of whom I may say with the Apostle That in the midst of a perverse generation they have shined as lights in the world their mindes seeming to be kindes of Spiritual fixed Stars which never altered their distances from the Earth and intended onely the finishing their course at the same time imparting light unto the world by divers irradiations respective to their positions therein either of Prayer or other Edifications Wherefore of such habits of minde the Holy Spirit saith The path of the just is as the shining light that proceedeth even to perfect day which is Contemplation consummated when the day-Star whereby Saint Peter expresseth it shall be risen in our hearts whereof these acts of our intellect seem to be some inchoative or imperfect rays and to give you as fair a view as I can of this abstruse object I shall set it in the most luminous definition I can deliver it out of the mouth of S. Augustine Contemplation is a clear in t 〈…〉 on and a delightful admiration of perspicuous Verities so that the minde in that state may be said to walk in the meridional light of Faith towards the incomprehensible clarity of perfect vision and this light of Grace wherein a pure Contemplative Soul inhabiteth may me thinks be said to hold some such proportion to the purer light of glory she expecteth as the sight which the three Apostles had of Christs Body transfigured on Tabor holds to that they are to have of it glorified in Heaven for as the brightness of Lightning and the cand or of Snow did in some measure represent to them the far transcending lustre and beauty that was to be looked for in his Body beatified so these admirable intellectual Verities which are the objects of a true Contemplative Soul in this life do in some degree figure to it the unexpressible notions rising out of a fruitive Contemplation of the increated Verity insomuch as these elevated Spirits may be conceived to have such a kinde of advantage over others who may also be faithful in lower stations of Christianity as the three Disciples called up to Tabor had of them that were left below the Mountain For certainly this sight must have imprinted in their mindes a more lively and affecting image of the amiableness of glorified Bodies then the others could apprehend But as Christ admitted few even of his Apostles to this sight of him so doth God vouchsafe to select and elevate but very few to this superlative pitch of Contemplation of whom we may say with the Psalmist This is the generation of them that seek the face of the God of Jacob who we know was one of the most eminent in this high vocation feeding on this bread of Angels and having this Spiritual Manna showâ—red down upon him while he was feeding the flocks of others in a servile obligation And holy David in all his exterior bitternesses tasting of this Spiritual reflection saith as it were this Grace to it How great is the multitude of thy sweetness O Lord which thou hast hid for them that fear thee thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face from the disturbance of men This expresseth well their state of minde which is covered from the sight of the world in the secret of Gods face that is in his most private and reserved kindenesses and as God hideth himself in his own inaccessible light so such Souls adhering unto God and becoming as the Apostle â—aith one Spirit are hid to the world in the excessive light of their Graces which common apprehensions cannot penetrate of such mindes we may most peculiarly say Who knoweth the things of such men save the Spirit that is in them which searcheth the deep things of God while their apprehensive faculty perfecteth it self by extracting the pure species of Truth and their affecting power is perfected by transmitting it self exteriorly upon the object that attracteth it Thus the understanding is never satiated by a continual receiving nor the affection ever diminished by an incessant issuing it self out upon the object but doth rather acquire by this perpetual Self-alienation In this admirable commerce doth the true Contemplative Soul negotiate with her own Maker while what is imported from him into the Understanding obligeth the Will to export unto him her faculty of loving and thus knowledge infused draweth forth love and love efused remitteth back fresh illuminations This Angelical correspondence with God the Contemplative Man entertaineth and hath in proportion to his Nature the same priviledge that Angels have when they assume apparent Bodies for their ministery on Earth namely to finde no intermission of their seeing God So in all the exterior offices which the Soul acteth by the ministery of the Body in such persons the Minde doth not remove out of that apprehended presence of God whereof her transitory state is capable insomuch as a profound Contemplator may be said to be never so much alive to this life as when he seemeth to be the most dead to it For in the image of Death when the other powers of his Minde cannot controul his Fancy that may introduce imaginations into him superfluously relative to this life and removed from the scope of all his reasonable cogitations which never move but in a presential reverence of God So that the Natural Man may be said to live in him no longer by the strength or power of his Nature but meerly by the infirmity of it that requireth such a suspension of the Spiritual Man which lives so powerfully in such a person as he seems fully in possession of Christs promise of his Fathers and his coming and making his abâ—de with him which according to the division made by the Holy Ghost of the whole Man may be conceived to be done in this maner The Father residing in that portion called the Soul as it importeth the Origine of all vital operations the Son resting in the Minde as that is the seat of our actual intelligence or understanding and both of them may be said to expirate and breathe forth the Holy Ghost into the Heart as that is taken for the continent of our affections and by this means the whole Man cometh as near the loving God with all his Soul with all his Minde and with all his Heart as this traverse and interposed vail of Flesh and Blood can admit him forgetting with Saint Paul the things that are behinde and stretching forth himself to those that are before by this constant Application preserving the whole Spirit Soul and Body without blame to the coming of our Lord Christ Jesus Considering then the properties of these golden vessels of Charity placed within the outward vale of the Temple and looking continually towards the Propitiatory seated within the inward vale which figured the beatifical vision even their Bodies may be well compared to the grate upon the Altar of Incense from which all the ashes of carnal appetites
the solaces of the appetitive part of the Soul that is the seat of the Affections which though they are not always equally feasted with delectation yet are they for the most part entertained with a competent measure of gladness and exhileration and sometimes are recreated with an extraordinary jucundity in such a maner as the Prophet Elisha's trenches were filled with water without any appearance of wind or rain to produce this effect that is to say the inferior part of the Soul feeleth a sensible delight and refreshment without any inordinate emotion or alteration of those sensitive powers wherein this delight is excited insomuch as they finde the sweet effects of these two Affections both Love and Joy the first rising not from the wind of passion and the other not being instilled by the rain of any material fruition and thus the delights of these two Affections from to be in such mindes as they are in Angels and Souls separate from Bodies to wit as they are acts of the Will not alterations of the sensitive appetite How blessed is the state of such Souls when even the sensitive power of their Minde seemeth to operate as if their Spirits were totally abstracted or their Natures were Angelical and therefore may not improperly be said to measure this world with such a golden Reed as the Angel in the Revelation did the heavenly City that Saint John saith was the measure of a Man which is of an Angel for this squaring of their affections by the rule of pure Charity rendreth them in a great measure proportionate to the same Angelical operations And in this admirable maner doth the hand of their Maker square and model such choyce Souls to fit and adjust them for the filling up the vacant rooms of Angels according to the design of him who hath said They shall be like the Angels of God iâ— Heaven Having conjoyned this sensitive portion unto the the rational we have exhibited this Contemplative stare in that accomplished beatitude this life admitteth And surely the Soul of Man in this mortal state doth as naturally cover the adjunction of this delectable part in her affections unto the other illuminated portion of her intellect as a Soul though glorified doth the addition of her Body And as by this last accession the Soul doth not augment her beatitude by way of intersion or exaltation but onely in point of extension and amplitude so doth the addition of this delight of the affections rather inlarge and dilate the blessedness of this state of Contemplation then elevate or heighten the vertue of the Soul in that condition the felicity whereof I may will leave sealed with this Signet of the Holy Spirit This is the gift of God and the possessor thereof shall not much remember the days of his life because God answereth him in the joy of his heart After this edition of the high Prerogatives of the true Contemplative life lest any one should conceive the inferior Vocations any way discredited I will present all the several stations of this world with this Consolation and Instruction of Saint Paul As God hath distributed to every one as the Lord hath called every one so let him walk For although the ear have not an absolute dignity equal with the eye yet in the dignity of proportions there is an equality between them Wherefore I will offer this excellent Conclusion of Saint Austine to all the engaged conditions of this world The love of Truth desireth a holy vacancy the pressure of Charity imposeth just occupations which charge if it be not laid on by some charitable obligation the best is to attend unto the perception and contemplation of Truth but in case of our being entred into a lawful Engagement that is to be born for the necessity of Charity but yet not so as the delectation of Verity be totally deserted lest that Religious Sâ—avity being substracted we â—e the easilier oppressed by thâ— other secular necessity This Advice may serve for a convenient direction to all such as are drawing in the yoke of any secular Engagement or are loose in the state of a tree Election of entring into this sweet yoke of Christ drawing in the Chariot of Contemplation Being now arrived at the farthest point of the Horizon of this state of Grace we cannot pass forward without entring upon the other Haemisphere of the state of Glory which I hope God will enable me to exhibite unto you in the other part of this Map I first designed which I will leave now divided by this Aequator severing the two halfs of that Spiritual Globe whereof I had first intended to give you an intire Edition But finding in the other part many Spiritual Positions according to the old Doctrine of the Suns moving and the Earths being fixed which Maximes would not well agree with the new Mathematical Discovery of the Earths moving and cotation I have thought better to publish at first this uncontroverted part of my Work and reserve the other till a farther decision of this question And since the whole Work was designed as a Sacrifice of a Leper in order to his cleansing the purgation being yet very imperfect I may not unfitly say That this is one of the Sparrows which I humbly offer up upon the running waters of a penitent Soul and promise That the other shall be let flye into the world hereafter when God shall be pleased farther to advance the emundation for the accelerating whereof I humbly request all their Prayers who shall be so benign as to conceive they owe me any thing for this Part or shall make any account of my owing them the other And I may fitly end this Semicircle of my Pen with the best half of Saint Pauls valediction to the Romans Now I beseech you brethren for the Lord Jesus Christs sake and for the love of the Spirit that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me that the oblation of my service may become acceptable in Jerusalem to the Saints Now the God of peace be with you all Amen Sicut portavimus imaginem terreni portimus imaginem coelestis 1 Cor. 15. 49. Nam prudentia carnis mors est prudentia spiritus vita pax Rom. 8. 6. FINIS Imprimatur NA BRENT Junii 12. 1647. An Alphabetical TABLE OF The most remarkable Points of Instruction in these TREATISES A AFfections planted in our sensitive nature for good use page 37. section 4. Advantages of conformity to vertue in our sensitive part of the minde p. 38. sect 2. Ambition consistent with Devotion p. 42. s 4. Ambitions ordinary acceptation p. 43. Advantages to be made of love to enemies p. 284. s 3. Advices for the best method of reading p. 355. Advantages which true contemplators have above other sorts of pious lives p. 387. B BEauty may be honored without offence to Piety p. 39. sect 2. Beauty's prerogatives allowed p. 39. s 3. Beauty
certainly such a temper is apter for a right conversion then a harsh and sowre constitution of the mind the first is a good mould of earth with ill seed cast into it and so the fruit may be ill while the pregnancy of the earth is good the other is a heath naturally unfruitfull and requires much more manuring to make it beare Wherefore that nature which hath not a kindly pregnancy in it to beare love is not the best mould for the seed in the Gospell for though it may render thirty it can hardly yeeld the increase of a hundred fold in Devotion Certainly we may then very religiously preferre the constitution of such mindes whose powers are best disposed for the act of loving for love as it is the greatest treasure of our soules so is it the only security stands bound to God for all our debts all the other faculties of man seeme to be receivers only and this the discharger of all their accounts but love hath this extraordinary blessing the greater expense it makes upon this occasion the richer it growes for the more our love payes God the more it improves the same estate but we can assigne nothing but this pure species of love to the receipt of heaven Wherefore all empty formalities and unsincere affectations in exteriour exercises that would passe for Devotion are me thinkes like servants that have got on fine clothes of their Masters by which strangers may mistake their quality but their Masters are not deceived by them so these garments and coverings of Devotion may abuse the eye of the world but we know the master of all sanctity distinguishes dissimulation in all the specious similitudes it weareth And I should beleeve a varnished hypocrite may be more offensive to the sight of God then a zealous unvailed idolater for this is but mistaken in God and the other seemeth to suppose God may be mistaken in him and certainly there is nothing more capitall against the lawes of Heaven then counterfeiting the coyne which piety may not improperly be tearmed as being the price and measure of all exchanges between heaven and earth of these false coyners King David sayes They slatter God with their mouth lye unto him with their tongues and he gives them Gods answer thus The Lord shall laugh them to scorn We may conclude then that the sincere love of God is the spirit and soul of Devotion and therefore is to be intire in every severall part of our religious exercises when God dignifies man with similitude to his own image it is the soul not the body that hath this Divine relation so in the service of God which is a consistence of two such parts united of spirit and of matter the spirit and breath of life doth not reside in the materiall part which is sensible religious offices but in the informing and animating part which is Devotion the which answereth to the soule in humanity as I have endeavoured to demonstrate And thus I hope that I have not indecently apparell'd Devotion in the habit of the place it is recommended to clothing it in this soft rayment of passion being to come unto the houses of Kings But now me thinkes I heare some sensuall and voluptuous persons cry out to warne their passions to stand upon their guard objecting that I like a pyrat have thus put up friends colours while I am in chase calling devotion love and passion that it might the easilyer enter our hearts which when it hath done it takes and imprisons all our humane delights To these I may answer that I have put up these colours indeed that those vessels I would speak with might not fly from piety at first sight as from an enemy to pleasure that speaking with them I might shew them how Devotion comming and possessing our mindes doth rather compose the munity then infringe the true liberty of our affections For grace findes Humane Nature like a vessell richly fraught for commerce with Heaven most commonly in a mutiny where the affections that should saile her rise up against their Commander resolving to make spoile of their commodities and to turne to the piracy of sense taking all whereof sensuality can possesse it selfe and if Devotion enter and compose this sedition and convey the affections cheerefully to their direct commerce with Heaven this may be rather thought a delivery then a violation And surely our senses cannot more justly complaine of Devotion as a dispossessor of their properties then wilde people can call a Law-giver a tyrant For piety doth but regulate the functions not ruine the faculties of our senses and licentiousnesse cannot more rightly be called the mindes liberty then nakednesse the bodies freedome For lawes and apparell doe both in their kinds cover natures nakednesse and lawes like clothes impart conveniencies the one to the minde as the other to the body without impeaching the decent and proper exercises of either and so Devotion doth but reduce the wild multitude of humane affections and passions under the Monarchall Government of the love of God under which they may enjoy a more convenient freedome then let loose in their owne confused Anarchy which they confesse when they are converted by God to this belief of their condition that to serve God is to raigne The Fift Treatise Discoursing whether sensible pleasure may consort with Devotion In two Sections §. I. The rectifying our Affections chiefely our love in the sense of beauty UPon the title of this Chapter me thinkes I see our humane affections stand with the same perplexed attention as a condemn'd multitude at the reading of a Proclamation of Grace to some particular specified names each one watching and praying for his owne Thus doe our humane passions seeme now concerned believing themselves all condemn'd by piety each one me thinkes in a frighted and tacit deprecation of their censure is expecting with anexity to know whether Devotion will allow them life and consistence with her edicts The answer to this must be that I shall only put to death the blind and the lame whch are commonly set to keep the strong hold of our corrupted nature against virtue As they were upon the walls of Sion to keep out David Such Devotion must destroy for they are hated by her Soule and are not to be admitted into the Temple Secular justice is allowed a latitude in mercy to which this spirituall judge cannot extend his favour viz. rather to save diverse guilty then to cut off one innocent for Devotion must rather put to death many innocent affections then save one criminall by reason that in this case mercy renders the judge a complice of the crime so that our Devotion must not looke upon the face of any of our affections but judge by the testimony our conscience brings in against them Yet piety is not so inhumane as many may apprehend that know not the nature thereof for it delighteth not in the death of our
errour it self he rejoyceth in so Essentiall is truth for the terme of his acquiescence Supposing we do thus generally aim at truth for our felicity I may well be asked how it commeth to passe that the subject of our joyes is oftener apparence and falsity then the real good of this life's benedictions the cause surely is the partiality of our imagination towards our sensitive appetite rather then in favour to our reason and thus Opinion which is but a changeling introduced by Sense passeth commonly for the right child and certainly Opinion may well be said to be the mean issue of sense and Verity the noble child of Reason but by this unjustice of our imagination it followeth that all the delights which are touched but at our senses are commonly accepted by our will for the true species of joy from the credit of that test without examining their nature in the fire of Ratiocination whereby it happens that when we are the trulyest deceived we are most believing in the truth of our happynesse for when we misapprehend the most the nature of secular pleasures having the least suspition or scruple of the mutability of such fruitions our joy seemeth the most sincere which proveth clearly that truth is but mistaken in the colouring not unintended in the designe of our felicity In redresse of this error Devotion taketh off the deceitfull colours of good and evill which Opinion layes upon the creature and presenteth to our understanding a naturall image both of the worth as well as the vanity which may be found in the rectified or vitious apprehension of all temporalities possessing us with the true nature of all our possessions directeth us how to rejoyce in the truth of such blessings and thereby satisfyeth that instinct of the mind with the reality and doth not amuse it with the meer colour of verity Certaine it is that temporall blessings as health beauty wealth and honour are indued with a true and sincere goodnesse wherein their owners may vertuously rejoyce the point is the discernment of this Truth and the selecting that only for subject of our delectation because just as much as we stray from this principle so much we remove from our happinesse which depending on the satisfaction of our opinion if that be unsound in apprehending the nature of such goods as are the objects of our affections we are in danger of being unhappy by their being but true to their owne nature while we are untrue to ours For their true instinct is mutation and instability and ours the perception and use of that verity whereby our understanding may sort an affection proportioned to the nature of secular benedictions §. II. Sacred examples shewing what may be said to be a rejoycing in the truth of temporall goods and how even secular evils afford joy by the same method of a right understanding them THe states of many the dearest friends of God testifie that temporall felicity affordeth a sincere matter of joy which is commensurate to the true sense conceived of the nature of such happinesse Abrahams wealth was thought worthy the holy Ghosts mentioning as a blessing as his peregrination was fitted with great accommodations so that state of unsettlednesse was a fixing in his minde the true nature of all he possessed In proof whereof it may well be observed that the only purchase Abraham made upon earth with his riches was a grave from whence we may inferre how rightly he understood the truth of their transitory nature and his owne mutable condition whereupon he chose to take possession of the Land promised him by a marke of his parting with it rather then of his possessing it thus did he understanding the true goodnesse of his worldly commodities derive from them both exercises of charity and notions of mortification while he imployed his wealth in the accommodations of strangers and passengers and in provision of his owne lodging as a traveller at the end of his journey and remaining in this rectified sense of his tempoporall fruitions all their effects proved a constant rejoycing in Truth By this method Abraham extracted the same Spirit of Truth out of his plentifull substance that Lazarus did out of his penury and indigence and surely if Dives had rejoyced but in the truth of his abundance and not set his heart upon the false part thereof he would have taken Lazarus into his breast in this life then they might have been bed-fellowes in Abrahams Bosome For I may truly affirme that there is no Lazarus in this world who hath not an Abraham in his Bosome that shall get to the being in Abrahams Bosome in the next And likewise conclude that there is no Dives in this life who hath a Lazarus in his bosome that shall not attaine to Abrahams Bosome in the other world For there is no necessitous body wanting fidelity of heart and poverty of spirit that can be qualified for that state meerely by his misery and there is no so splendid or opulent person indued with true Christian poverty of spirit that is not thereby intitled to eternall felicity and surely as there are many Lazarusses who want this kind of Abraham I have explained in their heart so there are diverse Abrahams in this life as I may terme them who carry this sort of Lazarus in their bosome being both rich humble and faithfull contriving all their temporary joy out of the perception and dilection of the true blessing intended in the Creature and deduce their satisfaction from Gods order not their owne exaltation in which respect they may be proved to rejoyce in verity Did not holy Job rejoyce in the truth of his worldly goods when he assigned the most of them to sacrifices either expiatory for his children or propitiatory for himselfe to purge the excesses of feasting in his owne family or to provide against the exigences of fasting in the houses of his neighbours acting this part which the holy Spirit gives the potent saying the portion of the poore is in the rich mans hands and surely we may conceive that in the latter part of his life which I may call his temporall resurrection his estate rising againe to more glory then it had expired with his piety was also exalted in proportion to a higher state of perfection so that truth being found and acknowledged in any splendid condition will keepe Peace and righteousnesse in the family kissing each other Was not King Davids vast treasure well managed by the superintendency of truth when he assigned all the most pretious materialls the earth affordeth to their true use some as it were converted into vocall instruments of Gods prayses others into visible memorialls of his presence and designed in a Temple as good a sensible figure as he could of the truth he conceived of all materiall substances which was of the earths belonging to God and all the plenitude thereof which confession he made in these words thine are the heavens and
to viz. whether they make that cozening advantage by them or no with the creature they must answer for as much to the Creator as they projected to make of them and thus as the Prophet saith As much Wind as they have sowed so much Tempest they shall reape §. VI. Presumption upon our vertue discussed and the danger thereof remonstrated THere are many Lovers who when they find no direct design of impurity at first in their passions conclude them competent with their salvation and care not how neare the wind they steere nor how many boards they make as long as they believe they can reach the Port with this wind which is so faire for their senses therefore they pretend they need not stand so strait a course as making Jobs covenant with their eyes nor setting Davids watch over their lips provided they set a guard over their heart that no foule possession enter upon that seate thus do they expose many faire models of their love which in speculation may seem designed according to the square of Religion but how hard it is to build adequately to the speculative measures in this structure none can tell that presume to know it our senses are not inanimate materials that obey the order of the spirits designe but rather labourers which are easily debauched to worke contrary to the measures and rule of the Spirit hence it is that they who will undertake in this case all they can argue possibly for humane nature render it impossible by their undertaking it for they reckon not their presumption as any impediment which in the practise as being an irritation of God out-weighs all the other difficulties and the more alwayes the lesse it is weighed in the designe therefore as Solomon saith The wise man declineth evil and the foole heapes on and is confident The beliefe of impossibility is the most prudent supposition in such experiments as cannot be essayed without some desperate exposure of our selves it may be demonstrate by reason that we may have halfe of our body over a precipice so the centre of the weight be kept in an exact aequilibrium that part which is pensile can never weigh down the other which is supported but we should thinke one mad that would try this conclusion when the least motion changeth the Position and consequently destroyeth the practicer of this speculation so those that pretend to keept their soules equally poised in the just measures between piety and prophane love their eyes hanging over the precipice of temptations which do so easily turne their heads and then alter all the positions of their mind adventure upon just such a spirituall experiment He that seeketh danger shall perish in it is attested by the unhappy president of the wisest of men and it is superfluous to instance other testimonies of this truth When David and Solomon the two brazen pillars of the Temple being the direction and fortitude of the Princes of Israel were melted and poured out like water as David himselfe confesseth by the ardors of his flesh and so they seem to stand in holy record as two high eminent markes set upon these sands to advertise the strongest vessels not to venture to passe over them and if Saint Paul that vessel of election after his having seen the beauty of Heaven to possesse his heart thought himselfe hard matched with the Angell of Sathan and cryed out to heaven for helpe against him shall any presume to entertain and cherish this ill Angell and hope to overcome him with flattery and civility for they make this tryall who lodge in their thoughts and serve with their fancies strong impressions of humane beauty and propose to keepe their body in order even by the vertue of such a guest pretending that the very object infuseth a remembrance and reverence of purity With this and the like glittering conceipts do many vain Lovers fondly satisfy and abuse themselves which is to answer the question of the Holy Spirit that the fire they carry in their bosomes preserveth them from being enflamed by it we may fitly say to such in answer from the Prophet God laughs at you when all Gods advices are that there is no security against this bosome enemy but violence and diffidence there is no meane between the flesh's being slave or master this treaty of Friendship between it and the spirit proves but Dalilahs kind holding of Sampsons head in her lap while she is shaving him How often do we see the Spirit thus betraid and lye bound by this confidence And truly all those chaines which vain Lovers forge for the figuring out the powerfulnesse of beauty may be said to be those irons the flesh hath cast off and set upon the Spirit which is truly captivated alwayes by the others liberty This considered let none presume that while they deny the 〈…〉 eyes nothing which they covet they can deny their hearts any undue cupidity for this seemeth such an experiment as if one of the children of Israel should have carryed a fiery Serpent in his bosome presuming that while he looked upon the Brazen Serpent he could not be stung sure such a perverted confidence would not have proved safe to the projector So those who believe while they have the love of God before their eyes they may expose them to all the fiery darts of lustfull eyes seem to tempt God by such a vain presumption these are such of whom we may fitly say with the Apostle that Erring themselves they lead others into errour and have a forme of Godlinesse but deny the Power of it being lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Let no body then trust to any confederacy between the flesh the spirit which is of humane loves making for of all reconciled enemies the flesh is least to be trusted after the accord and love the least for the arbitration therefore let none believe their souls out of danger because in the first paces of their passion they meet no insolent temptations that face them and declare the danger of their advance for the Devill keepes likely his first Method still with those he findeth in the state of innocence he taketh the shape of the serpent and creeps up by insinuation and then changeth his shape into the figure of his power and this transmigration of the evil spirits from one body into another is truer then the fancy of Pythagoras for we find often this Metamorphosis of the devill from the form of a dove unto a serpent from a lamb into a lion since it is the same spirit that moves in the poetical doves of Venus as was acting in Eves serpent thus what hath at first in our love an innocent form passeth quickly into a venemous nature Wherefore severe caution and repulse of the first motions of our sensitive appetite is the onely guard our soules can trust against our bodyes in this case for certainly many lovers sink into temptations in
god-head she could in number have made up that losse of quality she brought in all the celest all bodies into the account of Divinity serving the Militia of Heaven instead of the maker and we may call to minde that as humane bodies grew Giants mindes seemed to shrink into dwarfs when they fell in love as I may say with the daughters of men that is the conceptions of their owne naturall Reason in this point of Divinity And we may well suppose that the Giants soules in the law of nature became so by espousing this daughter of God which we may properly call Grace whereby their heads passed the skie and touched Heaven it selfe in this beliefe of the unity of the godhead and by this conjunction with grace reason produced their issue of a rectified Religion hence is it that we finde the Patriarks frequently visited by celestiall spirits as the allies as I may say of this daughter of Heaven they had espoused and most doe conclude that all those who in the law of nature continued in a rectified belief and worship of God were maintained in that state by grace supplementall to the virtue of single Reason How far humane Reason may alone finde the way to rectified Religion is a question to exercise curiosity rather then excite piety and very commonly reason in the disquisition of faith doth rather sink the deeper into the earth by falling from her over aspiring then she doth six her selfe upward in her proper station and besides this danger me thinkes there is this difference betweene them that are working upon reason to extract Religion and those that are feeding upon sincere faith that the first are labouring the ground for that fruit which the last are feasting on or that the first are plowing while the last are gathering of Manna I shall indeavour therefore to serve in this spirituall refection ready to be tasted treating of faith already digested rather then to be provided by ratiocination for devotion is faith converted into nourishment by which the soul contracting a sound active strength needs not study the composition of that aliment it finds so healthfull §. II. Treating the best habit of mind in order to the finding a rectified Religion ME thinks Religion and Devotion may be fitly resembled to the Body and the Soule in Humanity The first of which issues from an orderly procession of nature by a continuing virtue imparted all at once to mediate causes the last is a new immediate infusion from heaven by way of a creation continually iterated and repeated So Religion at large as some homage rendred to a supreme relation flows into every mind along with the current of natural causes But Devotion is like the Soule produced by a new act of grace directed to every particular by speciall and expresse infusion and in these respects also the analogie will hold that as Religion hath the office of the body to containe Devotion so Devotion hath the function of the soule to informe and animate Religion And as the soule hath clearer or darker operations according as the body is well organized or disposed so Devotion is the more zealous or remisse proportionately to the temper and constitution of the Religion that containeth it Sutable to the Apostle Saint James his intimation to us that Pure Religion keeps us unspotted from the world I shall not take upon me the spirituall Physitian to consult the indispositions and remedies of differing Religions but relying more upon the Testimony of confessed experiments then the subtilty of that litigious art I shall prescribe one receipt to all Christian tempers which is to acquire the habit of Piety and Devotion for this in our spirituall life is like a healthfull aire and a temperate diet in our naturall the best preservative of a rectified faith and the best disposition to recover from an unsound Religion for the Almes and Prayers of the Centurion were heard and answered when they spoke not the language of the Church and the Angel was sent to translate them into that tongue in which God hath chose onely to be rightly praised that which his Eternall Word Christ Jesus hath peculiarly affected and annexed to his Church this shews the efficacie of piety and the exactnesse of Gods order who hath inclosed his eternall graces within those bounds into which he brings all that shall partake of them and so doth naturalize all such strangers as he intitleth to them doth not allot any portions to aliens but reduceth all them he will endow into that qualification he requireth which is into the rank of fellow-citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God he leaves none with a dispensation of remaining forreiners The Angel that called the Centurion directed him to the gate of the Church Saint Peter did not bring him a protection to rest in his owne house with the exercise of his naturall pieties and so for those that are straying without the inclosure of the Catholique Church if they walk by the light of naturall charity morall piety and devotion in their religious duties this is the best disposition towards the finding of the way the truth and the life of whom the Psalmist sayes He is neere to all those that seeke him and those who are thus far advanced in morality may be said to be in atriis Templi in the Church-yard which is in a congruous disposition for farther advance into the body of the church I shall endeavour then to affect every one with the love of purity and holinesse of life for to those that are already rooted and growing in the Church this disposition will be are that fruit the Apostle soliciteth for them that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement And in those who are yet strangers and forreiners as he calls them this reverentiall feare of God seemes to chase the wax for the seale of the holy Spirit for Prayers and Almes doe as it were retaine God for their Counsel and as his Clients open their cause to him in these tearms of the Psalmist Lord cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soule unto thee And such may be said to be halfe way towards their end that doe worship in a zealous spirit and are likely never left there but helped on to the other part of worshipping in truth by him that hath ordained our worship to consist of Spirit and Truth so that devotion sincerity in any Religion are the best Symptomes of our designation to the true and sincere Religion Wherefore having made this generall presentation of piety and virtue to all parties I shall not stay to wrastle in the Schooles but rather strive to set such Church-musick as all parties may agree to meet at the service and this I presume may sound in tune unto most eares that where consort and harmony in faith appeareth it is a good note of that
are not like thy 〈◊〉 for even the speculations of our own inventions do not so much as create that reall peace of mind which is concluded by devotion This metaphor of Physick suggesteth to me the carrying it a little further on to my purpose for me thinks I may truly say of the spirit of devotion what some curious Naturalists have vented of a medicinall extraction they call the spirit of the world which giveth vegetation to all bodies they affirme it to have the vertue of restoring nature from decay to integrity and to preserve mans body long in an indeficient vigour and propose contrary effects produceable by this spirit respectively to divers constitutions but still to the benefit and redintegration of nature in each individuall whereunto it is ministred I may without questioning or signing this position make this application of it and affirme that these properties are really verified in the virtue of this supernatural spirit which I call Devotion so that I need not feare what I promise to perswade the taking it in that manner I have formerly receipted it whereupon I propose to every regular user thereof no lesse benefit then the conferring on them their finall desire in this life which is comprized under this notion of happinesse by which terme we understand the resting and quieting our mindes in the fruition of goods convenient and agreeable to our nature in which state I propose to shew that Devotion doth establish the minde of man in order whereunto I may well prefix this Axiome of Saint Augustine Lord thou hast made the heart of man for thy selfe and therefore it is alwayes restlesse untill it requiesce in thee Nothing hath so perplexed the wit of man as to determine the supreame felicity of this life The Phylosophers have been so divided about it as they seeme to have passed their lives in a continuall warre upon one another in the very treaty of this generall peace they sought to establish it seemeth Almighty God in revenge of the partitions and fractions they made of his unity broke their opinions into so many pieces as they could never joyâ—ne in one uniforme conclusion but as Saint Paul saith of them They grew vaine in their imaginations and in the darknesse of their hearts every Sect had a severall Phantasme of happinesse appearing to it Surely God who saw with what presumption they were building up the designe of their security in this life by the modell of their owne naturall Reason sent this confusion of opinions like that of the tongues amongst them to ruine that structure of humane felicity the wisdome of the world was raising for her refuge shelter against the stormes of Heaven And so these bricklayers of humane happinesse which they may be properlytermed in respect they wrought only upon the matter of the earth tempered by humane wisdome and with that stuffe thought to build up their forts of felicity were struck from Heaven into this confusion of language and dispersed into severall Sects in which every one spake a different tongue and never concurr'd in an intelligence to constitute one unanimous position touching the supreame felicity This point of mans constant happinesse seemeth to be in Morall Philosophie the great secret in search whereof most of the speculative Sages have imployed their studyes and have advanced no further then the naturall Philosophers have done towards finding the famous Elixir for the Moralists have made many usefull discoveries by the way whereby they have composed diverse excellent medicines for the infirmities of the minde but never any of them though they have much boasted it did attaine unto that consummate virtue which could settle the minde in a perfect tranquillity and invariable temper This virtuous power in morality as it answereth adequately to those properties the Chymicks attribute to their great worke so is there this Analogy betweene them that they both seeme much more feisable by their speculative rules then they are found by practicall experiment The swelling science of the Ancients which had never heard of the fall of Humane Nature grew too well conceited of her sufficiency thinking the perversity and wrynesse of the superiour part of the minde to grow only by an ill habit of stooping and bending towards the lower portion which is the sensitive appetite thus the Stoiks concluded that single reason might by the reflex of discourse see this indecent posture whereunto custome inclined her and so by degree rectifie and erect her powers to such a point of straightnesse as neither the delights nor the distresses of the lower and sensitive part of nature should ever bowe or decline the evennesse and rectitude of the minde and by this means they arrogated no lesse to mans sufficiency then even the power of remaining in a calme apathy and impassivenesse in all offensive emergencies But alas the wisdome of the world knew nothing of that inward bruise our nature had in her fall which keepeth her too infirme to be reduced to that perfect activity whereunto pure speculation might designe her we understand that repugnant law in our members by which all their imagined tenures of security were voyded when they came to their triall but they understood so little this law as what we know to be the defect of frail title namely our nature they took for the security of their estate of peace Me thinkes the Ancient Philosophers with all their wisdome and precaution were served by their owne nature as children use to doe one another at a certaine schoole-play when he that hides striketh him he holdeth blinded who being thought out of play is never guessed at and thus did our corrupted Nature while she her selfe held them blinded strike them and she was never suspected of the blow but the accidents of fortune were only taken for the strikers with which singly those Sages thought their mindes were exercising themselves for they never misdoubted this infidelity in Humane Nature they thought her intirely sound and selfe-sufficient to afford this consummate tranquillity of spirit in all seasons and thus they were like children kept blinded and strucken by the same hand which they never suspected charging fortune as a forreine actor with all those blowes that provoked their passions Upon which ground they presumed on the sufficiency of naturall Reason even to extinguish all passion or distemperance in their mindes but to these presumptions the Apostle answereth While they accounted themselves wise they became fooles And surely these Morall Ideas conceived by the Stolkes may well be coupled with the naturall Ideas supposed by the Platonikes out of which principle there may be some light drawne towards the inquiry into the nature of formes abstracted from matter although the position be erroneous After this sort we may derive much clarity towardes our discerning the latitude and power of morall virtue by these maximes of the Stoiks which are not sincerely true in their conclusions I may therefore justly bring in this
inconsistent with this injunction of continuall fear we must understand that there are two feares respecting this world which may stand in morality answering most of the properties of the same in Divinity viz a filiall and a servile feare the first whereof feareth but as a child of humanity by the knowledge of the frail Nature of all temporalities the other as a slave to mundanities being mastered and subjected by Sensuality So that the filiall fear riseth from an ordinate love and right apprehension of the condition of the Creatures and the servile springeth from a misprision of their Nature and an undue subjection unto them wherefore this first filiall fear is but virtuous and precautionall and so compatible with a happy constitution for it perplexeth our present fruitions no more then the generall notion of our mortality offendeth our present health the knowledge that we must die doth not make us sick no more doth the understanding that our temporary delights are to passe away disrelish their present savour Let this prenotion then of intervenient changes in all our most secured conditions of stated as requisite for the settlement of tranquility in our mindes since at all times temporall felicity is either going away from us or we from it for whatsoever the best of our times bring us in their revolutions they carry us away from them at the same time by the motion of our Mortality in proof whereof the Spirit of Truth telleth us we are but a breath of aire passing on and not returning Thus have I after the method of Saint Paul with the Athenians indeavored to confute the two Sects of the Stoicks and Epicureans and I conceive to have voyded both their titles to happinesse the first claiming it in the right of our single Naturall Reason the other challenging it in the name of our satisfied senses to neither of which I hope in God to have shewed that felicity can rightly be adjudged by reason the speculations of the Stoicks are but like well painted scenes which at a convenient distance seeme to expose reall fruits waters and shades but when you come into them you finde nothing but paintings and barren colours Much after this manner while you looke upon the pure Theory of their maximes they seeme to containe peace serenity and satisfaction of spirit iâ— all the earthquakes of this world yet this faire shew lasteth but while our conditions are at a convenient distance from a necessity of acting those principles for when we are pressed under the ineumbeâ—t miseries of this life to practise this I deal self-sufficiency we are then brought as it were into the scenes of those maximes for then we finde all those figurings of apathy and impassivenesse to prove but coloured and fruitlesse conceptions in respect of those Soveraigne effects were promised the minde at the distance of speculation And I presume to have cast the other Sect by these two evidences brought against it viz. the unfaithfulnesse of all materiall goods in point of duration and fixure and the ficklenesse even of our owne affections in the esteeme of such fruitions wherefore the former of these two Sects stands convinced of stating happinesse in what can never be obtained and the other in what can never long be preserved whereupon they may both justly receive their sentences the first from the Apostle pricking thus their swelling knowledge If any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know and the case of the other stands thus judged by the Prophet you shall conceive heat and bring forth stubble your spirit as fire shall devoure you May I not then say that felicity is in the worlds opinion as the unknowne God was in the Religion of the Athenians for though it have an Altar assigned unto it yet neither the true nature of happinesse is rightly apprehended nor the addresses to it duly determined and the termes of Saint Paul on that occasion will very â—igh fit my purpose What therefore you ignorantly pursue that I declare unto you and manifest how the true felicity of this life dwelleth not in temples made with hands that is to say it is not seated in the speculative edifices of Philosophy nor in the materiall structures of sensible fruitions but resideth in this spirituall mansion of fervent and rectified Devotion which produceth a right understanding of the value of all things transitory and induceth a confidence of enjoying eternall peace of mind and invaâ—ible felicity of body I have already set up before you an entire figure of Devotion by which you may draw the just proportions of that virtuous bit which calmeth all humane passions in that degree our nature can be serened and quieted in this life instructing us how Gods universall order admitteth not our being happy in all our temporall desires and therefore Devotion fixeth all our desires upon Gods order and so maketh the accomplishment of his designes the chiefe terme of our wishes and by this course as God changeth his exterion sentence sometimes but never his i 〈…〉 councell so godly and devout soules may â—ary in the apparencies of their present happinesse but never alter in the inâ—rinsique state of a blessed condition For as much as in all extrinsique changes Devotion hath this rest of the Psâ—lmist when upon the vexations of the senses the soule 〈…〉 s to be reduced to My soule refused to be comforted there followeth presently I was mindefull of God and was delighted in this mindfulnesse of God Devotion sixeth all our security and by fastning our mindes to what is immoveable they themselves are rendered as it were unalterable Upon what we have discoursed I may conclude my proposition firmely established and resolve by the Authority of the wisest of men The heart that knoweth the bitternesse of his soule in his joy shall not the stranger be mingled That is an advised man man admits an exterior foundation of his happinesse And for an unquestionable security of my promise I will leave you this ingagement of the Psalmist Delight in the Lord and he will give thee the petitions of thy heart The seventh Treatise How true Devotion induceth those notions wherein consisteth the happinesse of this life In three Sections §. I. The fallicies of Opinion the Virtue of Truth treated ME thinkes I heare many very impatient to see some more sensible object of temporall happinesse exposed by Devotion for our nature is not easily drawn to looke off from the delights it seeth as I may say face to face and turne to those that are seene but darkly as through a glasse which are the joyes of the other life speculated only through the perspective of faith I will not therefore propose to those vocations which are the addresse of my perswasions the putting their nature into any severe straights or pressures in hope only of remote reversions I will assigne present conveniencies for the entertainment of our
the earth is thine In this verity he rejoyced extracted out of all his transitory felicity And King Ezekias having his treasury and cabinets filled with all pretious stores might have rejoyced in the truth of those blessings without deriving from them vanity and presumption as much as he boasted of them to the Babylonians so much untruth he found in that felicity whereof he seemed to have forgot the changeable property and was quickly instructed by the Prophet in the insecurity of such goods whereby he discerned how he had rejoyced in the untruth of his temporal happines out of which he might have extracted matter of a true and sincere rejoycing for Gods Spirit attesteth to us that he doth not cast away the mighty whereas he himself is mighty All the attainders lying upon great and rich men in the Scripture are brought against such as rejoyce in the errours and deceits of temporall goods such as either sacrifice all their wealth to the Idols of their fancy or such as make an Idol of their wealth and offer up all their thoughts unto it The voluptuous or the avaritious are those that fall under the sentence of the Gospell and their crime is not what they possesse but what possesseth them when they doe not rejoyce in the truth of their goods but delight themselves in contriving errours and fallacies out of them and as the Apostle sayes Change the Truth of God into a lie So that the defectivenesse of their happinesse ariseth out of their degression from Truth and whence doth all the blessednesse which Christian faith annexeth to sufferance issue but from this spring of verity which streameth out that joy and exultation is proposed to us in the afflictions of this life How come the thorns of sufferance to beare grapes the wine whereof rejoyceth the heart while our senses are prickedct wounded with this spinous or thorny matter Surely this cordiall is made of the Spirit of Truth which may be extracted out of all the asperities of this life first by considering the true state of Humane Nature designed to sufferings not only by sentence but by Grace in order to the aversing us from the love of this world next by contemplating the truth of those glorious promises which are made to a virtuous correspondency with Gods Order in his disposure of his creature so that both the materiall goods and evills of this life afford no legitimate joy but what the mind beareth when she is teeming with Truth we may therefore resolve with King David that when Truth doth spring out of the earth righteousnesse shall looke downe from Heaven §. III. The fallacies of some Objections solved and rejoycing in Truth concluded for our reall Happinesse BUt now me thinkes having determined the happinesse of this life in the loving and rejoycing in Truth many that thinke themselves unhappy wonder at this conclusion and conceive me disproved by their defeatures perswading themselves to have beene alwayes suitors and lovers of Truth when the Truth is that they doe not first seeke verity for the object of their love but conclude they have found it in what they have placed their love Supposing their opinions of such joyes as they pursue to be sincere and solid truthes insomuch as I may well resolve such sonnes of men that They love vanity and seek after lies In that region of the world which I have travelled the most I may reflect to the inhabitaints of it one raigning error which may convince many of insincerity in their addresses to Truth for the ground of their happinesse this it is the trusting the infidelity of fortune to others for our owne felicity designing our stock out of the spoiles of our fellowes and in this course doe we not fixe the hopes of our happinesse upon what can never passe to us but by such an infidelity as must assure us we are in continual danger of a like dispossession this must needs be our case when the expectance of the unfaithfulnesse of fortune is made the assignment of our prosperity And yet we see how Courts are commonly divided into these two partyes of some that are Sacrificing to their owne nets and others that are fishing for such nets the first is the state of such as are valuing themselves for what they have taken the second of those who are working and casting out how to catch what the others have drawne and in this manner there are many who pretend to be lovers of Truth that make these fallacies the very ground of that web of happinesse they have in hand This is so preposterous a course for ingenious spirits in order to true felicity as surely there is much of a curse in this method and God warranteth my beliefe both by the Prophets and Apostles when speaking by the voyce of Esay to this case he saith They have chosen their owne wayes wherefore I also will chuse their delusions and by Saint Paul the holy Spirit saith Because they received not the love of Truth for this cause God sends them strong delusions that they should beleeve a lie Let the worlds darlings examine what they confide in for the security of their joyes and they will finde it is the Father of lies they trust for the truth of their felicity who being not able to diminsh the increated verity sets all his art to deface all created Truthes which worke in this region of the world I now treat of he designeth by such a course as he used with the Person of Truth it selfe when he was upon earth for he carryeth up our imagination to the highest point of esteeme he can raise it of earthly possessions from whence he exposeth to our fancies the glories and beauties of this world in deceitfull apparencies as if they were permanent and secured fruitions and our wills are commonly perswaded to bowe downe and reverence such false suggestions whereof the infidelity augmenteth by the degrees of our Devotion in that beliefe since the more we confide in their stability the more falshood doe we admit for our happinesse and thus are we abused in the possession of Truth while we affect all our delights under that notion by the subtilty of the great enemy of Truth we are as Saint Augustine saith elegantly brought to hate Truth by loving those things which we love only as we imagine them to be true for the impermanency of this worlds goods is odious to us which is the truth of their nature and we affect in them their assurance as a truth without which we would not love them and yet that opinion is a meere delusion This may satisfie many who account themselves unhappy by the mutations of fortune and the dispossessions of their secular commodities for they shall finde themselves unfortunate but in the same measure they misapprehended the true nature of such fruitions by as much as they over-loved them so much are they distressed by their losses so the
of others §. III. The vitiousnesse of Flattery displayed with an allowance of decent civilities in exchanges of Courtship HAving proposed to Courtiers for their chiefe security solid Humility discerned from superficiall civility I must desire them to be very sincere in the examination of this vertue for humanity and courtesie externall do often so well counterfeit the stamp of it as it had need be touched at some occasion of suffering to find the falsity of the metall and for the greater safety of this vertue it were to be desired we could banish and eliminate out of the verge one of the best Waiters at Court though of the worst servants in it namely Flattery which is alwayes an enemy to Humility though it seeme often neare allyed unto it by submissive appearances For we know the first progenitor of Pride was also the primary father of Lyes from which all Flattery descends in a collaterall Line Hence it is that there is alwayes some of the bloud of Pride in all adulation though it go cloathed in never so servile an habit of submission And that we may see how naturally Flattery issueth out of Pride wee may consider into what a base and inferiour posture Lucifer contrived himselfe when he cast the first seeds of Flattery into our earth did he not lye prostrate at those feet he was undermining while he was flattering them with their capacity of treading on him and becomming like Gods And this seeming subjection was it not designed by the sublimest part of his Pride which meant to captivate and subject the minds he wrought upon in this posture In like manner all the servile formes of complacency and deference to others which Flattery casts it selfe into in the magnifying their worth and excellency hath this serpentine insinuation in it to wit the hoping to infuse the easilyer the Flatterers sense into them which project in the complyers must needs rise from a beliefe of their own minds being so superior to those they are applyed to worke upon as they can impose upon them the beliefe of all their suggestions and so subdue their spirits which thought is the very soule of Pride to conclude our minds to have such a transcendency over others for no body flatters another but in beliefe of being credited So that all Flattery being anatomized will be found to live by the heart of Pride which is indeed the first living part of Sicophantry in what body soever of humble verisimilitudes it seemes to move And upon this ground we may say that a meane Parasite is a prouder thing then the most magnifyed Prince he humoureth in as much as the presumption on the excellence of mind as it is more spirituall is nearer the originall of Pride And as it was excellently said of a wise King That witchcraft is the height of Idolatry because though it exhibits no exterior offices of Worship but rather disclaimes them yet is it the highest mentall veneration of the seducing spirit and so the truest idolatry In like manner it may be said that Flattery is the supremacy of Pride because though there be no externall profession of selfe-love in it but rather of an alienation from it yet it is a continuall exercise of the supreamest arrogancy which is the Flatterers valuation of his own abilities Whereupon it seemes that a Philosopher being asked what was the most noxious beast to humane nature answered of wild beasts a Tyrant and of tame ones a Parasite and we may adde that the tame ones seeme the worst of the two for the wild ones take the greatest part of their ferocity by coupling with them since this commixion is the generation of all tyrannie wild power enjoying servile praise Humane nature could not fall in love with the exorbitancy of wickednesse if she saw it naked and beheld the bare deformity of that object therefore to make this conjunction there must intercede the art of flattery to colour the basenes and inhumanity of outrageous mischiefe with some faire varnish of decency as either with the right of greatnesse or the liberties of nature or many other such shadowes by which Sycophants keepe Tyrants minds the fiercer by holding them in this darkenes chained up by the magnifying and applause of their appetencies so that this may be truly said in the tearmes of the Psalmist to be the pestilence that walketh in the darke which the light of truth would easily asswage somewhat even in the greatest rage of corrupted nature We may therefore fitly say that Flattery is the oyle of the sinner wherewith Tyrants are annointed by these Ministers of their passions and we know King David saith this should not be the unction falling on the head of Princes For this reason we cannot too strongly brand the forehead of these Court Charlatans since there is so much known art to take out the markes of the character of a Parasite and to continue still in the practise of this mystery of iniquity I confesse therefore it is hardly to be hoped that this sentence of expulsion of Flattery out of Courts can be strictly executed for when it is pressed and straitned by these reproaches then like the Poets Proteus it varyes shapes and appeares presently covered with another forme either in that of duty to superiors or civility to equals or due commendation of merit and will never answer to this indictment of Flattery And indeed these formes which she shifts herselfe easily into are the legitimate issues of morality by which all the fit alliances are made in civill society the two first bearing order and distinction beween Persons and the last producing fertility in vertue Wherefore we cannot impeach this commerce of customary civility and complements for there is a discipline belonging to the practicall part of morality which is referred to the discretion of the Ministers of it which Courtiers may be most properly termed and the rites and ceremonies of mutuall civilities are ornaments requisite to raise respect and sorme order in all the exercises of morality therefore as it is not possible to set and regulate in such sort those voluntary descants of complement as to put them into such measured notes as they must precisely runne in to keepe them from straying into Flattery I will only set Courtiers this lesson of the Apostle which may keepe some time and measure in the consort of their vocall civilities You are called unto liberty only use not this liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love to serve one another and by this order those finer threads of Court civilities may make as strong a band of charity as rough and grosser materials §. IIII. The use of sober prayses treated and reciprocall civilities regulated I Do not in this sharpe insectation of sordid Flattery mean to asperse the good name of praises and commendations for I must allow them to be convenient brests to nurse young and tender dispositions to vertue and the good inclinations
the regulation made by Gods precepts and the churches explanations Thus a courtier may preserve himselfe from being at all moved or shaken in his judgement for Christ and Religion by not apprehending whether he be accounted or no a friend to Cesar to wit whether he retain the courts opinion of being agreeable or complaisant or good company Gods lesson given to the Prophet Ezekiel upon this occasion is very proper in such cases of temptation Sonne of man though thou doest dwell among Scorpions be not afraid of their words nor dismayed at their lookes though they be a rebellious house For those who do sincerely stand upon their defence lifting up their hands in the posture of the Psalmist in all the volleys of Darts shall never want that child to incompasse them which he promiseth Thousands shall fall on both sides of him but the danger shall come no nearer him the Sunne shall not burne him by day nor the Moon by night the Sun-shine of Fortune shall not tanne or dis-colonr the fairenes and candor of his mind nor the Night or coldnesse of his grace or credit shall not damp or benumme the vigour of his spirit To conclude let a Courtier at his entrance into this vocation remember to read the Bill I have set upon the Court gates at the beginning of this Argument and before he go in let him say with Moses in a devout apprehension of his infirmity If thy presence go not with me let me not go up to this place and so in all his advances into the roomes of State in any sort of his preferment let him remember that whereof all the Majesty he seeth is but a figure and by this meanes he may easily keepe the originall presence in his sight which object will prove a light to his eye and a lampe to his feet shewing him according to the Apostles rule How to walke worthy of God who hath called him into his Kingdome and glory The eleventh Treatise Of medisance or detraction In two Sections §. I. The true nature of the crimè of Detraction and the subtilty of it in disguising it selfe HAving entred you safely into the Court and conducted you as I may say through the roomes of State and shewed their ordinary furniture of snares as Ambition Flattery and Dissimulation it followes in order to passe into the withdrawing roomes and cabinets which are commonly furnished with the finest and daintiest stuffs to wit with more subtle and refined temptations among which I conceive there is none more sharpe and piquant and consequently lesse controverted or reproved then Detraction and Medisance Wherefore it will not be amisse to worke a little to file downe as much as we can the point of it by the instruments of Religion which the Holy Spirit ministereth to us fitted for this purpose by the hand of Solomon Remove from thee a froward mouth and let detracting lips be farre from thee But lest this first severe aspect may seem to affront any innocent good humour upon the Stage of conversation t is fit to declare that I only understand by Medisance all such speeches as may probably derogate from the fame and good repute of our neighbour which though it be done in never so gracefull or facetious a manner hath still the deformity of sin lying under the finest coverings any fancy can cast over it and consequently ought not to be admitted into good company upon the recommendation of never so handsome cloathes The Chimiques say that in all materiall bodies there is a salt which is the most spirituall and active portion of them which suggesteth to me this conceipt that in the immaterialities of our passions there may be said to be a kind of salt or spirit which is the most subtill and sharpe point of them and upon this score I may say that Medisance is the salt of envy as containing the most quick and piquant part of this passion it agreeth likewise in this property with Salts and Spirits calcined which do not sensibly discover the matter out of which they are extracted being reduced into differing formes neither doth Medisance in many cases manifest at all the quality from whence it is derived being drawn into another appearance of jest and ingeniosity and surely the nature of such poysonous plants ought to be the most proclaimed the taste whereof is pleasant and the occurrence familiar among innocent herbs of which kind is this spirit of detraction which I may not unfitly compare to Mercury sublimate that tasteth like sugar wherefore the children of this Family ought the more cautiously be advertised of the malignity thereof since the matter lyes so often in their way The Apostle Saint James as Gods advocate brings a hainous charge against this libertinage which in the world doth pretend to passe at the highest for no more then a trespasse not a sin but thus he informeth against it Detract not from one another he that detracteth from his brother or he that judgeth his brother detracteth from the Law and judgeth the Law so that not onely the credit of man but even the honour of God seemeth violated by these invasions since even the law of God is said to be impleaded by such aspersions God seemeth to have tender'd so much the good fame of man as he hath joyned his own honour with it as a convoy against the insults of our vitious fancyes that we might at least respect Gods concernment in the violation of the fame of one another detraction is thus proved to be one of the greatest offenders in humane society yet the familiarity covereth so much the faultinesse as it suffereth the seldomest of any criminall by reason of the many disguises it can interchange insomuch as sometimes religious justice that would not connive knoweth not how to take notice of it meeting it so ingeniously transformed but for the most part it is not strictly looked after The case of medisance in courts is like that of loose women in the world that are very handsome who do oftener gain and corrupt the officers of justice then they are detected and indicted by them for abuses and derisions of one another passe for such a kind of Pecadillâ—o among the children of this age as they conceive it the office of a Gentleman rather to rescue and shelter it when it is pursued by just reprehension then to deliver it up as a criminall but surely if we consider whose law the Apostle telleth us is offended and impugned by these asperities we shall find the Method of Jael to be followed rather then that of Rahab with these emissaries of the Prince of this world which are imployed by him to bring him back the fruits of our corrupted earth which is very luxuriant in this mistery of iniquity insomuch as we may say of this unhappy facundity that our earth needs no rain to fall upon it that is no externall provocation to fertilize it there riseth
then see of them resplendent in that clarity This Celestiall mirrour maketh a reflection much differing from all materiall ones for it doth not send back to us the same image we set before it but a farre better then we had any capacity to expose unto it for when our love looketh upon God refer'd simply to his own essentiall purity This sort of mirrour returneth to us not so much the image of our loves to God as the representation of Gods love to us by reason we see then God loving us in this our intuition of his goodnesse which reflection sheweth us a better character of this manner of our love then we could have prefigured to our selves and when we behold our selves in that image of Gods loving us we cannot overvalue our selves under that notion so that this is a blessed and a safe course joyntly to please God and humour our own nature in a selfe-complacency Thus have I endeavoured to figure these two loves and I have set them both in the tabernacle but in unequall ranks of dignity the one without among the utentsils of brasse the other within the vail among the instruments of gold so as the most ignoble of these two species is allowed in the service of religion in some degree but is not accepted single as sufficient for our religious oblation For God tollerateth no longer the infirmity of that love whereof we our selves dispence with the insufficiency so that the relying upon mercenary love may decry it while our disclaiming the meannesse of it may hold it up current with him to whom King David paying the purest species said Thou art my God and standest i◠no need of my goods §. V. Advises in order to the preserving this sort of Love and fraternall dilection represented as a gracious rule whereby to judge of our rectitude in filiall love THese two loves being thus set by one another whereof I have not only drawn the several complexions but delivered the diverse constitutions there is little doubt which of them will be preferred but much which will be rightly pursued for our degenerated nature is apt to believe that the verball preferring of Filiall love is the having it and certainly many who have been neare it have missed of it by concluding they had attained it and many have lost it by conceiving it might be kept and left loose without much attendance whereas they should remember that it is not the Spring of our fallen nature that of it selfe riseth to that point from whence it fell it is the force of grace which can only raise and re-mount it to this elevation and our spirits must continually attend this operation of Grace to force up this pure affection against the risings of our sensitive appetites which make steepe oppositions to this reflux insomuch as if this worke be not assiduously intended our affections quickly sinke into the channell of our earthy nature which is interested and mercenary love They who pretend to keepe their hearts exalted as the Prophet saith above the altitudes of the earth in this purer element of filiall love must watch it continually when they hope they have it and still pray for it as if they feared they had it not and there is no so ill sign of our having any of it as our presuming we have enough of it as Saint Augustine saith of the knowledge of God that he who hath speculated his nature never so long when he commeth to think he hath found a compleat definition of God may be then said to understand the least of him So may I say of Filiall love they who have been never so long filling their heatrs with it when they presume they are full enough are then the most devoyded of it It is in our love referring to the immensity of God as in numbers relating to infinity wherein any summe never so great when it is once cast up and stai'd in any total may be said to be further from infinity then a much lesser number which is still running on without any determined period So any degree of love to our Creator being once voluntarily bounded and circumscribed is farther off from our interminate duty of loving then an affection never so much behind that is still advancing without a purpose of terme or limitation This then may be an infallible note of the deficiency of our love when in any straine of interior fervor we conclude we may stay our loves at such a pitch and make plaines upon it never aiming at a higher flight and this may be a secure rest for such hearts as are yet never so infirme in their loves that as long as they pursue sincerely the premotion and advance of them loving all they can and resolving never to love lesse then all they can improve their loves by any solicitude they may believe they love enough for nothing reacheth nearer Gods actuall infinity then this as I may say optative infinity in the soul of man which though she can never reach the other infinite existence yet hath a possibility of never staying or limitting her motions towards it This consideration drew from Saint Bernard this elegant indearement of the capacity of love in these words to God O otherwise incomprehensible Majesty to a soul loving thee thou seemest comprehensible for though the conception of no soul or Spirit can comprehend thee yet the love of a true lover of thee comprehendeth all thou art when he loveth all thy being how great soever it be What greater incentive can we wish for the purifying our love then to conceive that capacity to be granted to our love on earth which is denyed to our understanding even in heaven to wit the full comprehension of God but there is no love unlesse perfect filiall that can beare this so large ascription For our mercenary affection may be said to look upon divinity but as an object angular onely as it pointeth unto our selves and doth not spread out souls upon the spherical and circular form of the divine goodnesse as it is it selfe imbracing all forms and beings which latitude and expansion is peculiar unto Filiall love as an operation of that all-comprising charity diffused in our hearts by the holy-Ghost For all our love to God is inspired by himself as the light inlightning maketh the light that is illuminated God hath provided so kindly against our mistaking of our way to this excellent love as he hath set us a sensible mark to guide us by which is fraternall love which we have as a kind of visible object whereby to direct our course so that if our love lose sight of this mark we may be sure it is out of the way to filiall affection for the beloved Apostle in pursuit of his Masters specifical difference given to know his disciples from others which was the loving of one another giveth him the lie that is so bold as to say he loveth God when he hateth his brother
ill an odour as their former Sacriledge If these Animadversions meet likewise with any such as are not urged by the pressure of their Consciences but rather solicited so much by their natural temper and disposition to privacy and retiredness as upon the least provocation of the world they are apt to break with it these humors are desired to stay and pause â—â—riouâ—ly and long on this suggestion for this may often be the operation of Melancholy which works this hasty promptitude And as Melancholy is the highest degree of choler in the Humors so in these hasty sallies out of the society of the world there may well be more Natural Humor then Spiritual Disposition and so this be rather a Disease then a devout Constitution Wherefore like sick men that forbear food long while the Humor is consuming these retreaters may for some time live quietly as long as this Humor of the worlds disrelish is wasting and spending it self but after that is digested the appetite of the world returns and likely gnaws upon their peace they having no natural food for it Hence is it that such complexions ought to be very advised in this their assigning of themselves according to the propensity of their Humors which perswades them often that what is indeed but the Ecâ—ho of their own voyce of Nature which speaks in them is a Spiritual vocation For their Natural Constitution raifeth that desire in their imaginative part which causeth a little repetition and answer of it in the Judiciary and Rational power of their minde but it is rather from the hollowness of their reason then the solidity of it that this Eccho is returned The result therefore of all these Examinations of several Cases must be Not to conduct our selves by the precedents of special extraordinary vocations of some whom Christ hath sent for out of the streets and by-ways of the world that is immediately from the foulness and immundicity of their lives and by his Messengers of Crosses and Afflictions compelled them to come into his house For these Cases are prerogatives of Gods Grace which do not alter the known Laws that are enacted by him by which Laws we ought to try our vocations to wit by the mature advice of those Judges he hath seated in his Tribunal upon Earth his Church and by their Sentences to make the tryal of all our own private impulses or motions of our Spirit to this dispossession and abnegation of the world Christ himself hath ruled this case in an excellent Parable of one that builds a Tower which is properly adopted to the design of a contemplative life as it is the erection of a frame of life raised high above the other parts of the Earth and intended for prospect and discovery so that none must undertake this edifice but after computation of the pertinencies requisite for the finishment lest they expose themselves to the reproach of having begun what they were not able to finish and this reckoning and account of our provision must be made by the consulting of a prudent Spiritual Surveyor not trusting to the Architecture of our own Spirit in which we must zealously often and humbly consult the eternal Architect of all Spiritual frames for a sincere discernment of his order in the regulating our own designs with this address of the cautious Spirit of Holy David Lord grant me to know the way wherein I should walk for I have lifted up my soul to thee This parting and separation from our own Will is the first leave we must take in our valediction to the world and this is not to be done by a hasty dismission of it for so it is but a weight thrown upward which is fastened to us and falls quickly back again therefore it must be loosened and severed by degrees and steeped as it were in the fresh springing water of Prayer and Mortification whereby it will peel and fall away the easilier Some perseverence in this disposition is requisite to blanch and whiten the intention perfectly St. Pauls advice for our preparation for the Holy communion is me thinks very properly applicable to this our preparation for participating of this Spiritual food for Religious Solitude is the Table of the Holy Ghost Therefore let a man examine himself and then eat of this bread of life for he that presumes to taste of it unworthily may be truly impeached as guilty of much irreverence to the Holy Spirit in venturing to come to the Communion of his Gifts and Graces rashly without a due consulting of his invitation I need not urge our precaution and advisedness in this case farther since our temerity in it is brought to be a kinde of Sin against the Holy Ghost Whereupon I will close up this Advertisement in St. Johns words Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God for many false promises of this Spirit of an happy Solitude are current in the world it being truer in no case then in this It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God who sheweth mercy The nineteenth Treatise Of Violent Solitude or Close Imprisonment Divided into eight Sections §. I. How unwillingly our Nature submits to the loss of Liberty and Society IN the case we treated last the Will needed a premonition against the deception of sight for our Will in fits of Melancholy looketh commonly through the glass of our Imagination upon such objects as flatter that humor most This Perspective of our Fancy is often cut into such angles as represent various and false colours of perswasions wherewith the Will is inveigled such species proving not real when our Reason cometh strictly to oversee them Therefore in the election of Solitude the elective faculty was to be instructed against the falacies of discourse upon which the Resolution is to be grounded but this case requireth a different direction For here the best course the Will can take to rectitude is to be totally blinded and cieled that she may make the straighter mount upward to the eternal Will and not amuse or perplex her self by looking about with a solicitous inspection into second causes but may pitch at the first flight upon the primary cause of all Contingencies Our Nature requireth much precaution in this aptitude to intangle us under the pretext of infranchisement by the liberty of reasoning out the Causes of all advers Accidents for in this case of loss of Liberty and Company our Nature likely seizeth on curious disquisitions of all Humane Reasons as the next thing she takes hold on to make company out of them and the contrivement of issues out of these straights is a sort of freedom our Nature takes as some imaginary reparation in her necessity by reason wherof these are coÌ„monly the first occupations wherein our Fancy seeketh some divertisement and this entertainment may lighten the weight a little by removing it to and fro in our Fancy not
precepts of Philosophy come in the stronger when they enter in their due places unfolding to us the nature of the Universe and spreading fairly before us the contempt of all Temporalities by divers detections of the infidelity of all things sublunary Thus after the right marshalling of this Auxiliary succor the more stock we have of Moral Philosophy the more inlargement we may make of the Recreations of our Spirit in these straights of our condition For as a very learned Humanist converted to Christianity is the more able by the means of this learning to explicate and illustrate the Doctrine whereof he is perswaded In like maner after this first conviction of our mindes touching the necessity of our primary recourse to Grace for the rectitude and conformity of our hearts they who are the most conversant with the Precepts of Reason and Philosophy shall be the best qualified by these helps for the amplification of their entertainments and sweetning the Natural asperity of Solitude We must be sure then to fix this Principle in our thoughts that all Humane Philosophy doth but the part of the wateâ— of Silâ—â— it doth but wash off the dirt of Ignorance from our eyes it is the vertue of the superior direction which sendeth us to that sort of Application which commandeth this admirable effect Reason is used by that supreme agent to take off the foulness and impurity of terrestial objects from the eye of our Minde and to open it into the speculation of vertue but it is Grace which worketh the Miracle of this Serenity of Spirit by these instrumental illuminations of Reason As long then as Philosophy is kept onely as a hand-maid with her eyes looking always upon the eye of her Mistress which is Grace the gift of God so long she proveth very useful to her service but where she is seated as single commander of the family all her specious precepts and directions will prove as the Apostle termeth them but learned fables when this practical office is required of them to instate the minde in that regularity and apathy whereof they are so confident projectors Having setled this Maxime as Disciples of the Psalmist for the fundamental article of Spiritual composure My soul wait thou upon God for from him is my patience then the discoursings and arguments of Morality are proper stuff to adorn our mindes that they remain not bare and naked but furnished with convenient matter of meditation and entertainment Humane literature may be used in this order as Ceremonies are in Religion which are requisite to excite and detain Devotion and Reverence in our Nature that is affected much with sensible coverings of Spiritualities which affording as I may say no hold for our Senses our Mindes are not so easily staid and fixed in an attention upon such Duties therefore such occupations of our Senses are very pertinent towards the raising and arresting our Devotion In like maner the flowers and adornments of Moral Philosophy are apt and serviceable for the affecting and entertaining our Imagination by the gracefulness and elegancy of their perswasions which are very congruent with the nature of our Affections that incline most to notions a little aspersed with sensible matter and so are easiliest staid and quieted in such attentions which hold our Spirits in a more cheerful application to the Arguments of rectified Reason In this order Philosophy may be acknowledged to be a convenient discipline belonging to the doctrine of Peace and Tranquility of Spirit which is grounded in that pax vobiâ— that cometh in like the Master of it resuscitated not through the doors of Humane Reason and then this peace useth discourse and argument as Christ did his body who in condescendence to the weakness of the Faith of his Disciples made them feel and handle it So doth the Holy Spirit clothe his Grace with sensible Reasons so correspondent to our Fancies as they do the easilier acquiesce unto them and thus contribute to the mindes repose and regulation Surely this is the proper function of literate elegancy to figure vertue in so lively and fresh colours that our imagination may be so taken with the beauty of vertue as it may invite our mindes to make love to her in solitude and in this suit our Reason may make good company even out of all our wants and desolations as imploying them to do us good offices to this Mistress by their testimony of our patient acceptance of all sufferings that may advance us in this pursuit which nothing doth more then a temperate constancy in Distresses wherein vertue loveth to try the fidelity of her servants And thus we may make even Solitude prove our access and mediation to our love whileg we are in research and suit to vertue for unto her we know it is confessed that difficulties give the best introduction and entrance So that the uses of Philosophy are much improved by this their proper application to illustrate the amiableness of vertue and by the gaining of our Fancy to facilitate the subjection of our Affections to our Reason whereunto Humane learning conduceth in many respects and it may not unaptly be said to be a kinde of Spiritual Heraldry that doth blazon the Arms of Natural Reason shewing the genealogy and descent thereof from the Father of Lights and marketh the affinities and alliances between Grace and Nature keeping a Register of the Antiquity and Nobility of Moral Vertue in the examples and precedents of all Times and in these respects is very proâ—itable in all states especially in Solitude both to recreate and rectifie the minde of man And indeed nothing inableth us more for the best improvement of the stock of Philosophy then having our wills first fastned unto Gods design upon us before our understandings range abroad into the documents of Morality for exercise and recreation Me thinks we may well be allowed to apply these orders of the Temple of Solomon to our present Argument and say as they who by their consecration were admitted into the holy place of the Temple had liberty to come out and entertain themselves in the outward Courts of the Layeâ—y and the station of Gentiles but they who were not qualified by some holy Character were not admitted into the inward part of the Temple or the Sanctuary So they who have devoted first their Reason to the inscrutable Order of God and have this Character of Christianity imprinted on them may freely and usefully recreate their mindes in the outward Galleries of Philosophy where Humane Reason hath an inlargement and spaciousness for the exercise and solace of the understanding but if our Spirits are but of that rank which are without in the arches of Philosophy and conversant onely in the porches of Moral Vertue this constitution doth not sufficiently qualifie our mindes for admission into the interior Sanctuary of Peace and Tranquility of Spirit So that all I have so much pressed tendeth to perswade every one in this
this the Sword which he saith he came to send and not Peace Wherefore this hostility declared against our Flesh must be remembred to be the first Article of that peace of the Spirit which is concluded in Contemplation §. III. The requisiteness of Lecture in order to this Spiritual elevation THe next Stage whereby we are to rise is pious Lecture which subject calls back my thoughts upon the first state of mans knowledge wherein we may consider That the first Humane Soul came into this world perfect in the intellectual part by Science infused and needed not stay for the help of her corporeal organs to acquire any for those instruments whereby she was to act were ready in their perfection before she was seated in them since Gods forming perfectly the body of man preceded his breathing into it the breath of Life And so we finde that he was able to reade presently in the book of Gods works wherein he read the character of Gods hand in every creature that was set before him and as I may say superscribed their names upon them by the secret impression he read of their Nature But not being satisfied with this excellent degree of intelligence he began to affect the reading even in Gods own increated book The knowing like God himself Upon this presumption the rational soul of Man was cast down from this high form and set so much backward as ever since both the Vegetative and Sensitive souls precede her long in the perfection of their acts and she is obliged to stay their leisure before she can act her best according to her faculty which must cost her also pains and care to reduce it unto the best extent thereof Thus is now the rational Soul sentenced to feed her self by her kinde of sweat and labor so that she is not onely to acquire most of her natural knowledges by a laborious industry but she is also set to work by study and attention even upon those supernatural Principles that are infused into her as those of Faith Hope and Charity even these infused habits will not so much as remain in her without her own study and solicitude to preserve them much less can they be improved to their best degree without much intendment and application And to facilitate the perfection of the Soul in this life God hath been pleased to make his own Character and to leave it legible under his own Hand his holy Scriptures wherein all his attributes are penn'd in the fairest maner to affect our understandings and to take our affections insomuch as of the holy Writ it may be well said to God The light of thy countenance is impressed upon it This living spring of Verities the Holy Ghost hath left upon the earth from whence all the rivelets of pious Books derive their waters which are so proper to refresh and see undate the minde of Man as the Holy Ghost doth but rarely use his own power of impregnating and replenishing Souls with immediate inspirations but vouchsafeth for the most part to be conveyed into our mindes by the mediate spirations into them of vertuous notions from his subalternate instruments the pens of his holy Ministers which he doth certainly inspire with qualities â—o well proportioned to our capacities as they deliver Divine Truths unto our mindes under such familiar and agreeable forms as are most apt to work upon our affections This is the design of the Holy Ghost in all pious Books wherein his Spirit remaineth covered in the elements of mans conceptions for words may be said to be a kinde of body to thoughts as the Divinity of Christ did under the vails of Flesh and Blood In like maner it is the Divine vertue of the Holy Spirit that worketh all those devout effects which are produced by the instrumental conceptions of pious Writers Wherefore as the Scriptures are to be read with perswasion that God is presentially speaking to us so all Books of Devotion are to be used with this opinion of their speaking to us as delegated and deputed from God The minde of Man abhorreth vacuity and though her Nature tend upward to be replenished with Spiritual notions yet if she be void of them she sinketh presently to earth to take in any grosser furniture so that if she be not provided with such pure species as may keep her pointing at her own Centre in stead of being elevated as it were above her self in Contemplation she will fall below her self into some terrene amuzement Wherefore a habit of pious Lecture is most necessary in order to the replenishing her with Spiritual Images that may keep her eye always erected up upon them and may we not well infer the requisiteness of reading for the support of the Spiritual Man since Saint Paul doth not onely advise his so elevated Disciple Timothy to attend unto reading but chargeth him with great solicitude to bring him some Books even after he had told him he had consummated his course and the time of his revolution was near If he who had been in Paradice already in a transcient state and was so near his going thither to a permanent did still make use of Books how necessary must they be for all such as aspire to any Spiritual exaltation §. IV. Speculation placed as the last step in this ascent of the Soul THis last station carrieth us up to the top of this Mount Moria from whence we have descended and so is the steepest part and the uneasiest mounting of all the rest as it is nearest the vertical point of our fixure This last step then is Speculation or Meditating which act of our discursive faculty is commonly taken as univocal with this other of our minde fixed in Contemplation but when they are rightly distinguished there appeareth such a diversity as is between the last strains of motion and the term of acquiescence For Speculation is properly the busie attention of the minde in the inquest of truth ranging and casting out all ways to bring in conclusions for the Spirit to fix and rest upon in Contemplation which as I have said is a fruitive possession of Verities which flowers the minde doth no longer gather or collect but rather hold in her hand ready made up in nosegays that she is smelling to Me thinks these two different states of the Minde may be rendred very intelligible by a conception my Fancy hath sprung while it is ranging for some fit expression of this very act which my Minde is now exercising and I may say That Speculation and Contemplation differ â—ust so as my present writing of their differences doth from my reading them anon when I have finished them For now my imagination is beating and casting all ways for some well suited similitude whereby to illustrate the diversity of these two acts and my memory is sifting and sorting apposite words to express my conceptions and thus by degrees I shall by means of this studious Application of