_As when the labouring Sun hath wrought his track Up to the top of lofty_ Cancers _back, The ycie Ocean cracks, the frozen pole Thaws with the heat of the Celestial coale; So when thy absent beams begin t' impart Again a Solstice on my frozen heart, My winter 's ov'r; my drooping spirits sing, And every part revives into a Spring. But if thy quickening beams a while decline, And with their light bless not this Orb of mine, A chilly frost surpriseth every member, And in the midst of_ June _I feel_ December. _O how this earthly temper doth debase The noble Soul in this her humble place. Whose wingy nature ever doth aspire To reach that place whence first it took its fire. These flames I feel, which in my heart do dwell, Are not thy beams, but take their fire from Hell. O quench them all, and let thy light divine Be as the Sun to this poor Orb of mine; And to thy sacred Spirit convert those fires, Whose earthly fumes choak my devout aspires._ SECT. 33 Therefore for Spirits, I am so far from denying their existence, that I could easily believe, that not onely 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 heresie in it; and if not manifestly defin'd in Scripture, yet is it an opinion of a good and wholesome use in the course and actions of a mans life, and would serve as an _Hypothesis_ to salve many doubts, whereof common Philosophy affordeth no solution. Now if you demand my opinion and Metaphysicks of their natures, I confess them very shallow, most of them in a negative way, like that of God; or in a comparative, between our selves 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. Between creatures of meer existence and things of life, there is a large disproportion of nature; between plants and animals or creatures of sense, a wider difference; between them and man, a far greater: and if the proportion hold one, between Man and Angels there should be yet a greater. We do not comprehend their natures, who retain the first definition of _Porphyry_, and distinguish them from our selves by immortality; for before his Fall, 'tis thought, Man also was Immortal; yet must we needs affirm that he had a different essence from the Angels; having therefore no certain knowledge of their Natures, 'tis no bad method of the Schools, whatsoever perfection we find obscurely in our selves, in a more compleat and absolute way to ascribe unto them. I believe they have an extemporary knowledge, and upon the first motion of