Now this Essence can be present no where but with itself, and its very
Presence is Essence; and therefore he concluded that he was that very
Essence. And to all other Essences which were separate from Matter,
which had the Knowledge of that _true Essence_, though before he had
looked upon them as _many,_ by this way of thinking, appear'd to him to
be only one thing. And this misgrounded Conceit of his, had like to have
firmly rooted itself in his Mind, unless God had pursu'd him with his
Mercy, and directed him by his gracious Guidance; and then he perceiv'd
that it arose from the Relicks of that Obscurity which is natural to
Body, and the Dregs of sensible Objects. Because that _Much_ and
_Little, Unity_ and _Multiplicity_, _Collection_ and _Separation_, are
all of them Properties of Body. But we cannot say of these separate
Essences, which know this _TRUE Being_ (whose Name be prais'd) that they
are _many_ or _one_, because they are immaterial. Now, _Multiplicity_ is
because of the Difference of one Being from another, and there can be no
_Unity_ but by _Conjunction_, and none of these can be understood
without Compound Notions which are mix'd with Matter. Besides, that the
Explication of Things in this place is very straight and difficult;
because if you go about to express what belongs to these separate
Essences, by way of Multitude, or in the _Plural_, according to our way
of speaking, this insinuates a Notion of _Multiplicity_, whereas they
are far from being _many_; and if you speak of them by way of
Separation, or in the Singular, this insinuates a Notion of Unity,
whereas they are far from being _one_.

§ 88. And here methinks I fee one of those Batts, whose Eyes the Sun
dazzles, moving himself in the Chain of his Folly, and saying, _This
Subtilty of yours exceeds all Bounds, for you have withdrawn your self
from the State and Condition of understanding Men, and indeed thrown