III. It follows, from their being spirits, and incorporeal, that they are immortal, or incorruptible, since nothing is subject to death, or dissolution, but what is compounded of parts; for death is a dissolution of the composition of those parts, that were before united together; but this is proper to bodies. A spirit, indeed, might be annihilated; for the same power that brought it out of nothing, can reduce it again to nothing. But, since God has determined that they shall exist for ever, we must conclude that they are immortal, not only from the constitution of their nature, but by the will of God. IV. Besides the excellency of their nature, as spirits, they have other super-added endowments; of which, _three_ are mentioned in this answer. 1. They were all created holy; and, indeed, it could not be otherwise, since nothing impure could come out of the hands of a God of infinite purity. Creatures make themselves sinners, they were not made so by him; for, if they were, how could he abhor sin, and punish it, as contrary to his holiness; nor could he have approved of all his works, as _very good_, when he had finished them, as he did, Gen. i. 31. if he had created any of the angels in a state of enmity, opposition to, or rebellion against him. 2. They excel in knowledge, or in wisdom, which is the greatest beauty or advancement of knowledge. Accordingly, the highest instance of wisdom in men, is compared to the wisdom of an angel. Thus the woman of Tekoa, when extolling David’s wisdom, though with an hyperbolical strain of compliment, compares it to that of _an angel of God_, 2 Sam. xiv. 20. which proves that it was a generally received opinion, that angels exceeded other creatures in wisdom. 3. They are said to be mighty in power: thus the Psalmist speaks of them, as _excelling in strength_, Psal. ciii. 20. and the apostle Paul, when speaking of Christ’s being revealed from heaven, in his second coming, says, that it shall be _with his mighty angels_, 2 Thess. i. 7. And, since power is to be judged of by its effects, the great things, which they are sometimes represented, as having done in fulfilling their ministry, in defence of the church, or in overthrowing its enemies, is a certain evidence of the greatness of their power. Thus we read of the whole Assyrian host, consisting of _an hundred and fourscore and five thousand men_, being destroyed in one night; not by the united power of an host of angels, but by one of them. _The angel of the Lord_ did it; but this will more evidently appear, when, under a following head, we speak of the ministry of angels.