An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters…

The third effect follows; Then a spirit passed before my face, and the hair of my head stood up. A Spirit rushed upon me, so the Seventy. Some translate it, A wind passed before me; a gale or breath of wind, as (1 Kings 19. 11.) when God appeared to Elijah, it is said, first there came a mighty wind, which rent the mountains, and brake the roots, and some conceive that a wind passed before Eliphaz; but the context will not bear it; those words which follow are not competible with a wind; v. 16. It stood before me, it stood still, this cannot be understood of the wind, for wind is always in motion: and then it is said, I had an Image before my face, now there is no form or Image of the wind; the wind hath no shape or likeness, therefore it was a Spirit or Angel, not an Aerial wind. And if you say, how hath a Spirit a form or an Image, or how can that be seen? I answer it was not a Spirit abstracted and naked in it self, but a Spirit joined with a form and shape, as is generally agreed: so Angels or Spirits did usually appear to the Ancients, taking a body or some from upon them: and those apparitions, when a body was assumed, were called spirits. (Luke 24. 37.) it is said, that the Disciples were afraid at the appearing of Christ, thinking they had seen a spirit: The Apostles were not so absurd, as to believe, that a spirit in it self, a spirit abstracted, could be seen; but they called it a spirit, because they thought it only the representation of Christs body, and not the true body: and therefore though an outward shape appeared, they called it a spirit. So here, A spirit passed before me, which yet might have some outward shape, in which it was clothed to the eye.¹

The third effect followes; Then a spirit pass'd before my face, and the haire of my head stood up. A Spirit rush'd upon me, so the Seventy. Some translate it, A wind passd before me; a gale or breath of wind, as (1 Kings 19. 11.) when God appeared to Elijah, it is said, first there came a mighty wind, which rent the mountaines, and brake the roots, and some conceive that a wind passed before Eliphaz; but the context will not bear it; those words which follow are not competible with a wind; v. 16. It stood before me, it stood still, this cannot be understood of the wind, for wind is alwayes in motion: and then it is said, I had an Image before my face, now there is no form or Image of the wind; the wind hath no shape or likenesse, therefore it was a Spirit or Angel, not an Aeriall wind. And if you say, how hath a Spirit a form or an Image, or how can that be seen? I answer it was not a Spirit abstracted and naked in it self, but a Spirit joyned with a form and shape, as is generally agreed: so Angels or Spirits did usually appear to the Ancients, taking a body or some from upon them: and those apparitions, when a body was assumed, were called spirits. (