as the Angell ioyneth him by his owne will, the more perfectly to the apparant truth, that maye not be chaunged, as Gregory saith: Almightie God made the kinde of good Angells good, but mutable. So that they that woulde abide, might bée assured of grace, & by so much the more increase reward, in how much they setteled the effect of their will with studie, without chaunging in God: also Saint Gregorie sayth: Angell in the contemplation of his Creator is aboue the thing that may be chaunged, but in that he is a creature, he hath subiections of chaunging. Denis sayth, In Angells three things must bée had in consideration, Essencia, by the which they haue béeing: vertue by the which they haue might: and working, by the which they are exercised. The Essencia of them is simple and vnmateriall, pure, distinct, and discréet. This vertue of them is frée, vnderstanding, louing, and without ceasing. They haue might and power fréely to choose, to vnderstande, and to loue: and to God to be ioyned without chaunging: also they haue a vertue of working, for they doe all thing without abiding or tarrieng, they put of al aduersitie without withstanding, and without withsayeng: alway they be nigh vs, and serue vs without ceasing: and their working, is willing, sodeine, profitable, and honest.
For they serue GOD without constraining, and doe his heastes sodeinly and in an instaunt, and putte not off till on the morrowe: all good and profite they procure with greate héede taking: they bée occupied in lawfull déedes and honest, that bée without blame: then it is truth that in an Angell is three manner vertues, of knowing, of working, and of béeing. For hée knoweth God aboue himselfe, in a mirrour of euerlasting during, without any intermission. Hee seeth alway the face of the Father. Mathew. 18 Angels alwayes beholde the face of my Father which is in heauen. Psal. 10. He apprehendeth all things that is without himselfe, without anye collection, and holdeth in minde within himselfe, without forgetting, all that hée apprehendeth. Angells haue this vertue of working, mightely, swiftly, and profitably, and without ceasing: and they also haue vertue to be steadfast, in the simplicitie of their kinde. For they are not altered by deedly subiections, neyther they haue no contrariousnesse of passibilitie, neither bee lette with charge of flesh. They bée also in steadfastnesse of grace and of blisse. For they bée subiects to the lawes of God, and be not contrary therto by none affection nor deede.
They bée godly and not tormented with the pricke of enuie: and forasmuch as they be pure and cleane, they bee not defiled with anye affection: and they be steadfast in the dignitie of office. They are the substaunce of well minding, and therefore contrarye to euill dooing and they that bée Souereignes bée Princes ouer the other without tyrannie: also Angells kinde is ioyned nigh to the first lyght, that is God, and therefore it is full of more copious light: and so much the more déeper it draweth of the Well of lyfe, the more néere it ioyneth it selfe to the first light in beholding the minde: and it receiueth alway the more principall Theophanias, that is lyght and shining of GOD, insomuch as it tourneth it the more perfectlye to the highest good by loue, that chaungeth not: and so that light, that is euerlasting, first it commeth vppon Angells, and by Angells it commeth downe to vs• and therefore by Angells lawe came to men:[1] and for that first shining commeth to Angelles from the Father of lyght. Denis calleth Angelles Algamatha, that is, most cléere myrrours, receiuing the lyght of GOD. Vnde in libro de diuinis nominibus. Chap 6. Denis sayth in this manner. An Angell is the Image of GOD, the shewing of hidde lyght, a myrrour pure and most bright, without spot, without wemme, or other defiling.
And if it were lawfull to saye, hée receyueth in himselfe all the fayrenesse of the well shape, godlye formitie
- ↑ Gen. 18. Exo. 3
