§. 86. Of the Nature of Angels.
ANgels are created Spirits subsisting in themselves; Every word in this brief de∣scription so makes to the nature of Angels, as it distinguisheth them from all others.
- ...
1. They are Spirits, so they are expresly called in this verse and ver. 14. This im∣porteth both their being and also the kinde of their being; Spirits are substances, and have a true reall being, as the souls of men have which are stiled Spirits Eccl. 12. 7. Heb. 12. 9. 23.
The Offices deputed by God to Angels, the great works done by them, the ex∣cellent gifts wherewith they are indned (as knowledge, wisedom, holiness, strength, &c.) do plainly demonstrate, that they are true reall substances.
Hereby they are distinguished from all meer imaginations and phantasies, which are conceptions in mens mindes of such things as never were, nor ever had any true being at all; as those intelligentiae which Philosophers conceit do turn the cele∣stiall Orbes.
They are also hereby distinguished from physicall qualities, philosophicall acci∣dents, and from meer motions, affections, inspirations, and such other things as have no true, reall being at all.
The Title Spirit doth further import their kinde of being to be spirituall, which is the most excellent being that can be; Herein it is like to the divine being; For God is a Spirit, Joh. 4. 24.
Hereby the being of Angels is distinguished from all kinde of corporeal substan∣ces, which are sensible, visible, subject to drowsinesse, wearinesse, heavinesse, fainting, diminutions, decay, destruction, and sundry other infirmities to which spi∣rits are not subject.
- ...
2. They are created; This was proved before §. 81.
Hereby Angels are distinguished from their Creator, who is a Spirit, but uncre∣ated: Angels are stiled Gods, and Sonnes of God (as was shewed §. 70.) and in∣dued with sundry excellencies above other creatures; yet being created, neither are they to be accounted truly and properly Gods; Nor any thing proper to the Deity is to be atributed or done to them.
- ...
3. They subsist in themselves: Though they have their being from God, and are preserved, sustained, and every way upheld by God, so as they have their subsistence from God, yet God hath so ordered it, as it is in themselves: Angelicall Spirits have neither bodies nor any other like thing to subsist in.
Hereby they are distinguished from the souls of men, which are Spirits (Luk. 23.* 1.1 46. Heb. 12. 23.) but have their subsistence properly in their bodies; This phrase, God breathed into mans nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul, imports* 1.2 as much; So doth this Philosophical principle; The soul in infusing it into the body is created, and in the creation of it it is infused.
True it is that the soul may be separated from the body, and retain the spirituall being which it hath; but so as it longeth after the body, and is restlesse till it be re∣united to the body: We would not be uncloathed, that is, we do not simply desire a putting off the body from the soul, but cloathed upon, that is, have immortality put upon our bodies, without separating their souls from them, 2 Cor. 5. 4. As for the souls which are separated from their bodies, they cry, How long O Lord, holy and