For in this action their Bodies must needs be exceedingly compressed, which cannot well be without a painful sense. And this is perhaps a reason why there are so few Appiritions, and why appearing Spirits are commonly in such haste to be gone, viz., that they may be deliver'd from the unnatural pressure of their tender vehicles; which I confess holds more, in the Apparitions of good than evil Spirits; most relations of this kind, describing their descoveries of themselves, as very transient, (though for those the holy Scripture Records, there may be peculiar reasons, why they are not so) whereas the wicked ones are not altogether so quick and hasty in their Visits: The reason of which probably is, the great subtilty and tenuity of the Bodies of the former, which will require far greater degrees of compression, and consequently of Pain, to make them visible; whereas the latter are more sœculent and gross, and so nearer allied to palpable consistencies, and more easily reduceable to Appearance and Visibility.
At this turn, Sir, you may perceive that I have again made use of the Platonick Hypothesis, that Spirits are embodied, upon which indeed a great part of my Discourse is grounded: And therefore I hold my self oblig'd to a short account of that supposal. It seems then to me very probable, from the nature of Sense, and Analogy of Nature. For (1) we perceive in our selves, that all Sense is caused and excited by Motion made in Matter; and when those motions which convey sensible Impressions to the Brain, the seat of Sense, are intercepted, Sense is lost: So that if we suppose Spirits perfectly to be disjoyn'd from all Matter, 'tis not conceivable how they can have the sense of any thing; for how material Objects should any way be perceiv'd or felt, without vital union with Matter, 'tis not possible to imagine. Nor doth it (2) seem suitable to the Analogy of Nature, which useth not to make precipitous leaps from one thing to another, but usually proceeds by orderly steps and gradations: Whereas were there no order of Beings between Us, who are so deeply plung'd into the grossest Matter, and pure unbodied Spirits, 'twere a mighty jump in Nature. Since then the greatest part of the World consists of the finer Portions of Matter, and our own Souls are immediately united unto these, 'tis infinitely probable to conjecture, that the nearer Orders of Spirits are vitally joyn'd to such Bodies; and so Nature by degrees ascending still by the more refin'd and subtle Matter, gets at last to the pure Νόες or immaterial Minds, which the Platonists made the highest Order of created Beings. But of this I have discoursed elsewhere, and have said thus
