Dissertation on the Natural Knowledge of Angelic Existence

I believe it is obscure to no one that I am speaking of that sublime and principal part of Primary Philosophy, or of a very closely related discipline, which some call Pneumatics and others Natural Theology (because, of course, it reveals the nature of Divine things and has ready the causes and affections for demonstrating them, taken from nature). For this is what leads the human mind to the most sublime things, and thus to Divine things; this is what teaches the light of our intellect to penetrate to the knowledge of God himself; this is what informs us about Genii, the ministers of Divine providence; and this is what finally contemplates and investigates the condition of our own soul, having departed from its dwelling. By how much interval the excellence of the spiritual nature leaves the condition of the body behind, and by how much nobility those eternal and Divine things surpass these fragile and human things, by that much more noble than the rest is this part of Philosophy that deals with them. For what, to use the words of J. Lipsius, is greater or more ample than to behold and recognize God and Divine things, that Prince himself, the lesser Genii, Providence, Fate, and whatever adheres to them? Physiology of the Stoics, Book 1, Dissertation 3. Since these things are so, a desire has also seized me, even though I am far unequal to this subject, to select some argument from that most noble discipline for the sake of academic exercise and apprenticeship, specifically on the Natural knowledge of Angelic existence. Since this is sufficiently difficult and highly controversial among the learned, I hope the humane and benevolent Reader will easily forgive me if he discovers something less ἀκριβῶς precisely stated in the treatment of the same. May God grant our beginnings, and may He command them to be fortunate!