A discovery of divine mysteries, or, The nature and efficacy of the soul of man considered in all its faculties, operations and divine perfections, and how it governs in divine and secular affairs of life ... with many other curious matters : being a compleat body of divine and moral philosophy / by C.B., D.D., Fellow of the Royal Society.

The difference between a Soul and an Angel.

One conceives, but very ill, the difference of an Angel and the Soul of Man by this Idea, That an Angel is a perfect Substance in it self and by it self; That the Soul of Man is Essen∣tially an Imperfect Spiritual Substance, which hath an Essential Relation to the Body, an Essen∣tial Inclination for the Body, an Essential Pro∣portion with the Body. All these Conceptions and Idea's are repugnant to the Spiritual Na∣ture of the Soul; because no Spirit can ever have any Relation to, or Dependence upon the Body, neither any Proportion with the Body,

or any Inclination for the Body, but by the free and voluntary Disposition of Him who equally Governs Spiritual and Corporeal Na∣tures. Let it be taken for granted, that the Soul of Man by the Empire of the Creator, should be render'd dependent upon the Body, that it should be destin'd to suffer a Probation in the Body, to see by what means it would render it self worthy of Eternity; Let her have Pleasures upon the account of the Body; Let her henceforwards please her self in the Body, after she is once united to it; But that she should of her own accord, of her own Nature, and that antecedently, as they say, by her proper and essential Inclination, by her Nature and by her Essence; that she should (I say) require a Body, that she should desire a Body, that she should have any Proportion or any Sympathy with the Body, is the most unreasonable Thought that ever was, or could ever enter into the Mind of Man; since besides that it is so far from the Soul to have need of the Body, or to have an Inclination of it self for the Body, its Spiritual Nature convinces us, that it cannot chuse but have a strangeness for the Body, which essenti∣ally bounds, limits and keeps back its Know∣ledge, and renders it a dependent Slave.