8. In this their ministration they are ordered into different degrees of superiority and inferiority,[198] and are not equal among themselves, 1 Thess. iv. 16; Jude 9; Dan. x. 13, 20, 21; Eph. i. 21; Col. ii. 10; Eph. iii. 10; vi. 12; Col. i. 16; Zech. iv. 10; Rev. iv. 5; v. 6. 9. Angels are employed not only about our bodies, but our souls, by furthering the means of our salvation: they preached the gospel themselves, (as they delivered the law,[199]) Luke ii. 9, 10; i. 11, &c.; Heb. ii. 2; Gal. iii. 19; Acts x. 4; Dan. vii. 16; viii. 15-17; ix. 21, 22; Luke i. 29; ii. 19. Especially they deliver particular messages, which suppose the sufficiency of the laws of Christ, and only help to the obedience of it. 10. They are sometimes God's instruments to confirm, and warn, and comfort, and excite the soul, and to work upon the mind, and will, and affections:[200] that they do this persuasively, and have as much access and power to do us good, as Satan hath to do us evil, is very clear. Good angels have as much power and access to the soul, to move to duty, as devils have to tempt to sin. As God hath sent them oft upon monitory and consolatory messages to his servants in visible shapes, so doth he send them on the like messages invisibly, Judg. v. 23; Matt. i. 20; Psal. civ. 4; Luke xxii. 43, an angel from heaven is sent to strengthen Christ himself in his agony. 11. They persecute and chase the enemies of the church, and sometimes destroy them: as Psal. xxxv. 5, 6; 2 Kings xix. 35; Isa. xxxvii. 36; and hinder them from doing hurt, Numb. xxii. 24. 12. They are a convoy for the departing souls of the godly, to bring them to the place of their felicity, Luke xvi. 22, though how they do it we cannot understand. 13. They are the attendants of Christ at his coming to judgment, and his ministers to gather his elect, and sever the wicked from the just, in order to their endless punishment or joy. 1 Thess. iv. 16, "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up," &c. Matt. xiii. 41, 42, 49, "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all offences or scandals, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. At the end of the world, the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire," &c.[201]