supplication the commandment came forth, and I am come,_ v. 21. _Being caused to fly swiftly, &c. but from these places may be set down as undoubted truths or conclusions,_ 1. _That the glorious Angels have their Mission and Commission from the most high._ 2. _That without this they cannot appear to mankind. And from these two will necessarily flow a third._ 3. _That if the glorious Angels have not that power to go till commissioned, or to appear to Mortals, then not the fallen Angels; who are held in Chains of darkness, to the Judgment of the great day. Therefore to argue, that because the good Angels have appeared, the evil may or can, is to me as if--_ [79] _because the dead have been raised to life by Holy Prophets, therefore Men, wicked Men can raise the dead. As the sufferings, so the temptations of our Saviour were (in degree) beyond those common to Man; he being the second Adam, or publick head, the strongest assaults were now improved; and we read that he was tempted, that he might be able to succour those that are tempted, as also that he was led of the Spirit into the Wilderness, that he might be tempted, &c. But how the tempter appeared to him who was God Omniscient; whether to the bodily Eye or to the Intellect, is as far beyond my cognizance as for a blind Man to judge of Colours. But from the whole set down this fourth conclusion_, 4. _That when the Almighty free Agent has a work to bring about for his own glory, or Man's good; he can Imploy not only Blessed Angels, but the evil ones in it, as 2 Cor. xii. 7._ And lest I should be exalted above measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the Messenger of Satan to buffet me. 1. Sam. 10. xiv, xv, xxiii. _An evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him. It is a great truth, we understand little, very little, and that in common things, how much less then in spirituals, such as are above humane cognizance. But tho' upon the strictest Scrutiny in some natural things, we can only discover our own Ignorance, yet we must not hence deny what we do know, or suffer a Rape to be committed upon our Reason and Senses in the Dark; and say that the Devil by his ordinary Power can act a Vehicle (i. e.) some matter distinct from himself, who is wholly a Spirit, and yet this matter not to be felt nor heard, and at the same time to be seen; or may be felt, and not heard nor seen, &c. seems to me to be a Chimera, invented at first to puzzle the belief of reasonable Creatures, and since Calculated to a Roman Latitude, to uphold the Doctrine of Transubstantiation; who teach, that under the Accidents of Bread, is contained the Body of our Saviour, his humane Body, as long, and as broad, &c. for here the Power of the Almighty must not be confined to be less than the Devil's, and 'tis he that has said,_ hoc est meum Corpus. _As to the consent of almost all Ages, I meddle not now with it, but come to the fifth Conclusion._