There is therefore some other hand that twines the thread of life than
that of nature; we are not only ignorant in antipathies and occult
qualities; our ends are as obscure as our beginnings; the line of our
days is drawn by night, and the various effects therein by a pencil that
is invisible; wherein, though we confess our ignorance, I am sure we do
not err if we say it is the hand of God.
ON ANGELS
Therefore for spirits, I am so far from denying their existence, that I
could easily believe, that not only whole countries, but particular
persons have their tutelary and guardian angels; it is not a new opinion
of the Church of Rome, but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato: there is
no heresy in it, and if not manifestly defined in Scripture, yet is an
opinion of a good and wholesome use in the course and actions of a man's
life, and would serve as an hypothesis to solve many doubts, whereof
common philosophy affordeth no solution. Now, if you demand my opinion
and metaphysics of their natures, I confess them very shallow, most of
them in a negative way, like that of God; or in a comparative, between
ourselves and fellow-creatures; for there is in this universe a stair, or
manifest scale of creatures, rising not disorderly or in confusion, but
with a comely method and proportion.
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