of the fear of God. And it is also evident how burthensome the presence, of a truly religious person is to wicked men, especially at that time they have a mind more freely to indulge to their own wickedness.
5. The fifth and last Objection is against a Vision or Dream, wherein he that had for so many years the society of a Guardian Genius or Good Angel, seem'd to hear these words, I will save thy Soul, I am he that before appeared unto thee, as if this Genius or Angel had been himself the Eternal God. But this need breed no scruple. For first, there being no shape of any person represented to him in this Vision, it may goe onely for a Divine suggestion of the Spirit of God assuring him of his love and providence over him now, as heretofore he had done in like Visions or Dreams.
And then secondly, if we should admit that the Angel should speak so unto him, the Angel in this case is not properly said to speak as a Person, but as an Instrument, so as a mans Tongue speaks, whereas yet a mans Soul or himself more properly speaks then the Tongue. Wherefore if God take so full possession of all the powers and faculties of an Angel, that for a time he loses the sense of his own personality, and becomes a mere passive Instrument of the Deity, being as it were the Eye or Mouth of God; what in this case he speaks is to be under stood of God, and not of himself.
Thus I have, I hope, satisfied the difficulties concerning all the Historical passages of this Third Book, that are still remaining in it. For I most confess that I have expunged some that seemed not so accurately agreeable with those laws I set my self, upon my closer view. Not that I know any thing of them whereby I can discover them to be false, but because wanting that conformity, they must be acknowledged by me not so convincingly true.
Chap. XIII.
1. That the Transformation of an humane body into another shape may be done without pain. 2. That there may be an actual separation of Soul and Body without Death properly so called. 3. That the Bodies of Spirits may be hot, or cold, or warm, and the manner how they become so. 4. In what sense we may acknowledge a First in an Infinite succession of generations. 5. That the story of Tree-Geese in Gerard is certainly true. 6. That God must be a Spirit properly so called. 7. That Spirits ordinarily so called are not Fire nor Aire, but Essences properly Spiritual, demonstrated from the solute Arenosity (as I may so speak) of Aire and Fire. 8. That this soluteness makes those Aereal Compages incapable of Personality, spontaneous Motion, and Sensation: 9. As also of transfiguring their vehicle into those complete shapes of Animals they appear in; 10. And of holding it together in winds and storms; 11. And lastly, of transporting Men and Cattel in the Aire.
