante) his uncreated, and essential Glory; What Majesty could brook it? Would not Meekness itself be enraged at it? How daring to, and provoking of Divine Fury, must the very Attempt of these fallen Spirits,( for which they are deservedly charged with folly) 
Job 4.18.  be; when, being but Rivulets flowing from, they swelled as if they themselves had been the Fountain of, Divine Wisdom? How did they slight, nay, designed to have slur'd Holiness itself, when what was unclean and unholy( such they were become by their Pride) would vie with it for Spotlesness and Purity? How enraging then must it be to a Jealous God, when the best of his Creatures become so vile and degenerate, as to rival with him, for his Eternal Honour and Happiness? To become enamoured only with their Painted, borrowed Complexion,( drawn by Heavens Pencil on the Face of their Beings) in contempt and slight of his intrinsical, Essential Holiness and Beauty, which is altogether Lovely? What Sin then could be greater? What Sin could be more grievous to Gods Holy Spirit, than this of Pride that caused the Angels fall? And that it was the principal and their peculiar sin, is not only evident from St. Augustin, 
Causa miseriae malerum Angelorum quid aliud, quam Superbia nuncupatur? Aug. de civ. lib. 12. c. 6. p. 699.& lib. 11. Cap. 33. p. 685.  and most of the Ancients being of this Opinion, 
Scoto non placet peccatum Angelorum fuisse Superbiam, credo ob id selum, quòd Thomae placuerat sequenti velerum Scriptoram sententiam, ibid. p. 701.  though Scotus to across Aquinas denied it; but also from what is preservative or expressive of the common Sense of Mankind, viz. that Proverbial saying, As proud as the Devil: Which I am sure the prevalency of a Philautia, self-love over these Wicked Spirits, in this their lapsed State, doth confirm. For even yet, they pride themselves to be possessed( as we red frequently in the Gospels they were) of Mens Bodies, which should be the Temples of Gods Holy Spirit; And their assuming to themselves Divine Worship, as they did, when they commanded not only Brutal, but human Sacrifices to be offered up to them: Which many of the unnatural and bloody( but most strongly deluded) Parents amongst the Israelites did readily obey and perform, when they caused their Seed, viz. Children, pass through the Fire to Moloch the Idol God of the Moabites, as we red 
Lev. 18.21.20.2. v. 2 Kings 23.10. v. Ps. 106.37. They sacrificed their Sons and Daughters unto Devils.  they did for this purpose, for this very end,( Which shows the height of their Pride in their degenerate State) that the Name of God might be profaned by it, Lev. 18.21. Nay, how did their Chieftain swell with Pride, when he would have tempted our Saviour,( to it) with, All these things will I, give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me? Matth. 4.9. And was it not a great Instance of the Devils Pride, when he would be only Worshipped,( as of old he was) in, and under the form of a Serpent; wherein he had done the greatest mischief to Mankind? 
See Dr. Still. Orig. Sacr. p. 517.  But this may suffice as to the greatness of the sin,( considered in itself) which caused their Fall. I proceed to the second general, to consider it in its Circumstances.  
First, It was the first Sin that ever was committed in the World. Not only in specie, viz. of Proud and Haughty Thoughts; but of all other Sins of what kind soever. For it was not their desiring the advance to, of what their Natures might be capable of; nor, their delighting in, what Excellencies God had bestowed on them; but( as you have heard) their doting on them, as their Darlings, as their only beloved, which became their Sin. The formality or essential ingredient of which consisted rather in conversione ad semetipsos; in their reflecting on, and fond admiring of themselves, and their finite perfections, as St. Aug. observes, 
Se illi praeferendo, id quod minus est, praetulerunt. St. Aug. de civ. lib. 12. c. 6. p. 699.  than in aversione à Deo Creatore, as some have imagined the principal constituent of the first Sin to have consisted in. Which carries not any clear, and convincing Evidence along with it: For tho' it's true, aversion, or turning from God, be antecedent to their conversion, looking back upon themselves; yet Aversion as such could not be( I humbly conceive) that which makes up the Nature of the first Sin; for then the reflext acts of the Blessed Spirits in Heaven, evidencing themselves in the Contemplations of their derivative Perfections, which must precede their grateful return of Honour and Praise to God, the Author and giver of them; and those of a true Penitent on Earth, by which he calls his Sins to remembrance, sorroweth for them, and repents of them,( which are always seconded with Gods special Grace) might( I conceive) lie under an imputation; and then it might not be safe, either to bless God for those good things, which the Holy Angels and we have received from him; or, to sorrow for those ill things which( alas) we daily commit against him. Neither do I think that the first Sin could be( what others have imagined) sacrilege. For, we cannot but conceive, that they must first assume Divine Honour to themselves, before it be imagined that they would rob God of his; that they must first think themselves worthy of what they assumed, ere they could wrong God, of what was his peculiar Glory and. Worship: 〈◇〉 that sacrilege could not be the first Sin; it being subsequent to, and that which did result from it: And that Pride, which caused the Angels fall, was before Adams transgression in Paradise,( the Creation of the Angels being not mentioned in the six days work; and there being( even at this day) many amongst us; who will not believe any thing, but what is disertis verbis, expressly declared in holy Scripture) may raise the doubt, which the Serpent, a disguised Devil, the chief of the fallen Angels, who by way of eminency is called the Wicked One, 
St. Math. 4.1.2.10. v.  and the Tempter, tempting of our first Parents, may resolve, clear the doubt, quash the surmise and supposition on which it is grounded.  
But not to misspend time, and to abuse my Readers patience by a frivolous enquiry, how long these fallen Angels continued in that Truth from which they are fallen; or Magisterially determine of the day, and hour, or minute in which they did fall, these being Mysteries, which a too near, and too subtle enquiry into, may rather upbraid our curiosity, than give any real satisfaction, or improvement to our rational Faculties, which are at a loss in the researches after them; as L. Vives observes 
Qualia sint momenta apud Deum& Angelos nescimus. : But leaving these hidden and deep Mysteries to him, to whom all things are naked and bare, what is revealed concerning them may satisfy us, viz. the Devil so early tempting of Adam; and our Saviour declaring that he stood not in the Truth 
St. Jo. 8.44. , may ascertain to us, that these fallen Angels abode was not long in Happiness. 
Tam exiguam illud temporis fu t, quod, prius quam à Deo defecerunt, inter fluxit, ut nihil esse videatur.  And therefore I proceed to show the heinousness of their Sin, as it was the first, before which there was no such thing as Original 
The very Angel of Death and Fiend, of Darkness. {αβγδ} as seraphic Smith most aptly expresseth it. Dr. Smith Disc. p. 45 2.  Sin, to bring along with its Birth Rebellion against the Divine Majesty; to be born with the defaced Image of God; to become the disgrace of the whole Creation, and the burden under which it groans, Rom. 8.22. till Pride appeared, that stupendious, and prodigious Monster, loaden with all these deformities. For it was the first Falsity 
{αβγδ}, &c. Rom. 1.25.  that dared to confront the God of Truth; by it these lapsed Spirits changed the Truth of God into a lie; worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator, God blessed for ever, as St. Paul expresseth it, Rom. 1.25. It was that which broken the Chain of Unity, by which the Creature was most firmly linked to its Creator: That, by which the fallen Angels transgressed the Best and the ancientest of Laws, viz. the Eternal; of that Law, which was established by the highest Authority, viz. God's; of a Law bottomed on the greatest Right, to wit, that of Creation; of a Law that was most easy to have been observed, and most reasonable to have been enjoined, in their imitating of exemplary Goodness, their being counseled by Infinite Wisdom, their being comforted by Heavenly Grace; their being commanded to love the Beauty of Holiness; to obey their Lawful sovereign; to admire the wonderful and minutely manifestation of the Divine Essence, or of the Being of God himself displayed to them: In fine, it was the aberration from a Law, most agreeable to their Intellectual Faculties; most perfective in its primary and principal design, of their Eternal Welfare and Happiness. This was the Law which they were to obey, these were the things which they were to have done, in order to their being continued in Felicity, of which their Pride supplanted them. For though it was their First-Born, yet it miscarried( by its own fault) of the Heavenly Blessing. It being the first that bid defiance to the Divine Majesty; that provoked, nay, 
{αβγδ}. Damasc. 1. Punishments are the forced offsprings of voluntary faults.  forced God to Wrath and Fury: That, which laid the Gap open for transgressions; That, which cut them off from being protected by Almighty Power; from being guided by unerring Wisdom; from being influenced by Celestial Grace; from being blessed with everlasting Glory: For it cut them off from God, the Fountain of all; by which they became the broken Cisterns, which leek'd, let out the Heavenly Grace; the extracts of Glory; and the very Spirits of an ever blessed Life and Immortality. Now we know, that this circumstance of its being the first Sin, doth exceedingly heighten the heinousness of it: For the first transgressors of any Law, seldom escape the strictest Justice, the severest Punishments: Not only in that they are the first that affront the Majesty and Authority, which gives Sanction to it; but also in that they become bad Presidents to others to do the like. Hence we 
Gen. 3.24.  red of Adam's being cast out of the Earthly Paradise, being the first that eat of the forbidden Fruit, which grew therein: That the poor Man, tho' he gathered but( what was necessary for his Fire) Fuel, yet he was stoned to death, being the first that transgressed what was enjoined, the strict observation of the sabbath, Numb. 15. v. 31, 32. That Ananias and Saphira, being the first under the Evangelical economy, under the Gospel, that desecrated( fair Presidents to Sacrilegious Persons, to take warning by) what they had dedicated to Holy and Religious uses, were struck Dead, Acts 5. ver. 6. And for this it was, that God, with the most exemplary Justice imaginable, cast these Angels( they being the first Transgressors of the Eternal Law) down from Heaven to Hell; which shows the greatness of their Sin, as it was the first that ever was committed. But,  
Secondly, Consider we it, as it was a Sin, to which they had no Temptation. This naturally and necessary follows from its being the first Sin. There was then no subtle Serpent to deceive, to beguile them. These fallen Spirits having not as yet changed their Nature, and their Shape: There was then no beloved Consort,( as Eve was to Adam) to solicit their tasting of the forbidden Fruit, which grew in the Heavenly Paradise; they being then such blessed Spirits, as neither mary, nor are given in marriage, St. Luke 20.34, 36. Neither, had they as yet known the Pride of Life; and therefore could not be tempted, overcome with what had no Existence in them, Concupiscence, or the Lusts of the sensitive part: Neither was there any specious Apple to edge, to 'allure, or excite what was yet uncorrupted in them, the Animal( as the Platonist call it) Appetite. There was then now Power to assault, no Policy of Hell to circumvent them; for they themselves( who are now the Wicked Principalities thereof, were yet unfallen, were yet in Heaven. There was then nothing but God and Goodness, shining brightly about them, Purity and Holiness lodging within them; and the Eternal Effluxes and Emanations of Glory hourly, every moment to transport and ravish them: Which the united Consorts of their fellow Angels,( now confirmed in Glory, and the breathings of hallelujahs of Honour and Praise be given unto him that sitteth in the highest Heavens) could not but raise unto exstacy. So that, Holiness could not tempt them to become unclean; Happiness, to become miserable; nor Heavens condescension,( in Creating them such Illustrious, Glorious Beings, as once they were) to become Proud and Haughty: They could not be tempted of God, who cannot tempt any: But as every Person is,( when he commits sin, as St. James observes) 
St. Jam. 1.13. {αβγδ}.  so were they drawn away from an Eternal Rectitude and Uprightness, by their own Concupiscence, by a too much enamoured love of themselves; by which God's alwise, and most Gracious Provisions to secure their standing,( his planting of them in the fertilest Soil, his Heavenly Paradise, enduing them with a most fructifying power, they being mighty in Power, to have excelled in Goodness; and watering them with the Morning dews of Eternal Glory) became defeated; his expectations so frustrated, that when he came( as it were) to seek Fruit,( like the Fig-Tree which our 
St. Mat. 21.19.  Saviour cursed) he found them not only fruitless, but barren: Instead of yielding Grapes of goodness, of a sweet and delightful relish, they brought forth sour ones, which edged his Wrath and Fury against hem. For in stead of Humility, they brought forth Pride; for Obedience, Rebellion; for Praises, profanations of his Holy Name: error and Folly had seized their Understandings, in the Regions of Light; Pride and Vanity their Imaginations, under the most humbling Obligations; Obstinacy and perverseness their Wills, under the most endearing distributions, Communications of Glory and Goodness. Which( as I conceive) could flow from no other Head, than their coveting( what of right did not belong unto them) Divine Honour, for their misplacing their Delight and Choice on unfit Objects, for their Admiraion, viz. their finite and borrowed Perfections, and not fixing them( as they ought to have done) on those Infinite ones that are in God. From these heads must that levity and lightness,( which turned them round in happiness, that they stood not fixed therein) proceed; otherwise( to me) the Fall of Angels is unaccountable. But,  
Thirdly, It was a sin committed against the greatest Light: The Divine give us a perfect and complete Notion of sin in general, viz. that it is a Transgression of the Law; 
{αβγδ}. Joh. 1.3.4. Jam. 1.2, 10.  from whence St. Jame's Inference may rationally be deducted, viz. He that offends in one point, is guilty of all, i.e. Of the breach of that Obedience which is due to all: Not, that St. James may be conceived to establish that Stoical 
See Cicer de Paradoxis.  Paradox, of aparity and equality of sins, of sins being all of one size, of one proportion: No, nothing is less aimed at by the Apostle; because, otherwise, an officious lie or Equivocation, would be parallel to the most profligate Perjury; the taking of Gods Name in vain rashly and ignorantly, would become as horrid, as the most malicious designed Blasphemy; then a wanton thought would be as abominable, as the nearest( and that actually committed) Incest; and that a revengeful nd malicious one( as Esau entertained against Jacob, when he designed to kill him) would be of as Crimson a die, as theirs were, who actually Crucified the Lord of Glory. Not only( I say) because these absurdities would follow,( on the concession of all sins being alike( but also, because it would contradict the Doctrine of Truth itself, our Lord and Saviours, viz. He that did know his Masters will, and did it not, was to be beaten with more stripes, than he that did not. St, Luke 12.47. And also St. Peter's, viz. It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have turned from the holy Commandment, 2 Pet. 2.21. which I mention not in the least to comply with that unsafe and unsound distinction of Venial, and Mortal sins, so much in vogue with the Church of Rome, but to show, that the aggravation of sins may flow from their Circumstances, as this did, which caused the fall of Angels. For they having no innate Corruption to excite them, nor outward Tempter to circumvent them in it, they lay not under those disadvantages, which Adam did for the one, and as his lapsed Posterity doth for the other, when they commit sin. For, we( his miserable Off-spring) are not only born with Pravities and Corruptions, Psal. 51.5. but they so grow apace up with us, that Errors and Falsities are commonly the first things, that present themselves to our understandings, which doth so cloud and darken them, that when we arrive at years of discretion, much pains must be taken, much time must be spent,( which often proves very wearisome to Flesh and Blood) and both must be seconded by the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit) e're we can well know, and understand Truths necessary to be believed and practised, in order to our Salvation. And therefore Satan, the great Adversary of Souls, makes it his business, either to thicken the mists of our Ignorance, that we may not behold( as to be taken with) the Glories of Gods revealed Truths, 
2 Cor. 4.4.  as St. Paul declares; Or, else deludes us with the Parhelias, Counterfeits thereof, under the disguise of hypocrisy. From which dangers to be ensnared in, to be tempted into, and disadvantages to be overcome by, these fallen Spirits were exempted: For, their understandings being( like the Regions above, which they inhabited) clear and unclouded, they being under the immediate influences, and displays of the greatest Self-originated Truth, they could not easily be( guilty of Solecisms) soon overtaken with mistakes, when Truth was not to be deducted by Consequences,( the occasion of most of our Errors and Mistakes) but was demonstrable, nay, demonstrated to them, by its immediate and first Principles; which they wandring so greatly from, and erring so grossly in, assures us, that there is much truth in that trite and common saying, None so blind, as those that will not see. Obstinacy and Wilfulness being as great an hindrance to the embracing of Truth, as the shutting of our Eyes is, to the receiving any benefit of Light( though darted) from the brightest Sun. I 'm sure its reported as the greatest misfortune,( themselves caused it) and as the heaviest judgement( their sins deserved it) that did befall those Jews, who had Eyes, but did not, would not see, 
Lest they should be converted, and I should heal them, foretold by Isa. 9.8. applied by our Saviour, St. Mat. 13.14. St. Joh. 12.40.  they would not open them; lay aside their Prejudices to behold, and believe a Divinity working in, and demonstrating itself by those Miracles, which our Saviour( whom, through perverseness, they rejected to be the Messiah) wrought amongst them: But these Apostate Spirits, before their fall, were not given over by permission( occasioned by any antecedent perverseness, as that which happened to the Jews was; neither was it sent them by way of punishment to believe Lies; 
2 Thes. 2.11.  for the blindness which they contracted cannot properly be said to have seized on, nor, strictly taken, conceived to have been sent them) they themselves being the Authors or Efficients of it. It being in two respects like that blindness, with which the Man was born, St. John 9.4. In that it was not for their own; for as yet they had not been guilty of any, nor for the sins of another, theirs being the first; but that God might be glorified in the just Condemnation of such willing, wilful, and obstinate Sinners, as these Angels were, as they became; which carrieth along with it the greatest aggravation of their Crime, for sins committed willingly, and wilfully, against the greatest Light,( as this, which caused the Angels fall was) are of the greatest Size, and largest Magnitude. Hence we red, 
Numb. 15.20, 31. Heb. 10.26.  that for such there remained no Sacrifice,( intimating, that Heaven's Wrath would not easily be aton'd, appeased for them) but a certain fearful looking for( under the apprehensions of which, it is, that these Evil Spirits tremble) of judgement, and of Firery Indignation to come, St. Jam. 2.19. Add we to this, the consideration of sins committed,( willingly and wilfully) but in Gods most gracious presence, signalized and manifested by his extraordinary Power, and by his peculiar Love to a People; as he did to the Israelites at the Red-sea, which he divided for their sakes; made its Billows,( or Waves, as it were) become as a Pavement for them to walk on, to deliver them from the hardened Heart, and unmerciful Hands of a bloody Pharaoh. How provoking was it of Wrath? How grievous was it to his Holy Spirit? When the Kingly Prophet brings God in complaining, That they( amongst whom he had signalized his Power and Protection, and for whose sakes he had wrought such a wonderful deliverance) that they should provoke him at the Red-sea, even at the Red-sea. How was the fierceness of his Wrath kindled against them? 
Psal. 106.7. Exod. 14.27.  More dreadful than that glorious appearance of his Heavenly Majesty,( which caused Mount Sinai to quake, when he gave the Law) when at the foot of the Mount( in his more immediate presence) they became Despisers and Transgressors of it, by worshipping the Golden Calf: For which God became so incensed, so enraged against them, that nothing could cool the hotness of his Fury, but their utter destruction; but the consuming of them,( as Moses most lively describes Heavens just indignation against them) Exod. 32.11. Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot( become more intense) against this People to consume them. And we know, that it was additional to Adam's Transgression, that he eat of the forbidden fruit in Paradise, the place of Gods peculiar presence: But these sins scarcely bare the proportion of a shadow( to this) which was committed by these fallen Spirits. For it was a sin perpetrated willingly wilfully, deliberately, and with delight and choice in God's most glorious presence, in Heaven, in the midst of Glory. If they had been Devils, they could not then have so grossly and highly affronted the Heavenly Majesty, for then, they could not have committed sin under the immediate and brightest displays of his Glory; under the clearest illuminations of his Deity; which sets forth the greatness, and heinousness of the sin, which caused their fall, as considered in its Nature and Circumstances; I proceed to show,  
3ly, Its heinousness in two of its unhappy brood, or off-spring, viz. Envy and Malice. Pride, not enduring any Equal, much less Superior, would have no sharers in, but would be sole possessor of whats Honourable, and worthy of Perfection and Excellency, at least, of the Honour and Praise that is due unto them. For it appropriates often to itself, what is not due unto it. And therefore when it sees, and is sensible that another Person, or Being doth thrive and prosper, is more fortunate and blessed than itself: Her teeming Womb swells with its unlucky brute Brat of Envy: Which looks upon the Affluence and Abundance, the Plenty and Opulency of anothers, with an ill Eye, thinks on ill with a 
Invidus alterius rebus macrescit opimis. Not so much for what it wants, as for what another enjoys.  languishing Heart. 
Kings 21.4.  Thus envious Ahab became sick, pined inwardly, whilst harmless Naboth succeeds in, and is lawfully possessed of his Fathers Vineyard. Thus proud Haman becomes restless and uneasy to himself( repines and languisheth) under the Grandeur and Greatness, under the Riches and Honours, with which he was loaden,( in the Persian Court) whilst Mordecai sits renowned in the Gate. 
Esth. 5.13.  So mischievous a Passion is Envy, that it wreeks the Subject, which doth support and cherish it, whilst the Object that doth excite it, is not in the least hurt, or injured by it, as that Acute and Religious 
Quid misrius invidia, hoc habet boni invidia quod maximum est invidis malum. St. Aug. de civit, l. 9. c. 14. p. 540.& l. vives. Ib.  Father observes. For like the Spider, what it weaves, doth waste and consume the Bowels that span it. So that what the 
Heu patier telis vulnera facta meis. Ovid. Epist.  despairing Lover saith of her self, is applicable to Envy, viz. That she forgeth those Weapons that doth wound, kill, and destroy her. Hence the worst of Tyrants( the 
Invidia sicult non invenêre Tyranni-majus tomentum. Hor. 4 Epist. l. 1.  Sicilians I mean) abandoned Malefactors to its Delacerations and Tortures, as to the most exquisite that could be invented. But when Pride sees that all its efforts by Envy are helpless and ineffectual, and apprehends that power grows up with Plenty, so that she dares not any longer assault the Object of her Envy, with what she is sensible of, her own weakness, that Envy may not sink into despair, she flies ( tanquam ad triarios) to the succours of Hatred and Malice; though they tend not to disperse, but to increase her Fears; not to redress or relieve, but to accumulate, and aggravate her Troubles; not to do any good to her self, but all the mischief she can to others. Both which Passions arrived at the highest pitch( in this sin which caused the fall of Angels) they becoming the very Furies of the Fiends themselves. For now God and Goodness; Mans Fidelity and Happiness( the best of beings, the best of things) are become their Objects, and they the yery worst of Passions, when they become very become the( as now they are) the very nature of the worst of Beings, Fiends, and Devils. For though God and Goodness be not, but Evil, and its being mischievous, the proper object of Hatred and Malice; yet God being armed with the greatest Power, and so can; and being invested with the greatest and highest Justice, and so will, most certainly punish( everlastingly) these Proud, Envious, and Malicious Spirits: Hence their Rancour and Hatred against him, becomes most desperate and devilish: For, though they know their strength is but weakness, if it were to be tried with the Almighties; and that to attempt to destroy( the utmost effort of Hatred against any thing) the Being of God, would be as vain, as for them to essay to give him one: Yet they most perfectly and entirely hate what bespeaks his very Being, even the remains( O the height and implacableness of their Hatred!) of that Goodness, which will everlastingly stick by them, whilst they are Devils. For they could be content to be devested of it, and to be damned for ever, so that they could but obtain, their Malicious and Revengeful Tempers( in destroying)( on which is stamped God's Image) the Souls of Men, gratified, and glutted; their own Confession declares no less; Art thou come to torment us before our time, St. Matth. 8.29. From hence it doth evidently appear, that though they know they shall be wretched and miserable, and this for ever, yet their being such, had not so much weight with them, was not so much regarded by them, did not so deeply, and so sensibly afflict and torment them, as the thoughts of their being restrained, and 
sieve quòd subitum illis fuit sieve quòd perditionem hanc ipsam dicebaut, quâ fiebat, ut cogniti asperuerentar. Aug. de Civ. lib. 8. c. 23. p. 502.  curbed from acting to the height of Malice, as the worst of Devils against Mankind did. And therefore both their Malice and Envy, are as much bent against Man, as against his Maker. How do they Envy, to think, that Man is in a condition( of which for ever they are deprived) viz. of being Happy? How do they hate Man, when they leave no ston( though it cause them sweat) unturned, to crush( which is their sweetness and pleasure) his Eternal Happiness? Hence the Artifices and Temptations of their Chieftain( that Grand adversary of Souls) are suited to the prevailing Tempers and Inclinations of Men: He baits his Hook with what he knows will be most catching. Thus he tempted Adam's Ambitious mind, with a being like unto God, Gen. 3.5. Cain's Revengeful Temper, with the shedding of innocent Abel's Blood, Gen. 4.8. Ahab's Covetousness with Naboth's Vineyard, 1 Kings 21.1. and all this with an unwearied pains, and with a wonderful pleasure; For he goeth about seeking whom he may devour, as the Apostle declares, 1 Pet. 5.8. He slips no opportunity to deceive, to destroy us: No place being so secret, or so dark( he being the Prince of Darkness, and it is under its Covertures, that those things, whereof it is shane to speak, are committed) but he may be found there. His night-walks are very dangerous. It's in the twilight that we find him with the strange( Whorish Adulteress) Woman, forming her fair words, her flattering speeches, and sly insinuations, with which she inveigles the simplo( the sensual person) to her unchaste embraces, with, I have decked my bed with Tapestry, with covered work, with fine linen, Prov. 7.16. I have perfumed it with Myrrh, Aloes, and Cinnamon, v. 27. The good man is from home, come let us solace ourselves with love( the courtly appellative for Lust) until the morning. With which the Sensualist became flattered into unsoundness, rottenness seizing on his Bones,( as well as reproach on his Reputation) as the Wise man describeth it, Prov. 6.33. A wound and dishonour shall he get, and his reproach( that goeth into a strange Woman) shall not be wiped away, till he be dismissed from her Chamber of Pleasure, and sent to that of the chirurgeons, which is full of pain, and proves oft but the outer one, to that of Death's, as Solomon declares. She hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been wounded by her, Prov. 7.26, 27. Her house is the way to Hell, going down to the chambers of death. Which( by the way) the Incontinent, Unclean Persons should be a ware of, lest they also( as well as this simplo one) be entangled in the Devils Snare, which he lays in the dark to trap them in. Nay, so vigilant and watchful is the Devil, that whilst we sleep, he doth not slumber to do us the greatest mischiefs,( though not dreamed of by us.) For while the Husbandman slept, the wicked one sowed his Tares, St. Matth. 13.25. either by exciting, stirring up in us( what hath a mighty prevalency over us) our Natural and Corrupt affections, or by vitiating our Imaginations, with whats selfish and sensual, which often produceth, what's dishonourable to Lowliness and Humility, Pride and Vanity; to Self-denial, as worldly-mindedness; and to Chastity and Purity, as Filthiness and Uncleanness,( which may be conceived to have been one of those secret sins, from which David preys to be cleansed, Psal. 19.12. Though all other sins defile, yet this( by way of Eminency) pollutes the Soul. Not to mention those Illusions, false Visions, inward deluding Lights, with which many simplo, and unwary, and too credulous People are deceived; when they take them to be the enlightenings of Gods Holy Spirit, the breakings in of that true light, which enlighteneth every man coming into the World, St. Joh. 1.9. From whence have sprung( as may be shewed hereafter, if God continue Life and Health) many false Prophets( pretenders to the Spirit in the succeeding Ages, and Generations of the World to this day) to the disgracing the Sacred Oracles of the Holy Scriptures, to the invalidating of their Authority, and of his Infallibility, who hath given them to be a lantern to direct and guide our steps in the paths of Piety and Holiness, Psal. 119.105. Thus, even in the night, this disguised Angel of Light may most easily deceive and delude us; for then he gets the greatest advantage imaginable over us, which, it may be, few take notice of. For as the Christian Philosopher 
Tatiani Assyrii Orat. ad. graecoes. Justini Martyris operibus annexa. {αβγδ}, p. 157.  observes, it is the time of the Devils triumph, so certain is he then of a Conquest over us. As also Justin Martyr himself takes notice of, Resp. ad Orthod. q. 21. p. 403.† {αβγδ}, i. e. If we delight in any inglorious Act, though unvoluntarily, unwillingly committed by us in our sleep; yet the Devil erects( as it were) trophies for it, rejoiceth at it. And indeed its no wonder we should( in our sleep) be so easily overcome by the Devil; for such Acts being involuntary ones, such as have not the free and full consent of our Wills in the production of them; nay, such as are not in our Power to prevent, they being the products of the Vital and Animal( rather than of the Rational) Faculties: They are therefore not regarded by us as such Acts, for which we are to account at the last day, though they are done in, and by the ministration of the Body. But since the Apostle 
2 Cor. 15.10.  declares, that we must give an account of whatsoever is done in the Flesh; and as the above, named Father doth very well observe; That such enoruious, irregular, undecent Acts or Actions may be committed by us, even whilst we sleep; which tho' they flow rather from the Infirmities of our Natures, than corruptions of our wills,( they being not voluntary ones, or in our power to prevent) yet the uncleanness, which may stick to them, if not washed off with penitential Tears, might be a bar( as it appears, by his Solution 
Just. Mart. Resp. ad orthod. R. 21. p. 403. 6.  of the question, it was in his days) to Christians from receiving the Holy Communion. For these subsequent Acts, viz. to delight in what's handsome, and honourable; or to sorrow for what is disgraceful, and shameful, when presented to our Imaginations( whilst we sleep) are Actus Imperati, within our Power to exert; which renders us accountable for them at the judgement to come: On these reasons it comes to pass, that the Devil is watchful and waking to tempt, to delude, to overcome us, in our sleeps. O then this ought to awaken, in every one of us, the greatest wariness and watchfulness over our precious Souls since they are not safe, secure even in our Repose, from becoming a Prey to this Vigilant devouring Lion! But can his Malice, or Hatred reach us? can his subtlety circumvent us, when we are in Holy Ground? Dare he use his Spells; raise his Familiars, his Evil Spirits, when we are within our Sacred, and consecrated Circles, viz. Our Religious places, Holy Churches? Yes, alas! even there satan appears( in these our Days too often,) as he did of old, Job. 1.6.2.1. amongst the Sons and Daughters of men, to desecrate our Hallowed places, by profaning our Praises, by perverting our Prayers, and by polluting our Eucharistical performances therein. These are the sad and direful effects of the Devils Malice and Hatred against us, and all for this very end, that, we( like him) might be undone for ever, be for ever deprived of Eternal Happiness: Which sets forth the greatness of the Sin, that caused the fall of Angels, and consequently the grievousness of the punishment inflicted for( or that is due unto) It: which is the  
Second General to be spoken to. Indeed since it is a sin so heinous in its Nature; so aggravating in its circumstances; so direful and mischievous in its effects,( as hath been declared,) what Loads could be too sinking? what darkness could be too Afflicting? What Torments could be too Lasting, to be inflicted on( according to their Demerits,) the first Perpetrators of it? On these first Delinquents? Whose Chieftain's Garments was died and rolled in the Blood of Precious and Immortal Souls, from the beginning, 
{αβγδ}. St. John. 8.44.  viz. bearing Date from these Angels Fall, not from their Creation. For Hell was prepared for them as Devils. St. Math. 25.41. St. John. 8.44.( Whose Nature suits best with its Regions of Darkness) and not for them, as they were Angels of Light: For which the Devil, and the other Apostate Spirits are become as deservedly wretched and miserable, as their State and condition is most lively and sensibly described to be by our Apostle in the words of the Text. To which I shall speak, as they stand in order.  
First. If God Spared not, i.e. did most afflictingly, and severely punish them, as Grotius observes, ad Locum; and is evident, from their being cast down from Heaven; the place and Palace of the most Illustrious Manifestations of the Divine Essence; of God's most Glorious presence; of the immediate communications of Divine Goodness; of the unveiled appearances of his Holiness, and Purity; of the clearest Demonstrations of the Eternal Truth; of the Eternal Effluxes of Almighty Power; and of the brightest displays of all perfections, and of Glory: From Heaven, where the Righteous( after they are delivered from the burden of this Flesh,) are blessed; where the Spirits of Just men are perfected; and the Angels, that kept their Stations, are in Glory confirmed, where there is no other Sun, but that which is intellectual, and the Light thereof is that of the Lamb. Rev. 21.25. Where no other Voice is to be heard, but that of Melody; and that Melody raised to a unravishing height, with the Triumphal Songs of those that come out of Tribulations with their Garments died in the Blood of Martyrdom; but now are arrai'd with white Vestments( symbolical of their Purity, and refinedness) from Heaven, once the place of these Fallen Spirits Bliss and Happiness: From whence they were cast down into Hell; a place as destitute of goodness, as it's distant from Glory; the Prison of unclean Spirits, the Dungeon for the vilest Beings, Devils; where each Sense is afflicted to extremity, viz. that of Seeing, with the Grossest and Thickest Darkness, viz. Utter Darkness, St. Math. 25.30. That of Smelling, with the most Offensive Stench, and suffocating Steams of burning Brimstone, kindled by the Divine Breathings Isa. 30. ult:( Thence Hell is called the Lake of Brimstone Rev. 20.10.) That of Touching, with the hottest Scorchings of everlasting Burnings. St. Math. 25.41. That of Tasting, with the bitterest gull, and Wormwood, with the extremest Parchings of Thirst, pinchings of Hunger. St. Luke. 16.24. And that of Hearing, with the uncomfortable sounds, ungrateful noises of Hideous yells, of affrighting Shrekes, and of the distracting Howling of despairing Spirits. This is the place,( the Lapsed Spirits were cast into) a place as dismal, as their visages( that are inhabitants of it) are affrighting, and dreadful. In which, they are {αβγδ} i. e. reserved, under confinement; not permitted to walk at Large, at Liberty: Having already undergone a definitive sentence of condemnation, by which they are restrained of that gadding humour, of going about( directly opposite to that of our Saviours, Act. 10.18. viz. to do all the good imaginable, both to Souls and Bodies,) but theirs was to do all the mischief they could to both, which doth mightily gull and fret them, as above declared; 
P. 16.  For, by being restrained, their Power is weakn'd, their Hatred and Malice( against mankind) curbed and checked from acting to the utmost of their Fury against us. As further appears by their being reserved under( {αβγδ}) chains, the common badges of Notorious Malefactors, but then theirs are mightily differenced from those, which are worn by Earthly Criminals: For these, at worst, can but fret and gull the Flesh; and are such as Time, and Rust may eat off; and so ease the Prisoners of their Loads, and of their pains: But those, with which these fallen Spirits are fettered, do wound, what should be the tenderest Parts in them, if they be not seared) viz. their Consciences, which renders the weight of their Chains less supportable: For a wounded Spirit who can bear? Prov. 18.4. Besides, the strongest Mercury cannot penetrate them, eat them off; nor no Time itself wear them out, for they shall be as Lasting, as those very Beings,( the supporters of them) are, viz. everlasting. Hence by 
St. judas 6. v. {αβγδ}.  St. judas eall'd, vincula aeterna: Eternal Bonds: But again, what is additional to these Chains, they 
{αβγδ}.  are catenae valde caliginosae, i.e. Chains of the greatest Darkness; of a darkness more formidable and dismal, than that, which overspread the Face( or rather invisible Form) of the Chaos. Gen. 1.1. For that Darkness was not only capable of being( but is now actually become) enlightened; whereas that Darkness,( which doth now environ these condemned Spirits) is not capable of receiving the least comfortable day of Light, from the Father of Lights, hence it's called Utter 
{αβγδ}.  Darkness, with its uncomfortable entertains, or companions, of weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth. St. Math. 25.30. A Darkness so remote from Light, that the very dawnings of this, are most distant from it, which renders it more palpable and afflicting, than that of the Egyptians. For the Egyptian darkness did but afflict the bodily Eyes: But this of utter Darkness afflicts those( Intellectual ones) of these lapsed Spirits Minds, which cannot but fill them with the bitterest tears; become the perpetual Flowing Fountains or springs of their sorrows; if they be not hardened under their Infelicity, ineffable Misery: For, their being sensible, that they were once Angels of Light,( but now, that they are become the dreadful and unpitied Friends of utter darkness) cannot but increase their Grief; fill up( to the brim) the bitter notion of their Sorrows, when they recollect, call to mind, the transcendency of that Joy, of those Delights, which they once enjoined; but have now lost( without any hope of Recovery.) For there is a great Truth, in what the 
Boethius de Consol. Philosop.  Christian Philosopher( his writings bespeak him no less) declares: viz. miserrimum est infortunii genus, fuisse foelicem, it increaseth Misery, to have been( as these Apostate Spirits once were) Blessed and Happy. Which is Illustrated by what St. Austine 
St. Aug. de civit.  observes of the Grave Matron's, Blanchas Solution of the Question concerning the Syrens, or Mermaids weeping in Fair, but singing in Fowl Weather, because( as she replied) the raging Storms were somewhat abated( as it were) by the hopes of a succeeding Calm: But the Halcyon, and pleasant days were over-cast with the Cloud( gathered from the Fears) of a following Foulness: So the hope of being happy buoy's us up in the midst of the present Storms and Tempests of our misery; but the fear of being miserable abates, nay, embitters the Joys of our present Happiness. On which account, these fallen Spirits are become most wretched and miserable; if we further consider, that paena sensus, as well as paena damni, i.e. That the sense of their Loss, as well as that of their Languishing, doth concentre and meet together in them, is, and shall be, most quick and lively to afflict them. Otherwise, what means their trembling under the apprehensions of a judgement to come, St. Jam. 2.19. The Devils tremble? What means the crawling of that Worm which shall never die? St. Mark. 9.46. If it did not live, and stir most sensibly, and gnawingly within them? What means weeping and wailing, in their state of darkness? St. Math. 25.3. If all Tears could be wiped from their Eyes, all Sorrows from their Hearts, who have been the Principal Agents of all those Sins and Wickednesses, which caused Hell to be prepared for them, and endless Misery? St. Matth. 25.41. For, though their fall broken the neck of their Happiness, yet it did not jockey, and destroy the sense of their Misery. Their own Confession declares no less; Art th●● come to torment us before our time? St. Matth. 8.29. But neither Satan's falling like Lightning( St. Luke 10.18.) down from Heaven: Nor his( and the other Apostate Spirits) being reserved under Chains, and these the most dismal ones, of utter darkness, doth express his greatest Fears, his deepest Sorrows, or the height and utmost intensiveness of his Misery. But his( and they) being reserved under Chains of darkness, unto the judgement of the last day, doth most emphatically and effectually declare it. For then there shall be none on Earth to be tempted by them; no Trophies of abused Grace to be erected in Honour of them; no means of Grace or Mercy tendered to supplicant Sinners shall be( as in time, they too too often were) perverted, through their Instigations. For then all Power of doing mischief to the Sons and Daughters of Men, shall be taken away, nay wrested and forced from them, as 
{αβγδ}. Barnab. Epist. Edit. Voss. p. 235.  St. Barnabas, and St. 
Ante tempus judicii, quo aeternâ damnatione puuiendi, quo tempore daemons in Inferno cohibendis,& vexan is hominibus cessaturi sunt. Aug. de Civ. l. 8. c. 23. Item, Laur. de la Barr. ad Tertul. adv. Marc p. 208.  Augustin hath very well observed: Which will become the greatest bane to these Evil Spirits; that which will break their very Hearts; and become the very worst of their Infelilicities, and Unhappiness: For then, what St. John prophesied( foretold concerning Satans being bound for a Definitive, Determinative time, viz. of 1000 years, Rev. 20.3. Which the current of late 
Bishop Usher, Dr. Hammond, Mr. meed, Mr. Thorndike.  Interpreters understand of his Power being kerbed, and abridged; evidenced and confirmed by the great decay of Idolatry, and by the growth and increase of Christianity, during that thousand years) shall have its utmost Completion, viz. That at the end of the World, at the general judgement, he,( that is) Satan shall never deceive the Nations, Kindred, or People any more. For then he shall be cast into the bottonles Pit of Hell, shut and sealed up there everlastingly, Rev. 20.10, 13, 14, 15.  
And this shall be most publicly and solemnly done, in the presence of the greatest Assembly, that ever was, or ever shall be in Heaven, or on Earth, nempe in conspectu Dei, Angelorum, omniumque sanctorum, i.e. In the presence of the most Holy God, the Righteous Judge of all the World; in the sight of the Blessed Angels, and before the Faces of the Spirits of all Just Men, that shall be Perfected. Before so August and Heavenly Assembly, shall these Apostate Spirits be charged with all their secret Machinations and Contrivances against God and Goodness, Religion and Piety; with all the Riotings, Drunkennesses, and Debaucheries of intemperate Persons; with all the Extortions and Oppressions of the Unrighteous; with all the uncleannesses, Fornications, Adulteries, and Incests of the Incontinents; with all the Man-slaughters, and Murders of the Revengeful, with all the inward Deformities and Rottennesses of the Hypocritical; with all the Impieties and Blasphemies of the Irreligious, with all the unkind, harsh usages, or receptions, satirical Taunts, and Scoffs, as a Wine-bibber, a Gluttonous Person, a Friend of Publicans; St. Matth. 11.19. and the most malicious virulent reproaches; as he casteth out Devils through the Power of Devils, St. Matth. 9.34. which the Divinity( whilst it Pilgrimiz'd( as Tertullian elegantly expresseth it) in our Nature here on Earth) did meet with. 
Peregrina Divinitas. tart. l. 4. adv. Marc. p. 208.  And with all the horrid villainies and Abominations that have been committed( since the date of their fall) in thought, word, or dead. All these shall be imputed to them, as the wicked Agents, and Instigators of all. Then shall all, that were either tempted, or overcome by them, unanimously make this reply, Gen. 3.13. The Serpent, the Serpent did design to deceive us, the Serpent did deceive and beguile us. Under the apprehensions of which( methinks) I hear the rattling of their Chains,( caused by the terrors, and tremblings which hath seized them) and see, how with aghast, and affrighted( which the very apprehensions of, used in time to become to others most affrighting) Visages, they are drawn and haled from their dismal Cells to a most dreadful Tribunal. Where we may conceive them, thus pleading for themselves, in bar of that Sentence of Condemnation,( under which they lie) from being Executed on them. Why( most glorious Majesty) is the hottest of thy Wrath, the fierceness of thy Fury, the utmost extremity and severity of thy Justice, thus kindled and enraged against us? That worse torments, additional miseries are reserved for us? Thou knowest, that we were( of the first born of thy Creatures) the excellency of dignity, the earliest instances of thy strength, of thy Almighty Power, and the very flower of the Creation. Of that order of Beings, so mighty in power, that one thereof( at thy command) killed no less than 185 thousand, 2 Kings 19.35. in one night. Of that Activity and Nimbleness, of that Agility and Quickness for dispatch, that( like Lightning) could in a moment wing thy gracious Embassies from Heaven( the Throne of thy Glory) to Earth, the Foot-stool of thy Mercy; and also that the illustriousness of thy Majesty appeared, when it mounted on, and road upon the Wing of a Cherub: Of that Order of Beings, of such quickness of perception,( being pure Intelligences,) that but one glimpse of light, darted from Thee, the Intellectual Sun, displayed within them a whole Sphere of Knowledge of the scientifick, first, and immediate Principles 
See the Dedication.  thereof; by which they became qualified to be secretaries( as it were) of thy Heavenly State, Privy councillors of the weightiest concerns of thy Glory, and the Recorders,( Keepers) of the ancientest Records of Eternity: Of that order of Beings, of such purity and perfection, that thy 
Shechanah.  special, peculiar, and Gracious presence was exhibited in the Sanctuary,( in the Temple, in its Holiest of Holies) by thy sitting betwixt the Cherubims; representatives of our most dignified, and exalted Order amongst thy Creatures: And was not thy Shechanah, thy most gracious presence, manifested in Temples and Churches, and consecrated places, by the ministration and religious services of our Fellow Angels who preside Religious Assemblies? Wilt thou then destroy of the rarest of the Masterpieces of the creation; of Beings, stamped with the most glistering Characters of thy Power, wisdom, Goodness and Glory? Wilt thou then banish us from thy Glorious presence; and eclipse, and obscure the Glory( of all these thy surpassing perfections) in our endless misery? And this, not for what we have done, but only for what we thought amiss, viz. that those Great and Eminent,( Sublime and Glorious perfections which thy Bounty and Liberality had bestowed on us,) might have been Objects of our Adoration, as well as of our Admiration: Whereas Thee( the Author and giver of them) only we should have worshipped and adored, neither was that proud Thought reiterated, repeated, and renewed by us, nor continued in us longer, than that unhappy moment, in which it was conceived to Live. For even then, it brought these Pangs and Throws, which we have travelled with, and laboured under; and have brought forth( since that sin was committed) nothing, but the fruitless, destructing, unpitied, and unbemoan'd shouts, expressive only( of our Bearing) of Eternal death; wil't thou then for one single Sin, one haughty Thought; of so short continuance as a moment; wilt thou then everlastingly torment us? Besides,( O Lord!) the three famous Ends of punishment, are not answered in this state. Not, of Amendment of Life: For now, there are no tenders of grace, no applications of it: No pardon for sin, for the condition, on which it's promised, viz. Repentance, cannot be performed, there is now no desiring of it, no importuning, no beseeching for it; and so no hopes of ever obtaining of it, the day,( nay, Time itself,) being past and gone, wherein Salvation should have been wrought out with fear, and trembling: There is now, at this great day of judgement, no sorrowing for sin, as it defaced thy Image, defiled the Soul or Spirit, as it dishonoured thy Name, disdained thy Love; and did the greatest despite to thy Holy Spirit: No sorrowing, but such, as flows from the direful, dreadful Effects, which it hath produced, endless wo, and everlasting Misery. So that all these wicked ones shall continue Impenitents;( and we ourselves, 
Quis enim catholicus Christianus ignorat nullum novun. Diabolum ex bonis angels ulterius futurum; sicut nec istum in Societatem bonorum Angelorum ulterius reditu●um. St. August. de civit. Lib. XI.— Cap. 13 p. 655.  Devils) for ever. Nor, that other of being Examples to others, to prevent their being Split,( as we are) on the Rock of despair: For Instances of thy Justice,( in punishing for sin, in this State,) are as usesess, as the brinish and bitter Tears of final Impenitents are ineffectual and helpless to drain those sorrows, from whence they flow. And we can neve expect, that the last end of punishing criminals on Earth will be effected on us. viz. that thou wilt utterly destroy, or annihilate us; reduce us to nothing. O No! For then we should become so happy, as to be freed from all Misery: In having a period( an end) put to our unsupportable miseries, with that of our Beings. For it would be infinitely better for us, not to have any Being at all, than to be thus for ever wretched, for ever miserable; why then( O Lord!) did thy Holy Spirit impregnate the Womb of Nothing? Form us into pure intelligences? Bring us into a state, in which it s not only not impossible, to be; but in which, we are actually become ingulph'd in the deepest and greatest misery! Or, why did not thy Almighty Power, and boundless Goodness, communicate to us an immutability in our Standing, that we might not( as now we do) infinitely suffer for prevaricating of it; for casting off our subordination to, and dependency on it, Neither, needed we( our ineffable, unspeakable misery forceth it,) to have supplicated, as now we do, for Mercy; to have sheltered ourselves under its Sanctuary, for salvation and safety. To thy Mercy, therefore, as to our Last, and only Refuge, do we fly for our security, we know that thy Mercy is above all thy works, and that to save, not to destroy Beings, is its only delight: And that even of those( who by Atheistical thoughts, blasphemous words, and Hellish Works, and all these continued in for many years together, and who most notoriously have transgressed thy Holy Commands; been disobedient to thy Holy will, and have daily, hourly rebelled against thy Divine Majesty.) That even of those, thy Mercy hath saved from endless Misery. On thy Mercy, on thy Mercy,( most Gracious Majesty!) therefore it is, that we presume, that what it hath granted to the vilest Sinners,( of a much inferior Rank to, and below us,) who were once, as well as the Angels, confirmed in Glory, Courtiers about thy Heavenly Throne,) will not be denied to us, Pardon and Forgiveness: These we have( O Heavenly Majesty!) to offer in behalf of ourselves, in let of that dreadful Sentence of condemnation,( under which we ly) from being executed on us; in bar of thy Divine Justice, triumphing in the unspeakable woes of the works of thy hands, in in our eternal ruin, and Misery. The Reply brings me to the 3d. General. viz. To show, how the Honour of Divine goodness, in permitting the Sin,( which caused the Angels fall) and of Divine Justice, in inflicting the punishment due to it, is vindicated. To whom( with the most submissive Reverence to the Divine Majesty, may it be presumed that) it may be thus, or to this purpose replied, by the Righteous Judge of all the world. Ye know( Apostate Spirits,) that the greatness of the parts and perfections; the large capacities of your understandings; the Rectitude of your wills,) which you once were invested with) and that your being allied to the best, and highest Order of the Creatures, pled not for, but against you. An Error then could not so easily surprise such pure understandings,( as you were) nor Evil debauch your wills( such upright ones, as you were created with) nor, could the Glory of your Order have been eclipsed, and stained, but by your unparalleled, wilful, and deliberate degeneracy, viz. Your glorying in the sublimity, and excellency of your perfections; and not in me,( as ye ought to have done) the Author, and Giver of them. By so doing, ye transgressed that Law, by which you were bound,( on the account of your Creation) to have paid all homage of Duty and Obedience, of Honour and Worship, and of Love and Affection to me, your Creator: but instead thereof, you would have out-rival'd, nay, robbed me( even in my most glorious presence) of my Glory; and most vainly affencted to have been( what I am) worshipped and adored for Gods. What else could have promp't you to become so ungrateful, and so injurious to me? Could my clothing you with singular perfections disoblige you? Could my advancing you to Glory debase you? Would nothing but the Sacreds of my Deity, my Diadem, my imperial Glory, serve you? By what Equity could you lay claim to it? By what Right could you challenge it? How were your finite Perfections capable of it? And since they were but borrowed from my Bounty, must it not have been a most daring and provoking Presumption in you, to aspire to( what by an Eternal Right, belongs only due to me) my peculiar Honour and Worship, Renown and Glory? And though ye pretend, that it was but one single; yet( know) that it hath been a most signalized sin, by its numerous Viperous Off-spring, and Brood: For what Atheisticalness in Hearts? What Blasphemies in Words? What most horrid and bloodiest Villainies in Works, hath not imprinted on their brazen fronts,( as their blackest brand) their destructive Parent, Haughtiness or Pride, their darling, and peculiar sin. A sin of the first Magnitude, of the greatest size, and of such weight, as well as greatness, that it sunk( though but single) your Felicity down to Hell, and with its loads( its mischievous and devilish brood) hath made the Pit( unto which, ye wicked Spirits, and those wretched Souls, that have been deluded by you, shall be cast) become bottonles. What could support the weight of them, when united together: If Pride,( that begot them, when but single) became too ponderous for the Rafters of the Heavens to bear? And whereas it's pleaded, that it was but a sin committed only in Thought: Know, that the greater was your Infidelity and Unbelief, the more. Inglorious, and Dishonourable it was to my Deity, and Divinity, and most highly reflective on, and undervaluing to mine Omnipresency, and Omnisciency; as if I had been( like those false Deities and Idols, which ye set up, inspired with unhallowed Breath, in contempt of my Heavenly Majesty) a God at distance, afar off, and not so near to you, as to have heard the swelling Whisperings of your Pride against me? And, as if I had been like your stupid and blind Idols; one that had Eyes, but could not see the first bubblings up of your spiritual Froth, and inward Vanity? Whereas( ye know) that it's only my Prerogative, not only to be intimately present with all Beings, but also to be the only Searcher( otherwise how should I have known your proud and presumptive Thoughts?) of Hearts, and Affections, and of the most secret workings of Souls, and Spirits: And that it's my only pcculiar, to be the punisher or the Iniquities thereof, as well( as it's solely in my power) to chastise and correct for those sins, that are perpetrated by the ministration of the Body. And although it was but a sin committed, and continued in, but a moment, yet how successively hath it expatiated itself? How hath it increased, since the date of your Fall? Since your first apostasy, even to this Great day, and general judgement? For hath it not raised your Wickedness to an higher pitch,( rendered you worse Devils) than you were in that very moment, wherein you were proud to think of nothing more, than of your being as Gods? And albeit, that the ends of punishing Criminals in the other State, are superseded as useless in this, they expiring with the economy thereof: Yet those Eternal ones, of my faithfulness to my Justice, are not Antiquated; they are now in their greatest Vigour, and Force. For by my Faithfulness to my Justice, it is, that rewards are dispensed to those who( by unproving my Grace given to them) have deserved them; and that punishments are inflicted on those, whose demerits have procured them: By my Faithfulness to my Justice, it is, that these on my right hand, in their white Garments,( Symbolical of their Piety and Purity) are Candidates for( what they shall immediately be invested with) Eternal Glory. And it is by my Faithfulness to my Justice, that ye yourselves, and all those wretched and wicked Souls( who have been tempted and overcome by you) that stand on my left hand, have now a fair and Legal hearing, before ye all be doomed publicly to utter darkness, under the chains of which, ye have been reserved unto this Great( but to ye and them most grievous) day. And in return to those most ungrateful ones, which you have made to my Divine Majesty, for the free and undeserved Communications of my Goodness; which out of nothing, not only made you something, but raised you up to be Glorious Beings. Know ye, that if ye had yet been Embryos in the Womb thereof; that not only the vilest Worm( in your esteem) the meanest of the Creatures( their perfections being the liveries of my Heavenly largesses; and of the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of my Majesty) would have been much better, far more excellent, than you; but also, you had never known nor enjoyed the perfections of a Life Spiritual; nor could have been sharers in,( as once you were) what's now the transports of your Fellow-Angels, the Joys of Heaven. Nay, if but the Perfections of the most despicable, and, by you, despised Creatures, had but been conferred on you, it had been a Boon too big, for you to have been too thankful for. For when ye were nothing, could ye deserve any thing, how mean soever? How liberal then, should your Gratitude have been, in its most joyous return of most thankful acknowledgements, when you received the best and highest perfections, that any Creatures were capable of? So that, it was not your being brought out of a state of nothing, and your being invested and endued with the choicest and rarest Excellencies, that made you miserable, but your abusing of them, your perverting the ends for which they were given you, viz. Of Glorifying, and of Enjoying me for ever. But in lieu thereof, you made me most disingenious, and disobliging returns, with supercilious looks, with elation of Spirit, for all those good, and most valuable things, which you had received from me. And as to your Complaint, for your not being Created immutable, and unchangeable, in Goodness and Glory. It's a most unreasonable and unjust, petulant, proud, and haughty one. So unreasonable, that it bears not the least shadow thereof, carries not so much as the bare appearance of a reasonable, or rational Conjecture for it. For what could you deserve, when you had no Beings? What Obligations then could you lay upon me, to give you the best? What Comeliness, or Desireableness was in you, when you had no form, to 'allure me to love and affect you? What could then be meritorious in you, when you had no worth, were of no value, to elicit, and excite,) what are most free of themselves, the communications of my Goodness? What reason then have you to complain, in that it formed you into valuable Beings: And is it then become your grief, and trouble, that you were not formed, and fashioned, after your own Models? After your own Fancies? What Reason for this? Is it fit, that the Earthen Vessels murmur against the Potter, for not making Cups,( designed for the use of ordinary men,) standing Goblets for Princes's Tables? Or, that the day cry, Rom. 9.21. Why hast thou made me thus? Or cry out, that wrong is done unto it's Metal, because it's not made, as lasting as Brass; as durable as Marble? Is there any shadow of Reason in these Complaints? certainly not: Then much less in yours. For, you were not made of the coursest, basest Metal: but of the purest Ore digged out of the bowels of Nothing, you were not created with the meanest, but with the best and highest perfections of Created Beings: But the unreasonableness of your Complaint is heightened by the unjustness of it. For what wrong could be done you, when you had Right to nothing? What could be detained from you, when ye could not lay claim to any thing? Why then do you challenge Immutability, and Unchangeableness in Glory and Goodness as due unto you? Which neither my Power could effect; 
Peccability implied in the very Notion of a Creature, as the Schoolmen determine. Thom. 1. part. Ibid. Estius. lib. 2. dist. 7. 8. 9. See the most Learned Dean of St. Pauls Orig. Sacr. p. 481.  nor my Bounty, or Goodness could bestow: Neither, were ye( as Creatures) capable to receive, as consistent with the State, which ye were created in. For, tho' I be the freest undetermined Agent( in the world,) both from compulsion and force; and from any Fatal necessity, in all my Actions: Yet they are squared by the Eternal Rules of Reason, and Equity; by the councils of mine own Will, Eph. 1.11. So that to have created you unchangeable in Glory, and Goodness, I must have laid aside the Ancientest Models, and Plat-formes of Eternity, by which you and all other Beings, were formed and created: And must( have been put to the pains to) have erected, and set up new ones, according to your Draughts, to your Forms, Modes, and Fashions. And then I should have become changeable myself, to have created you Immutable; And you wiser than your Maker. 
Shall the thing formed say of it's Former, he had no understanding. Isa. 29.16.  How injurious then, and unjust? Nay, how destructive would this have been to my Deity or Godhead? How mutable then would the 
See Christ evidenced to be the Amen. p. 8. The contrary of which is positively asserted. And also the most Reverend Bishop of Dromore's Discourse of Truth. p. 2.  Natures, and mutual respects of things have been? How then would the Glory of these my Attributes, of Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness becomed eclipsed, buried in darkness and obscurity? For then there could have been no Objects of Mercy; viz. Miserable, and wretched Beings: which( like afflicted virtue) could deserve compassion, and pity. For then, they could not have fallen into Calamity, and Misery: What use would my Faithfulness been of? When nothing was to be performed; because there would be no need of any thing to be promised? And what an imaginary thing, would my Justice have been? When no Agents were to Act Voluntarily, in hopes of Reward; nor could deviate from an Eternal Rectitude, and from the highest reason of Acting; and so then, there would have been no Fear of Punishments, which( to inflict) is the executive part of my Justice, and by consequence, I myself, should have been only left, with power necessitated by, and impregnated with an uncounsell'd, and undirected Goodness in the producing, forming, and in creating of Beings. And then these Heavens, on which you stand, 
Mundum fuisse ab Aeterno. Arist. Opinion, and some other Ancient Philosophers.  might have been vested with( what most unjustly you complain you want) Immutability. How unjust and injurious would this have been to my Divinity, and Deity? You might then have been,( what vainly, and most ambitiously ye affencted to be) Worshipped and Adored for true Gods, so that myself should have been the most despicable and despised, the most pitiful and unpitied Deity in the world. But if you urge, that your Fellow Angels are now confirmed in Glory, without being invested with a Divinity. Know ye, that, That is but the due reward of my Remunerative Justice, for their obedience to the Eternal 
Huic Naturae, quae in tantâ excellentiâ creata est, ut licet ipsa sit mutabilis, inhaerendo tamen incommutabili bono, i.e. Summo Deo, beatitudinem consequatur. Aug. de Civit. Lib. 12. Cap. 1. p. 692.  Law of their Creation, which you( so highly) have prevaricated from. And this adds to the unjustness of your complaint: For were not ye created in the same State, endowed with the same perfections, guarded with the same Power; counseled, and directed by the same wisdom, equal sharers in the same measures of Grace, as well as they? Might not ye then( if ye had been towardly, and dutiful, as they were,) been established in the most durable possession of endless Felicity? In an unchangeableness, and Immutability in Goodness and Glory? And therefore, what better State( suiting the capacity of your Natures,) could you have been created in, than you were? If you had not fallen from it by your demerits; You might have ben for ever blessed, for ever Happy. Again, what could have been more agreeable to the Nature of Intellectual Beings,( such were yours) than to be created Free, and undetermined Agents in your Actions; acting necessary, or by necessity, taking away not only the glory of an Action, but of its reward too? Is it not much more honourable( expressive of more perfection,) to act with an Indifferency, or freedom to both; than to be necessitated( as the Flames which scorch you were,) to one extreme? So that your Complaint being both unreasonable, and unjust; your urging of it now( at this time) as a Plea, renders it a petulant, and presumptive; 
L'or gueil est une enfleure& comme une extension immoderée de l'Ame, par laquelle ell s'eleve plus qu'elle ne doit, &c. Monsieur chamber Characters des Passions. Part. 4. p. 91.  a proud and haughty one: For if you deserved nothing, not the meanest perfections; why are you dissatisfied with, why so complaining of, such sublime, and excellent ones, that were given you? This incapacitates your receiving benefit from, what you fly to( as your last, and best Sanctuary) Compassion, and Pity. Which is only, and most effectually moved, by Lowliness and Submissiveness, not by Loftiness and 
Nec unâ seed morantur Majestas& Amor.  Stoutness of Spirit. Tho' the sense of your Misery doth( now at length prompt, nay force you, to supplicate( what ye have despised, and hated) my Divine Majesty, for Compassion, and Mercy: yet your Sin, hath so clouded your comprehensive understandings, that you grossly mistake, when you think yourselves fit Objects thereof: For if, through misfortune or some inevitable 
{αβγδ}. Arist. Rbet. p. 665.  mistake, you had fallen into( what you are now ingulph'd in, and for these 1000 s of years, have howled under) the extremest misery: If that Error which clouds your understandings, which hath darkened and Eclipsed the Light of Glory, had been a surprisal. If your Sin had flowed from the Infirmity of Nature: But yours being mighty in Power to have prevented it; or, from its corruption, yours being uncorrupted. If there had been a Tempter to have inveigled, to have outwitted you: Or, a Devil to have debauched you: And if you had not been endowed with Grace, and invested with Power sufficient to have resisted the one, and with Wisdom enough( you being under its immediate Illuminations) to have defeated the wil●ss, and sly Insinuations of the other. If this had been your case: So that you might have been rather deemed more misfortunate, than wretched. My Mercy( without being importuned, beseech'd, begged, and supplicated for) would have been most ready, with its yearning Bowels, with open arms to have embraced you with everlasting kindness, even in the midst of Misery; but the Sin, which hath caused this, did spring from your Parts, and Perfections: And its pollutions, even from your purity. 
Natura bona quamvis mutabilis, antequam habeat voluntatem malam faciat aliquid mali hoc est ipsam Voluntatem Malam. Aug. de civit. Lib. 12. Cap. 6. p. 705.  It was a Sin most dishonourable to my Holy Name, in profaning of it, most destructive to my Image, stamped on Rational Beings,( as well as on such Intellectual ones as yours) in defacing of it. Most disdainful of my Deity, in vyeing with it; and a most absolute hater thereof, in at tempting( tho' to no purpose) to have supplanted it of that Honor and worship, of that Glory and Renown, which was due unto it. And all these were committed, and done witting, and willingly, most wilfully and most deliberately, with mature choice, and conceived delight, and all persisted in with the greatest obstinacy, which altogether excludes your receiving the least benefit of my Mercy. For its only to the humble and contrite hearts, to broken and bleeding Spirits, that it doth look with an affectionate and compassionate Eye. Isa. 66.2. Whereas yours were never wounded, did never bleed for that Sin, which caused your fall.  
For though ye have made a Confession, yet it is but a general one, such as rather is Courtly and complimental, Formal and for Fashions sake; such, as rather shows how much the best of Creatures may degenerate from their Primitive Purity, original Perfections, how much you have abused my Majesty, provoked my Wrath, and most justly have enraged my Fury against you, than the truth and sincerity of your Contrition, of your hearty sorrowing for your sin, and the evil of your Imaginations. For though ye have howled these thousands of years, under your Chains; yet, instance the day, the hour, the moment, wherein you were most sensibly afflicted for, wherein you did really and cordially repent of, the evil of your Pride, and of your haughty Presumption; otherwise, so many millions of wretched, of wicked Souls( that stand now on my left hand, miserable Trophies of your baneful Conquests) had not been hardened in their sins, if ye, their Tempters, had been true Penitents for yours. So that by the strictest and most impartial Scrutiny of my All-seeing Eye; I cannot find the least creek, the smallest cranny hole, or place in your Plea, to admit into it the least drop of Mercy, for your Refreshment; or else the remains of that essential Goodness( which sticks to you) should have saved you. My faithfulness to my Mercy, and forwardness to have shown it, should have appeared, as Illustrious in the granting of it, as my Faithfulness to my Justice doth now appear( before this Glorious Assembly) in denying( and this most justly) to grant it to you, and in passing on you this final, dreadful( but most Righteous) Sentence, of an Eternal Separation from my most glorious presence, with Depart from me, ye Fiends and Devils( loaden with all the disquieting and distracting Terrors and Horrors, that may svit with the dismallest parts of Hell) into everlasting burnings, prepared for you from the beginning of your Fall, St. Matth. 25.41. Thus Holy, Just, and Glorious, will the Righteous Judge of all the World appear, and approve himself to be, in the Final, and Eternal Condemnation of the fallen Angels, and of all ungodly Wretches, who know not God; but if they do, they do not glorify him as such, nor obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Thess. 1.8. But since the bare Speculation of the best of Beings prove often fruitless, and barren of Piety and Holiness, if not brought down to practise, to influence our Lives,( the living up to their Light was the Glory 
Non magna loquimur, said vivimus, Minutius Felix.  of the Primitive Christians, and the unquestionable Evidence of the Grace of God, which was given to them.) Herein consists the Christians truest Wisdom, as Job declares, viz. to depart from evil, that is understanding, Job. 28. ult. For which it was, that Socrates was esteemed, and declared to be( even by the Devils Oracles) the wisest Man on the Earth. And since all Scripture was given, was written, as well for the reforming of our Hearts, as for the informing and enlightening of our Heads, as St. Paul asserts, 2 Tim. 3.16. And since this of our Apostle, in the Text, proposeth, for our learning, the fall of Angels, as a fair warning to prevent our falling under the same condemnation with them in the judgement to come. From whence also we may learn these profitable Lessons or Instructions; let us attend and give ear a little to them.  
1. Learn we the Inability of the best of Creatures Self-sufficiency, to secure its standing either in Grace, or Glory, without a Divine support and supply. For Mutability being interwoven,( as it hath been declared) 
P. 32.  in the very Natures and Essences of created Beings, there is as necessary required a supernatural Influence, divine concourse, a continued supply and support for their persevering both in Grace and Glory, as well as for the supporting of them in their Beings; which must be ever( without Intermission,) bubbling forth from the Eternal Spring, or Fountain thereof, viz. God in whom we Live, Move, and have our Beings, Acts. 37.28. otherwise the Creatures might be Independent Beings in their Operations; even whilst they are dependant ones for their Existences. And then {αβγδ} Grace; and the {αβγδ}, Eternal Life, could not be the {αβγδ} i. e. Gifts of God, as St. Paul asserts them to be, Rom. 6.23. Neither could there be a Defectibility, a falling from Grace; or, an Irresistibility, a resisting of it, which the Apostle( as I take it) calls the Quenching of the Spirit, 1 Thes. 5.19.( {αβγδ}) It not working irresistibly in us; by Constraint, and Force, and against our Wills,( as it were) carrying us to Heaven, as is evident it did not in those, who, after they were enlightened by it, fell from it, Heb. 6.6. At least( as the Apostle supposeth in this place of Scripture) they might have fallen, as is evident St. Peter actually did, when he denied his Saviour. And that its workings were resistible in St. Paul, appears from a Messenger of satan,( some sharp affliction, which the Devil had Power to inflict) 
See Dr. Hammonds Annot. ad Locum.  was sent to Buffet him, lest he should be exalted( in his own Imaginations)( for his Spiritual attainments) above measure; which his being supplied with Grace from God's Holy Spirit did prevent, My Grace is sufficient for thee. 2 Cor. 12.7, 9, v. Which Evidenceth this great apostles insufficiency, of himself, to secure his standing( in a state of Lowliness and of Humility,) under such great and Gracious Excellencies, with which he was endowed. But further, if there were a self-sufficiency to secure our standing, either in Grace or Glory: Grace could not be proposed as the means; whereby we are enabled to Work out our Salvation, nor Glory, as the Reward for such Working? For self-sufficiency would exclude that as useless, and this from being received as a Reward, but rather to be challenged as a Debt due, and deserved by us, which( if true) would overthrow the clear Revelations of God's Will; of the Method and Manner of God's dealing with us in order to Happiness; it would destroy the Doctrine of Gods Free-Grace, of that Grace, which not only hath appeared to Teach, but to Enable us, to deny all Ungodliness, Tit. 2.11, 12, v. So necessary is a continued and constant supply from above, to strengthen our standing in Grace here, and in Glory hereafter. By this it is, that the Angels which were Obedient,( who improved that Grace which God had bestowed upon them to a right end, viz. That for which it was given them) are confirmed in Glory: From which the Disobedient Spirits,( by perverting the End thereof); by despising and abusing the Communications of Divine Grace, which otherwise might have been as sufficient for them,( as it was for those that stood) are fallen; how highly then, doth it concern the best of Christians, to take special notice of the Apostles caution: Let him that stands, take heed lest he falls, 1 Cor. 10.12. And this the rather in that the State, in which we stand, is a State of Imperfection, whereas that( in which the Angels fell,) was an absolute and complete one, and also that our Attainments( how high so ever) fall exceedingly shorter of those, with which these Apostates Spirits were once invested. Besides, we have strong natural corruptions( which they were freed from) to trip us up, and cunning, powerful, mighty Temptations to wrestle against us; whose utmost strength and skill is put forth, made use of, to give us the worst, to overthrow us: add we, that we are too apt to fancy our Standing firm, even whilst we stand but on slippery places: To be as confident on our own strength, as St. Peter was of his, when with the boldness of the greatest Champion, he declares he would die for( tho' all the other Disciples should forsake) Christ: O vain Confidence in human Frailty! we know, he was the forwardest to deny him. St. Math. 26.33, 69. How should these considerations therefore excite our watchfulness; rouse our weariness; awaken our fears; and quicken our diligence, to make our Calling, and Election sure, as the Apostle exhorts. 2 St. Peter. 1.10. i. e. effectual and advantageous, to keep us fixed, and unshaken in our profession of the Faith without wavering? and to be constant in the practise of the Duties of Holiness, and of Piety? How constantly daily, zealously, and earnestly should we( with Holy David) pray, that our Steps may be so directed by Gods Holy Word and Holy Spirit. Psal. 119.132. That Sin may not have dominion over us? That we lapse not into such a looseness of Living, such dissoluteness of Life, as may highly reflect on our profession as Christians, as may so highly grieve that Holy Spirit, which should sanctify, and cleanse us from all uncleanness, that it may justly cause the Holy Spirit to withdraw its succours, by which we are only enabled to stand fast in the Faith. And tho' it be God, that worketh in us to Will and to Do or Act, and this of his good Pleasure, of his free, and undeserved Love, yet let not us therefore be supine and idle, negligent and slothful in not doing our part, whats in our Power, viz. To give all diligence, to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling. The Angels slighting the Grace given, not improving it to the Glory, and Honor of the Author and giver of it,( as the others did) this became the cause of their Fall: O then, how should their Fall become a fare warning to us, not to despise what Grace is given us, by abusing it; nor to boast, glory, in and to be proud,( as the fallen Angels were) of what we have received, of what's but lent us their wreck should minister to us such provident carefulness; such prudence and wisdom, as to shun those Rocks of Pride and Vanity, on which their everlasting happiness was split: For how refined and Spiritualized soever our Gifts, and Graces be; its no safety to be proud thereof, to overvalue them, nay, our doing so is the only way to be deprived of receiving any comfort, or benefit( as these Apostate Spirits were, for being proud of theirs) by them. Since God resisteth the Proud, but giveth Grace to the Humble: As in St. Jam. 4.6. it's declared. For again.  
Secondly, It's not the Dignity of Nature, the privilege of Birth, or the perfections, and prerogative of parts; that can excuse the perverting of, and abusing of these, by our being proud thereof, that can pled our Immunities from punishments due therefore: No, rather these will increase our Pains and Sufferings under them. For the more excellent that our Nature is, and the more honourable that our Birth, or to what we are allied, are, the more conspicuous will our crimes be. 
Tanto conspectius in se crimen habet, quanto qui peccat mayor habetur. Juven.  Degeneracy from Ancestrial virtue becomes most blemishing; a spot in the fairest Face appears the foulest; darkness in the Sun, the dismallest; and pollutions flowing from the greatest Parts, from the greatest Purity,( as these of the Angels did) most defiling. And to be proud of our Spiritual endowments and Attainments, most provoking of Wrath and Fury: Which no parts, privileges or perfections can prevent the kindlings, nor the scorchings of. Not to mention Cains, and Esau's prerogatives of Birth; that of Cain's could not divert justice, from inflicting a severe( but justly deserved) punishment on him, for his horrid parricide, in killing his Brother Abel. A punishment as hateful, as his Crime was heinous, for it rendered his very being a burden to him; as his awakened Guilty Conscience declares. Gen. 4.13. My punishment is greater than I am able to bear. Nor to insist on Esau's miscarrying of his Blessing, for his profaneness; nor, to enlarge on the Miseries into which Solomon,( to whom God had given largeness of understanding) did fall, for his being enamoured with strange Faces; ensnared by strange Women; for committing Fornication under every green three, by his uncleanness rendering no 
Protected and presided by Gods peculiar presence, and providence.  Oak Royal; and by his becoming a servile, and sensual worshipper of vain Idols. These fallen Angels may be a sufficient instance for all: As for pre-eminency of Birth; they were the first born of the creation: For Dignity and excellency of Nature, they were the most exalted amongst the Creatures. And for perfections; no Creatures( of another Order could vie with them:) Yet when they deviated from the Eternal rectitude; erred from the first, self-originated Truth; and transgressed the Original Laws of their Creation: Instead of being exempted from Punishment,( on the account of their parts, and super-excellencies) their smart became more exasperated; their flames more intense; and the darkness more dreadful, that doth afflict them. For sins committed by such Illustrious, and Eminent Beings, as they were, are commonly not Piccadilloes, but of the largest Size, and greatest Magnitude. They could not be ungrateful, but it must be in the Superlative degree: Nor Rebellious, but in the vilest Manner: No wonder then, that Clemency doth not abate of the Intenseness and Exquisiteness of the punishment; or, that Mercy doth not show the least compassion, or pity to these fallen Angels. For the Justice of God,( who is {αβγδ} Act. 10.34. No Respecter of Persons in judgement) could not be awed by their greatness into a Servile compliance; nor could their honourableness court it into a base connivance, nor could their surpassing perfections procure them pardon, and forgiveness. Neither had they any Gifts that could pervert or blind its All-seeing Eye. For their All, their Nature and Essences, their Existences and unparallelled Endowments, they derived from, and borrowed of him. Neither could God stand in need of any thing that was theirs, whose is the Earth, and the fullness thereof. Ps. 24. And who is a self-sufficient Being, Infinitely satisfied by the sole enjoyment of himself, being God blessed for ever. So vain a thing it is, to pled perfections, parts, and privileges( as these Angels,( as hath been declared above) did,) to palliate Sin, and as the formal worshippers of God will do at the last day, saying, we have prophesied in thy Name; in thy Name we have cast out Devils: In bar of judgement from passing on, and against them, in the judgement to come. But,  
Thirdly, Learn, what mischief spiritual pride hath done in the world. It was the first plague that broken out therein, which immediately killed all those it broken out on; and hath hazarded the Health, and Happiness of all those that have been Infected with it: And few there are, that escape its infections; for it's become almost connatural to corrupt Nature; and its darling, Self-love, the wise man tells us, that it may be found very early with us. That Folly( what greater instance hereof, than pride?) is bound up in the Heart( whose very sobs, after a sharp, but due correction, implies its stoutness, as well as stubbornness) of a Child. Indeed it s of a very secret, and spreading Nature: Its very looks are taking, its breathings catching, yet in this, it differs from a plague: For those( as it's commonly observed that are infected with this,) delight, that others be in the same condition with themselves. But pride hates to see a proud Person, despiseth to see its Like; not that it hates the Sin, but to think that it should be rivall'd in it. Now of all kinds of Pride; what's spiritual( such as springs from our Gifts, Graces, and inward Endowments;) is the vainest: That which hath been signalized by the saddest, and most remarkable Judgments: Yet it hath been so bewitching, that few, even of Good and Excellent men, have escaped the power of its Charms; to which they should have turned the deaf Ear, in that there is not the least reason, why they should listen to them: For, to swell and to be puffed up with our spiritual attainments, hath nothing to ground on, to boast of, or to glory in, as its own. Whereas that Pride, which flows from our Temporals, as Dignities, Riches, Honours, and Power, &c. seems to have something of their own, to bottom on, for by Pains, Labour and Industry, we may become Rich; acquire an Estate; by Study, Industry, and an unwearied Diligence, we may improve our natural and acquired perfections, and so be promoted to Honours, and Dignity, which( like a flowing Tide) commonly swells us with high Thoughts, towering Imaginations, the faster they come in upon us. And this the rather, in that there is something, we can challenge as our own, viz. Pains, and Labour; Study, and Industry: And so have( as it were) whereof to boast, wherein to glory. But now the Gifts and Graces of God, our Intellectual and spiritual Attainments are things altogether foreign to us, not in our power to procure, to deserve by our best performances; being the Gifts of God, and so are Free. Such things as we receive from his boundless Bounty, and Liberality, why then should we become high-minded, for what we have but received, as St. Paul describes the vanity of this Spiritual Pride, 1 Cor. 4.7. It's certainly the product of an airy Imagination, not of a Solid judgement, to swell with high conceits, of what altogether belongs to God,( originally) as his Gifts and Graces do, to become proud of what we should be most thankful for, and most humbled under, for the free and undeserved communications of his heart and affections, of the choice and peculiar distributions of his Holy Spirit, to us; But pride perverts, and destroys both the sense of Gratitude, and that of Humility within us. And often, introduceth a forgetfulness of the Author and Giver of our best things, Spiritual and Temporal, even of God himself: For which we find it signalized, by notorious Judgments that have been inflicted on Persons for it. Those early schismatics( in all ages, pride hath appeared on the foreheads of such, as the brazen'd parent of Schism and heresy, and as it did of theirs,) I mean, Corah, Dathan and Abiram, that Rebellious Crew; for which they were most miserable destroyed, in a most strange, and wonderful manner, as Moses foretold, Number 16.29. So it befell them, viz. The Earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up all alive. v. 32. It was for Pride, that that great Babylonian King nabuchadnezzar, was not only deposed from his Throne, devested of his Crown and dignity, amongst men; but also that Reason was dethroned of Rule and Empire within him, when he was driven out to Herd with Beasts, to eat Hay like an Ox( that hath no understanding) Dan. 4.32. What a loathsome spectacle did Herod become even to his Immediate admirers,( whose flattering, and false acclamations, It's the Voice of a God, and not of a Man. Acts. 22.22. swelled him beyond himself, heightened his Pride to such a pitch, as that was, which caused the Angels Fall,) in assuming to himself the praises that were due to God, even then, his body became a crawling Sepulchre to his Soul: Worms fed and feasted on his Body visibly, when he was Seated in the illustriousness of his Majesty, on his Throne, whilst more dismal ones might be preying on his Soul inwardly. How despicable and despised may Pride render even the most Glorious Majesty! And it was Pride( as hath been declared at large,) that cast these Angels down from Heaven to Hell. But it's not to be wondered at, that this Sin should be branded with the hottest Wrath, blackest Judgments, since it's a sin most hateful to God and Christ, as it's a Companion of hypocrisy, as on another 
Christ evidenced to be the Amen. p. 17.  occasion it hath been insisted on more fully. Yet how easily doth it steal upon us, insinuate itself unto us, becomes( at last) our Confident, and Familiar. Nay, excellent persons have almost been deluded by it; had the Honour, and Grace of their Humility endangered with it. Else, what means Zebedees Sons ambitiously affecting the highest dignity, viz. The being placed, at Christs Right and Left hand in the Kingdom of Glory? St. Math. 20.21. Or what means a Messenger of Sathans being sent to buffet St. Paul, a Thorn in the flesh, to prick him, lest he might be exalted above measure, through the Abundance of the Revelations, that were given to him, as himself declares, 2 Cor. 12.7. What else did the language of Many pretenders in the late times to Saintship, speak, when one might have heard them commonly talk at large, of the Liberties and privileges of Christians; of the Greatness of their spiritual attainments, of the Indwellings of the Spirit; and of its extraordinary enlightenings. Nay, of some of the gifted brethrens arriving at that pitch of Perfection, that I have been  told by some of the Congregational way, that they knew one of the Brotherhood, whose Illuminations must far exceed those which St. Paul received in his Heavenly rapture; wherein he had such strong, and mighty vigorous Impulses from the Holy Spirit upon his Mind and Imagination, that he was only sensible of the Reality of them; but did not distinctly perceive the manner of their being communicated to him, his {αβγδ} i. e. ineffable, or words that could not be uttered, declares no less, but those of this Enthusiastick Brothers were such raised, and yet such displayed, ones on his Spirit, that he could distinctly See, Know, and Discern the Operations and inward Workings of God the Father, from those of God the Son, and those of God the Son, from those of God the Holy Ghost; an unparrallell'd attaimment, and Perfection in this State, a most Divine( or else a most strongly deluded) critic. For as opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa, i.e. the External outward Operations of the Blessed Trinity are Undivided, being( like their Persons) united in oneness, so their inward Workings upon our Souls, tho' distinct in themselves, yet are imperceptible to us, cannot( if we would be so unwarrantably curious, and inquisitive in our Researches thereof) be known by us, as St. Paul declares, 1. Cor. 2.11. None knows the things of God, especially such secret, inward Operations of his Holy Spirit, but the Spirit of God. Nay our Saviour's( Truth itself) reply to Nicodemus doth clear the point, put it out of all doubt, viz. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: So is every one that is born of the Spirit, St. John. 3.8. Thus easily( through Pride) we may have our Credulity abused, our Faith imposed on, and be prevailed with to embrace false Visions for true Revelations, the Illusions of satan for the enlightenings of the Holy Spirit: And it's but just, it should be thus with us, that we should be given over to believe lies, when we become vain-glorious of( what we should be most sensibly debased under) the Gifts, Graces, and Super-excellent Endowments of the Holy Spirit; for which it was, that these Angels( with the most exemplary Justice) were banished from the Kingdom of Glory: For God is not as Man, to be biased and bribed in judgement, with the Prerogatives, privileges, Parts and Perfections of the best of his Creatures; which brings me to the  
Fourth Lesson to be Learnt from the Text, viz. The sharpness, and strictness of Divine Justice to punish for Sin, such as do not hearty repent thereof. God declares by his Prophet, the Soul that sinneth it shall die, Ezek. 18.4. Which the Text confirms, If God spared not the Angels, ( Beings of the highest Dignity) that sinned,( yea fell into the greatest Degeneracy) for which they were cast into Hell: Nay, how severely( yet most impartially) did he punish his own,( and He) his only Son, when he became Voluntarily Mans surety, a Pledge for Transgressions, when the Iniquities of us all were laid upon him? How did the Loads thereof sink him down to the very Brink of Hell, when the Pains of it caught hold of him? How scorching were the Burnings of his Fathers Wrath against him; when he, who hath the most enamouring, endearing Countenance, when he, who is altogether Lovely, had no Form, no Comeliness in him? How did Heaviness seize his Soul, sadness damp his Spirits? How did inward Grief and Trouble perplex his Mind? When, for sin, he became the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with Grief, unpityed by any; as the Prophets Description agrees with his Prediction of him 
Is. 53.3, 4. ,) when he was Despised, we esteemed him not, v. 3. Nay, when he was strike, and Smitten of God: How was he then Afflicted, when the whole Burden of his Fathers Wrath,( for the Sins of the World,) had almost sunk him into a Despondency( under the sense of a Spiritual desertion) which his Passion expiring, dying Words( on the across) declares, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? St. Matth. 27.46. Which, who can red with dry Eyes! Or think of without Relenting Hearts, or be as unconcerned as that Barbarous soldier was; whose Bloody Merciless Spear pierced his most precious Side, and tho' we were not Personally present at his Crucifiction, nor can we,( as the Devout Matrons did;) see him Bleeding on the across, and nailed to it,( which could not but most Sensibly afflict their Eyes, and affect their Hearts; their standing( by his across) weeping declares no less, yet our sins, were as actually concerned, as theirs were: For he was wounded for our Transgressions, Is. 5.3, 4. hanged and offered up as a Sacrifice to Justice) for the Sins of his People. Cannot we then be as feelingly affencted; as deeply Touched,( tho we see him but in effigy, representation only) as they were, when they mourned, Wept, and Lamented for him? Have we laid aside that Nature, which he took, in which he was most afflictingly( yet even then most affectionately) taken with our Infirmities? Cannot we sympathise with him in Sorrowing, for( what caused his Sufferings) our sins? Have we no Compassion left for his Innocency, as to pity it? Nor sorrowful apprehensions of the severity, and strictness of that Justice,( under which it suffered) as not to dread it? Are our Bowels so hardened, that we can have no Yernings for him, who was in Bitterness of Soul for us? Or doth our Faith and Belief fall short of that of Devils, that the apprehensions of the exactest Justice,( in not sparing the innocent,) and of the dreadfulness( to guilty Souls) of the judgement to come, cannot cause us,( as it makes them) Quake and Tremble, St. Jam. 2.19. Or, are we so seared by a custom in sinning, and so senseless of the Evil of our doings, that we cannot or will not apply Christ dying Exhortations( to the lamenting Matrons about his across)? Weep not for me, for my Sufferings hath satisfied Divine Justice, but weep for yourselves, for your own sins, which did so incense my Fathers Wrath against me, that nothing but my Innocency, Suffering could Atone it, could appease it. Ought not we then to bemoan ourselves in Dust and Ashes, to Weep perpetually, to be in bitterness of Soul for our Iniquities? For we cannot pled( as our Saviour) Innocency; nor, as these Angels did, but the Commission of one proud sinful Thought, to prevent our being Everlastingly Miserable. Alas! we are to Reckon for thousands of sins, we are to account for all our Atheistical, Irreligious, Unsanctified, and Ungodly Thoughts; for all the Uncleanness, Fornications, Adulteries, and Incest: For all the Rancour, Hatred, Malice, Man-Slaughter, and Murders of the Heart, for whatsoever Wickedness hath been formed in it, proceeded from it, St. Matth. 15.19. For all the Blasphemies, Perjuries, Horrid Oaths, Hellish Destructions, scurrilous Reflections, virulent Reproaches, that have been belched against God and Goodness, Piety and Holiness, and against the Harmless and Innocent, the Upright and sincere Christians, by the Tongue, when it hath been set on fire of Hell, St. Jam. 3.6. For we must reckon for every Idle Word, St. Matth. 12.36. How deep then will the Score be for Dammees! And also for all our Ungodly, Wicked, and Heathenish Actions, for our Sins of Omission, for not doing what we should have done, for our Contempt of Gods Holy Institutions, in not Hearing of his Holy Word, in not frequenting of his Holy Places, in not Sanctifying of his Holy Days, in not Receiving of that Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of his Dear Son, which is virtually the accounting of it, an Unholy thing. And for our sins of Commission, in doing what we should not have done, viz. in hearing carelessly, unconcernedly, in praying Coldly,( not affectionately;) which is the reason, why we may Pray often, and be but seldom heard, for the fervent sincere prayer of the Devout Christian( St. James assures us, Jam. 5.16.) is only prevalent and prevailing with God: For our meanly esteeming of those, who should be had in double Honour for their Works sake, viz.( Gods Ho y Ministers, Christs ambassadors) for our loading them with ignominious Terms, ill Names, with Characters of reproach and scorn, and for our presuming to come to the Lords Table with unwashen Hands( unpurifyed from Hatred and Malice against our Neighbours, against our Brethren) Hearts, and Consciences; for all these things( O Christian Reader!) we are to Account at the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord( at the judgement to come:) And it may be, that most of these have been Committed weekly, daily, nay hourly by us, with delight and pleasure, and this for many years together, nay it may be even from our Youths up, to this very day, they are yet Unrepented of. If so, with what aching Hearts, perplexed Minds, broken and bleeding Spirits, may we red and hear of the Fall of Angels,( of the Severity, Impartiality, and Strictness of the Justice of God in their Punishment) who, tho' they committed but One sinful Thought, and, that being unrepented of, were cast down from Heaven to Hell, so that, do we think then to Escape for Thousands? If God spared not them, being much more excellent than us, do we think he will spare us, be Merciful to us, if yet,( as well as they) we be found Impenitents, such as have not Repented of the Evil of our Doings? O no, final Impenitency will most certainly become our,( as well as it became their) Everlasting ruin, and endless Misery. So that from the Devils Felicity, and Happiness being Wreck'd, we may be( if We but look about us, look before us) better able to shun that Rock of Pride which caused it, and secure our standing firm in Grace here,( that we may be confirmed in Glory hereafter) by bottoming on the safest and surest Ground, viz. Humility, which is the  
Fifth, And last Lesson to be learnt from the Fall of Angels. And now, Judicious and Christian Reader, since the Original and first sin( that ever was committed in the World,) the heinousness of its Nature, the Direfulness and destructiveness of it's Effects, the sharpness of the Punishment( most justly) inflicted for it, the Honour of Divine Goodness in the permitting of it vindicated, with some Practical Inferences deducted from it, have been set before thee, displayed to thee; that thy Pains in the Reading, and the Authors in Composing these great and Weighty things, may not be altogether lost, become unprofitable to both, by a bare Speculation and light Consideration of them; but that the Misery of the worst of Beings( these Apostate Spirits, Fiends, and Devils) may Minister to the securing of our standing in Grace in this World, to the Glory of God, and to our being confirmed( with the blessed Angels) in all goodness in the World to come. To render what hath been said, and is now pressed, more effectual, let us listen to what God hath shown us, what he hath directed us to by his Prophet, 
Micah. 6.8.  and to what, be requires of us in order to the preventing our falling under the same Condemnation,( with these Wicked Spirits) viz. To do justly, not to assume to ourselves( as the fallen Angels did) what of right doth not belong to us, the Honour and Worship, which is Gods peculiar, due only to him alone; To love Mercy either by showing Pity and Compassion to those that need it, that are fit objects thereof, or by an hearty and sincere Application for it to ourselves; that out of a due sense of the Necessity, of our being fitly qualified for the obtaining, and for the receiving of it, we may walk humbly with our God, Humility being the only Antidote to Pride and Haughtiness of Spirit, it cures what the other would kill, procures to us what Pride banisheth from us, Grace and Goodness; for Humility makes us set a true estimate and value on what we receive, becomes thankful for good things, qualifies us for receiving better, He gives the Grace to the humble, as the Apostle affirms, St. Jam. 3.6. And gives us great complacency and satisfaction, in what we enjoy, as the best, and to learn( as St. Paul teacheth, Phil 4.11.) Therewith to be content. For which, it becomes the Beauty, as well as Grace of Souls. That, with which God the Father becomes affencted: To this man will I look,( with a peculiar favourable Aspect and Respect) viz. to the humble and contrite one. Isa. 66.2. That, with which God the Son is delighted, and becomes the comeliness thereof, and( as he describes himself to be) the Glory of it; I am the Rose of Sharon, the lily of the Valleys. i. e. of Humble Souls: Cantic. 2.1. And no wonder that both these blessed Persons, should be so enamoured with it, since it's the singular Gift, and peculiar Grace of the Third person of the ever blessed Trinity in Unity, viz. of the holy Spirit; Humility being that garment, with which the Holy Ghost adorneth those it Sanctifieth, with which it covereth, what might otherwise expose their shane and nakedness, Spiritual pride. And therefore our Apostle exhorteth all Christians to be clothed with it, 1. St. Pet. 5.5. In short, Humility layeth the deepest and lowest, the firmest and solidest Foundation, bottoming on Christ, who was most Exemplary for it, who invites and calls on all true Worshippers of him to do so, with, Learn of me, to build up your Heavenly Structure, for I am meek and lowly. St. Math. 11.29. So that we need not Fear the falling down of what we build thereon. On it we may erect a fabric, which will out-top that of the Babylonians( without being confounded in our building) even what will reach to the highest Heavens. A structure, or building that will out-Fame the Pyramids in Egypt, and prove more lasting, than the most durable brass. For by humility, we shall not only be had in Remembrance, and become renowned amongst men on Earth, but far beyond it, even with God, who will exalt lowly, and debased Souls to an everlasting enjoyment of himself. These poor in Spirit, being those, to whom only is promised, 
St. Matth. 5.3.  what most certainly shall be performed, made good to them; what they shall most assuredly be possessed of, viz. The Kingdom of Heaven, and of Glory. Therefore( O Blessed humility! Tho' thy Foundation is laid in the deepest, and darkest shades within us, which no Eye, but an All-seeing one can see and discern: Yet these shall break forth into bright glimpses of heavenly Light, displays of Glory: Tho' thy lowliness suits and corresponds to that of the Origin of our Bodies, the Earth, which renders us mean to ourselves; but base and vile to the Proud and haughty: Yet its the only Favourite of Heaven, and in greatest repute with the most High. Tho' Poverty of Spirit may lay us open as despicable, and ridiculous to and amongst the sons and daughters of men, yet it will represent us equally valuable, and honourable to and amongst the best of the Sons of God,( in an ever blessed Eternity) when we appear arrayed with it: O! who then would not affect thy Garb, thy Mode, and Dress! who would not impatiently long to wear it! Tho' thy Garment be not of the Silk-worms spinning,( such as the Great, and Rich do wear, as common badges of their pride, and of their plenty) but such as is esteemed course, because but Home-spun within ourselves; yet it best suits the meanest of our Births, as earthly; the borrowed Efficacy of the Holy Spirit in our Regeneracy; and our Glorious Reception, into an ever-blessed Immortality. Thy Debasements here, being the only Advances to the most glorious exaltations hereafter. From which, these Apostate Spirits, who were High and Mighty in their own Conceits, Proud and Lofty in their own Imaginations, were cast down into Hell, where they are reserved under chains of Darkness unto judgement. From being seized with the Terrors and Horrors of the one, and from being Cast and condemned in the other, God, in and through his Infinite mercy, grant us Grace to walk lowly, and humbly with our God. To the Glory of the ever Blessed( Trinity in Unity) Three Persons, but one God both now, and forever, world without end, Amen.  
FINIS.