ascribe unto them. I believe they have an extemporary knowledge, and
upon the first motion of their reason do what we cannot without study or
deliberation; that they know things by their forms, and define by
specifical difference what we describe by accidents and properties; and
therefore probabilities to us may be demonstrations unto them: that they
have knowledge not only of the specifical, but numerical forms of
individuals, and understand by what reserved difference each single
hypostasis (besides the relation to its species) becomes its numerical
self. That as the soul hath power to move the body it informs, so there
is a faculty to move any, though inform none; ours upon restraint of
time, place, and distance; but that invisible hand that conveyed Habakkuk
to the lions' den, or Philip to Azotos, infringeth this rule, and hath a
secret conveyance, wherewith mortality is not acquainted. If they have
that intuitive knowledge, whereby, as in reflection, they behold the
thoughts of one another, I cannot peremptorily deny but they know a great
part of ours. They that to refute the invocation of saints have denied
that they have any knowledge of our affairs below, have proceeded too
far, and must pardon my opinion, till I can thoroughly answer that piece
of Scripture, 'At the conversion of a sinner the angels in heaven
rejoice.' I cannot with those in that great Father securely interpret
the work of the first day, _fiat lux_, to the creation of angels, though
I confess there is not any creature that hath so near a glimpse of their
nature, as light in the sun and elements. We style it a bare accident,
but where it subsists alone it is a spiritual substance, and may be an
angel: in brief, conceive light invisible, and that is a spirit.

I could never pass that sentence of Paracelsus, without an asterisk, or
annotation; _Ascendens constellatum multa revelat, quaerentibus magnalia
naturae_, i.e. _opera Dei_. I do think that many mysteries ascribed to
our own inventions have been the courteous revelations of spirits; for