News, that the Angels of Darkness would be terrified and confounded, and immediately fly away: And perhaps this Consideration has partly been the Foundation of this Opinion; for as this may easily be supposed, so perhaps it has been imagin'd, that the Spirits of Darkness, having always in Memory that fatal Hour, are startled and frighted away as the Cock proclaims it.

It was also about this Time when he rose from the Dead. And when the great Sun of Righteousness was risen upon the World, no Wonder that all the Clouds of Darkness and Wickedness were dispell'd; no Wonder that the conquer'd Powers of Hell were not able to shew their Heads: And this perhaps hath been another Reason of their imagining that Spirits go away at that Time.

A third Reason is, that Passage in the Book of Genesis, where Jacob wrestled with the Angel for a Blessing; where the Angel says unto him,* Let me go, for the Day breaketh.

But indeed this Tradition seems more especially to have risen from some particular Circumstances attending the Time of Cock-crowing; and which, as Prudentius seems to say

* Gen. xxxii.

above, are an Emblem of the Approach of the Day of the Resurrection. For when we leave the World, we lie down in our Graves, and Rest from our Labours; Sleep and Darkness lay hold upon us, and there we abide till the last Day appear, when the Voice of the ArchAngel shall awake us, that we may meet the LORD of Light and Day. And when we leave the common Business and Care of Life, we lie down in our Beds, as in a Grave, buried as it were in Sleep and Darkness, till the Cock-crow, the welcome Messenger of the News of Day.

The Circumstances therefore of the Time of Cock-crowing, being so natural a Figure and Representation of the Morning of the Resurrection; the Night so shadowing out the Night of the Grave; the third Watch, being as some suppose, the Time our Saviour will come to Judgment at; the Noise of the Cock awakening sleepy Man, and telling him as it were, the Night is so far spent, the Day is at Hand; representing so naturally the Voice, of the Arch-Angel awakening the Dead, and calling up the Righteous to everlasting Day; so naturally does the Time of Cock-crowing shadow out these Things, that probably some good

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good well meaning Men, have been brought to believe, that the very Devils themselves, when the Cock crew, and reminded them of them, did fear and tremble, and shun the Light.

Now in Answer to the first of these Conjectures: 'Tis very likely the Evil Spirits did fly away in the Morning of the Nativity, and because of our Saviour's Birth and that Company of the heavenly Host, might be afraid and retire into thick Darkness; yet it will not hence follow, that it always happens so at the Time of Cock-crowing: For if they did fly away that Morning, the Circumstances of our Saviour's Birth, the heavenly glory of the Angelick Quire, their Musick and their Presence were the Occasion of it: And why only the bare Remembrance of what happened at that Time, should always at the Time of Cockcrowing drive them away, rather than when they remember it at another, no Reason seems to be given.

As to the second Conjecture, namely, That it was the Time of our Saviour's Rising from the Dead, I answer in the same Manner, That tho' it be allowed, that the Evil Spirits might have returned to the Land of Darkness, upon

our Saviour's Rising from the Dead; yet why it should occasion, them always to do so at that Time, no Reason can be given.

As to the third Conjecture, it is easy to observe, That this was a good Angel, whereas they that shun the Light, are bad ones: This was the Angel of the Covenant, the Creator of Light, and the Lord of the Day: We may therefore as well imagine, that it was not in his Power, to get out of the arms of Jacob, without saying, Let me go; as to suppose he was obliged to go, because he said the Day breaketh. The meaning of which Words, According to Willet, is not that the Angel was gone to the blessed Company of the Angels, to sing their Morning Hymn to GOD, as the Hebrews imagine: For the Angels, not only in the Morning, but at "other Times, are exercised in praising GOD.

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But the Angel thus speaketh according to "the Custom of Men, having now taken the "Form and Shape of a Man, as tho' he had "hast to other Business, and leaving Jacob "also to his Affairs."

The last Conjecture of the Rise of this Tradition, seems to carry greater Probability than the others: For as these Things are a Representation

sentation of the Circumstances of the Morning of the Resurrection, so they must sure enough bring that last Day into Remembrance; and they never can do so, but as surely they must create Terrour and Confusion in all the Devils and Ghosts of the Night: Whilst they assure them they shall never any more enjoy the Realms of Bliss, but be hurried into that* everlasting Fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. But that these Things are the Occasion of their flying away at the Approach of Day, is not to be supposed. On the contrary, the Devil and his Angels ramble o'er the World in Day-light, and are Mid-day Devils, as well as Mid-night ones: For the Devil is incessant in his Temptations, and therefore he is abroad in the Day as well as the Night, tho' perhaps has seldom appear'd but in DarkThus St. Austin, in one of his Meditations, We implore thee, O God! that thou wouldest deliver us from our daily Enemy, who by his Wiles and Cunning is always

ness.

*Matt. xxv. 41.

† Et ideo Deus meus ad te clamamus, libera nos ab adversario nostro quotidiano, qui sive dormiamus, sive vigilemus,— die ac nocte fraudibus & artibus, nunc palam nunc occulte sagittas venenatas contra nos dirigens, ut interficiat animas nostras. Aug. Sol. Cap. 16.

watching