- ---'--------:---------- 47+ Book IV. Chap.5 .Sect,z. can 1\: irup the memory of things, and provoke our fancies to the apprehenfivn or' chis or that. 3· This appeares alfo in ficknelfe, which altering the body: and the humours, and fo troubl ing the fancy, it begets il:range tanetes, and makes-dreadful and fearful reprefentations unto us: now this we m'ufi know, that whatfoever an inferiour .power can do, that a· fi.Jper iour power can do much more ; whatfoever an ad: of our own will, or natural dreames, or preternatural ficknelfe can do, that the Angels can do molt orderly, and efficacioufly; they know exact ly how the fpiri ts at.d humor£ mufi be moved, that the images or p!Jantafmcs l1aybeapplied to fuch _or fuch conceptionsor apprehenfion~, mofi accommodate and tmed fort he knowledge of what trmh they would fuggefi. So that to me here is the difference between the conv-erfe of men and Angels; men can fpeak to our underfiandings by the mediation of our external fenfes, but Angels go a nearer way to work and fpeak to the internals firft ofall : they do no more but , come into the memory ( the treafurer of all our phantafmes and imaginations) and there make fuch and fuch compofitions even as they pleafe, ~nd then the underfianding takes them off, and reades what is written, without moreadoe. 2. How may we know when the Angels fpeak to us ? i confds it is an hard quefiion, and eafily it cannot be folved ; only forne conjecture we may have ; as in a cafe ofevil; thou art in a way of fin, and neare to fall into it, it may be on a fudden thou hear.eft within the fomecontrary whifperings, which alfo are above the whifperings of a natural confcience, common to the wicked ; or in cafe ofgood, it may be on a fuddm thou hearefi within thee fome independent, fupernatural perfwafions, and reafonings to ' this or that good, or to this or that obj.eet, which may more .ealily le3.d thee to choofe the good; in thefe cafes thou mayfr conjedu rally think, that thefe whifperingsor motions are of the Angels ofGod . Bod.din tells a ftory of one who defired of God a guidance, and affifiance ofan Angel ; and accordingly he had fenfible manifefiarions ofa ·fpirit that affified him, and followed him till his death ; ,fin company he fpake any unwary words, he was fure to be advertifed , and reproved for it by a drearne in the night; or if he read any book that was not gootl, the Angel would ih ike upon the book, to caufe him to leave it. . - · ~ · But
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=