God has no doubt made them so as is best for us in our
present condition. He hath fitted us for the neighbourhood of the
bodies that surround us, and we have to do with; and though we cannot,
by the faculties we have, attain to a perfect knowledge of things, yet
they will serve us well enough for those ends above-mentioned, which
are our great concernment. I beg my reader's pardon for laying
before him so wild a fancy concerning the ways of perception of beings
above us; but how extravagant soever it be, I doubt whether we can
imagine anything about the knowledge of angels but after this
manner, some way or other in proportion to what we find and observe in
ourselves. And though we cannot but allow that the infinite power
and wisdom of God may frame creatures with a thousand other
faculties and ways of perceiving things without them than what we
have, yet our thoughts can go no further than our own: so impossible
it is for us to enlarge our very guesses beyond the ideas received
from our own sensation and reflection. The supposition, at least, that
angels do sometimes assume bodies, needs not startle us; since some of
the most ancient and most learned Fathers of the church seemed to
believe that they had bodies: and this is certain, that their state
and way of existence is unknown to us.
14.
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