Further, to beget offspring is a vital act. Consequently the angels exercised vital functions in their assumed bodies. Therefore they cannot exercise functions of life through assumed bodies. Hence nothing can have a function of life except what has life, which is the potential principle of such action. For the bodies are assumed merely for this purpose, that the spiritual properties and works of the angels may be manifested by the properties of man and of his works.
Sensation is entirely a vital function.
Consequently it can in no way be said that the angels perceive through the organs of their assumed bodies. Properly speaking, the angels cannot be said to eat, because eating involves the taking of food convertible into the substance of the eater. Hence it is folly to deny it. But God's holy angels could not fall in such fashion before the deluge. This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College.