thoughts or envious malitious thoughts or they be thoughts of gluttony and excess or thoughts of lust and carnal concupiscence or the like Let the mind and Memory be replenished with such pious Meditations and holy Contemplations the thoughts of the World will find no admittance Intus existens prohibet alienum where the strong man armed keeps the house the enemy dares not enter and whilst the soul is armed with the commemoration of Gods blessing it will not open the door to the temptations of Satan or lust of the Flesh but say with Joseph Behold my Master hath committed all into my hands and there is none greater in this house than I neither hath he kept any thing from me but thee Gen. 39.8 9. how then shall I doe this great wickedness and sin against God Praise then the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sin and healeth all thine infirmities call to mind the loving kindness of the Lord and have them in everlasting remembrance exercise thy Memory with such heavenly meditations as may build thee up unto eternal life for this will be thy companion for ever whether in weal or in wo it dieth not with the body but is immortal as thou thy self the rest of the faculties may sleep for a while with the body but this survives to perpetuity This is that Intellectual Memory or Recordation which none but reasonable creatures enjoy which is not diminished by the bodies death but infinitely inlarged when all the thoughts words and deeds done in the flesh shall immediately in a wonderfull manner come into remembrance the secrets of all hearts shall then be disclosed and all such thoughts words and actions which in life time were slipt out of mind shall come again into fresh remembrance with a Conscience Chap. 8. Book 1. a Book which that day shall be opened a Book of Mans life upon Earth an account of Mans workes where they that have done well shall go into life everlasting but they that have done evill into everlasting fire Which Recordation or Intellectual memory if the Saints in Heaven whose bodies yet sleep in the grave had not how should they sing misericordias domini in aeternum the loving kindness of the Lord for ever as the Prophet David hath it which Psalm and Song saith St. Augustine made for the glory of the mercies of Christ by whose blood wee are redeemed the Saints do joyfully sing in Heaven Of which Memorative facul y more shall be said hereafter CHAP. VIII Of the Appetitive faculty and the Motive to a place WEE have done with those Sensitive faculties External and Internal which have power of Judgement Knowledge and Discerning we come now to those which have not this power in themselves but are guided by the Counsell and advice of others being moved by the Object good or evill according as Phantasie or Reason presents it the Phantasie imagineth it good the Appetite is streight moved to desire it This faculty is twofold viz. Appetitive and Motive to a place The Locall Motive Faculty is a power of the Soul moving the living creature from place to place to follow that which the Appetite coveteth as good or to shunne what it lottheth as hurtful so that this Motive faculty is but an effect of the Appetitive and necessarily follows it as the Effect doth the Cause for where the Appetitive facultie is to desire good or shun evill there must needs be this Motive also from place to place otherwise the Appetitive should be given us in vain had we not this Motive faculty to seek after that wee desire as good and pleasant and to avoid what wee conceive to be hurtful unto us Aristotle I grant adds another cause of this Motion besides Appetite to wit Intellect and under Intellect he comprehends Sense to wit Phantasie for what ever is desired or shunned is under the notion of good or evill so desired or lothed now this knowledge must either be from Reason or Phantasie for there is no knowledge but is either Sensitive or Intellectual therefore must Intellect which includes Phantasie be another cause of Motion Vide Suarez de metaphys disp 35. Sect. 5. part 15. fol. 172. neither do I intend to exclude Phantasie and Reason from being a cause for when I mention Appetite onely as the cause I do it partly because Appetite is the chief Phantasie and Intellect are but subordinate causes and partly because I take Appetite here in the largest sense as comprehending Phantasie and Reason for Appetite in general is both Sensitive and Intellectual as shall be said hereafter so this Motive faculty being but an effect of Appetite we shall be the briefer in it and insist more largely upon the cause the knowledge wherof will necessarily conduce to the knowledge of the effect Appetite is a natural desire of the Soule by which the living creature for the cause of preservation is moved either to desire that which Sense judgeth as good or to loth that which it apprehendeth evill and hurtfull so that Appetite is a necessary concomitant of Sense and follows her close for where there is Sense there is sorrow and pleasure and where these are there must be Appetite There is a twofold Operation of Sense one whereby it perceives its Object as the eye beholds colour which is the first and simple Operation of Sense the other whereby upon the preception and apprehension of the Object the Sense is affected with sorrow or pleasure this is the second and in a sort a mixt Operation in as much as with the Object is joyned sorrow or pleasure and to these are joyned Appetite and flight for things pleasant we desire after and things grievous we flie from but this last Operation belongs to Common Sense not to any of the External to perceive good under the notion of good or evill under the notion of evill and accordingly to be affected therewith is the Operation of the Internal not External Senses therefore it is this Common Sense to which the Appetite is so nearly related that Aristotle saith they differ not re nor yet in subjecto but onely ratione not re for they have no distinct being but one and the same essence nor yet subjecto they have one and the same subject for the seat of Appetite is where the Internal Sense is seated to wit in the brain this is to be understood of that Appetite which is called Sensitive and is common to man and brutes But there are three kinds of Appetite according to Arist Appetite is divided into Lust Anger and Will Lust is in that faculty which is called Concupiscible Anger in that which is called Irascible and Will in that is called Intellectual Lust and Anger follow the judgement of Sense for what Sense judgeth pleasant and good Lust desireth and what Sense judgeth grievous the Irascible faculty rejecteth and these are in brutes as well as in man but Will followeth
torquere nor verum rationis judicium impedire so are not evill in themselves and of their own nature but through error in mans judgement from whence the vitiosity passeth upon the Affections Other reasons may be given of the evill and exorbitant Passions which doubtless are stronger or weaker according to the temperature of the four elements in the body of man from whence the complexions have their denomination if the complexion be Sanguine it commonly feeds the Affection of Joy and Mirth and Love and the like if Cholerick expect Anger Hatred Malice c. if Melancholy then Sorrow Fear and Grief and thus according to the temperature of the body are Passions for the most part more or less predominant the more temperate the complexion the more moderate the Passions the better the constitution the purer and nobler the Affections are That all Affections of the Soul are vitious and not onely to be moderated but wholly to be extirpated and expelled from our nature was an error broacht in the School of the Stoicks condemned in Christianity as well as by the Peripatetick Philosophers of old Mr. Hooker It is not in our own power whether we will be stirred with Affections or no It is as possible to prevent them all as to go out of our selves or to give our selves a new nature no more than we can refuse to wink with the eye when a sudden blow is offered at it or refuse to yawn when we see a yawning sleepy fellow though by frequent and habitual Mortification and by continual watchfulnes Dr. Taylors life of Christ 2 part fol. 122. and standing in readiness against all in advertencies we may lessen the inclination and account fewer sudden irreptions saith a devout and judicious Doctor of our English Church Many ought to be corrected few totally to be rejected some Affections there are which are virtuous and godly in themselves some are wicked and diabolicall some are in themselves neither godly nor wicked The good and virtuous are Love Pitty Joy Charity c. the diabolical are Envy Wrath Malice and especially that which your Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a rejoycing at other mens ill hap and misfortune the indifferent Affections are Fear Sorrow Anger and the like which as they are not simply good so are they not morally evill since our blessed Saviour who knew no sin was notwithstanding subject to like Passions of Sorrow Fear Grief and the like such as accrewed to us by the Fall of our first Parents and are infirmities and defects of pure nature effects or fruits of sin and so an evill to wit of punishment as well as other bodily defects as hunger thirst sickness yea and death which come unto us but by the Fall all these our Saviour was subject to in all things being made like unto us sin onely excepted The evill of sin he took not though he took upon him the true nature of man so saith Saint Augustine As Christ took upon him a true humane nature so he took the true defects and evils of that nature but not all he took upon him the defects or evils of punishment but not the defects and evils of sin Such Passions and Infirmities of Fear Grief Anger of Sickness Death and the like as are evils of punishment only Christ was subject to as we are therefore such are not simply sinfull neither can they be simply good since they be effects and fruits of sin Nor was Christ subject to these Passions in the same manner and measure as we Christ onely in the first motions and sudden irresistible alterations those twincklings of the eye as the Philosopher calls them those Propassions as the Schoolmen term them or Passions transient but we not in Propassion onely for a flash and away but in Passion also in Passion permanent to entertain it and retain it many times either without just cause or longer than occasion requires or beyond due measure by which the Affections come to be inordinate the Mind moved perplexed and troubled Reason blinded Judgement perverted and depraved These are the Diseases and Maladies of my Soul far worse than any that can be of my Body whether it be Lethargy Phrensie Apoplexie Epilepsie burning Feaver or the like all which are the most dangerous diseases of the Body for though the outward Senses may be surprised by these and my Body thereby made insensible of pain yet whilst my Soul remains un-distempered my Reason is able to discover and judge of these bodily distempers either by its inflamation or beating of its pulse and arteries or by some extraordinary heat and lassitude but when my Soul is diseased my Reason is also wounded and being sick hath no judgement at all of that which she suffereth for the self same that should judge is diseased being surprised with those unruly Passions which like a tempestuous storm at Sea carrie this little Ship of my Body into the deep without Tacklings Mast or Rudder or any to steer her aright whereby she is exposed to splittings shipwracks and all other misfortunes of the Seas But in the way of more strict Religion it is advised that he that would cure his passions should pray often Dr. Taylors life of Christ par 2. fol. 125. A Remedy against passions in general it is St. Augustines Counsell unto the Bishop Auxilius that like the Apostles in a storm wee should awaken Christ and call to him for aid lest wee ship-wrack in so violent passions and impetuous disturbances Again a continual exercise Vigilancie and Circumspection of thy Reason is a Sovereign Antidote for the Ejection of these poysonsom passions out of thy Soul and therefore one advertisement given by Fundanus in Plutarch against such inordinate passions is not here to be pretermitted Whosoever saith he will live safe and in health ought all their life time to look to themselves and be as it were in continual Physick and not as the Herb Hellebore which we English Neeswort after it hath wrought the cure in a sick mans body is cast up again together with the malady so Reason also should be sent out after the passion it hath cured but ought to remain still in thy mind to keep and preserve the judgement for Reason is to be compared to wholesom and nourishing meates and not to medicines and purgative drugs Of all those several affections and passions incident to the Soul and are either as Lenitives or Corrasives viz. pleasant and wholesome or harsh and noysom to the Soul two onely as principal I shall insist on upon which the rest are founded from whence they spring viz. Love and Ire Anger though simply and as it is in it self considered to wit in its first motions and natural inclination be neither good nor evil yet is made good or evil according to the circumstances of time and adjuncts of manner and measure all anger in all causes and in all degrees is not simply unlawful to be angry when
the Devill yet the perfection of the picture is to be drawn like to that Pattern and therefore though the deformity in the Pattern be truely its deformity yet the deformity in the Picture is its beauty But if the Pattern it self be beautiful the Picture then is most exact and perfect if it imitate in its beauty as near as may be the beauty of its Pattern and if every Picture had understanding it would desire nothing more than continually to contemplate its Pattern to frame it self to its imitation and to be made conformato it God thy Pattern O my Soul is infinite beauty a light in Which is no â—aâ—kness at all whose brightness the Sun and Moon admireâ— whose brightness that thou maist with â—ore ease imitate his similitude desire and by all means endeavour in which consisteth all thy perfection Profit Honor Joy Rest and all thy goodâ— Know â—hat the beauty of God thy Patterâ— consisteth in Wisdom and Holiness for as the beauty of the Body ariseth from the due proportion of the Members and pleasantness of Colour so in this spiritual Essence the suavity of Colour is in the light of Wisedom the proportion of Members is in justice But by justice is not meant any one particular Vertue but that general which contains in it all the rest that spiritual substance is the fairest whose mind shines with the light of Wisdom and whose Will is replenisht with perfect justice Now God thy Pattern O my Soul is Wisdom it self Justice itself and therefore is perfect beauty and because these two are in Scripture expressed by the name of Holiness threfore do the Angels crie on Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth Isaith 6. Levit. 11. Math. 6. and God himself cries out to us his Image and likeness be yee holy for I your God am holy and Christ in the Gospel be you perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect Therefore O my Soul if thou the Image of God desire to be made like thy exemplar thou must prefer Wisdom and Justice before all things True Wisdom is to judge of all things according to the highest Cause the highest Cause I call the Will of God or the Law which reveals the same to men therefore if thou love Wisdom thou must not regard what the Law of the flesh dictateth what Sense judgeth good what the World allows what kindred perswade much less what flatterers propound but turn thy deaf ear to these and onely harken to the Will of the Lord thy God judging and esteeming that the most profitable most glorious and most desirable good which is most agreeable to the Will and Law of God This is the Wisdom of the Saints of which the wise Man Writes Wisdom 7.10 11. I loved her before health and beauty and chose to have her in stead of light for the light that cometh from her never goeth out All good things together came to me with her and innumerable riches in her hands Furthermore Justice which is the other part of spiritual beauty comprehends all these Vertues which do adorn and perfect the Will but principally Charity which is the Mother and root of all Vertues and of which Saint Augustine saith De natura gratia cap. 70. Charity begun is Justice begun Charirty continued is Justice continued Charity perfected is Justice perfected for who so hath loved hath fulfilled the Law for love worketh no evill Chap. 3. Book 2. therefore love is the fulfilling of Law as the Apostle teacheth and contrariwise he that keeps Gods Word and Commandements Rom. 13. the love of God is perfect in this saith St. John therefore whosoever would be like unto this Divine pattern must obey him saying be ye followers of God as dear Children walk in love for the Son is the Image of his Father now the whole beauty and perfection of the Image is as we have formerly said to be most like the pattern See Bellarm. de ascensione mentis in deum per scalas rerum creaturarum gradu primo CHAP. III. Of the knowledge which the Soul hath of Angels and Saints departed THE state and condition of the Humane Soul is twofold and so hath two several waies of Operation two waies of acquiring knowledge one in the body Natural in this life another out of this body in another life The Operation of the Soul in this life is per corpus which is an impediment and let unto it that it cannot exercise as to all points those other Actions and Operations which are Common to it and separated substances so fully and freely as it doth out of the body So must the knowledge of the Soul in this life especially of Immaterial substances be more imperfect and uncertain by how much more it useth the body For Immateriality is the cause in knowledge and according to the degree of Immateriality is the degree to knowledge therefore as God is said in be summè Immaterialis so is he summè cognoscitivus whereas on the contrary wee see by common experience by how much more any thing recedes from Immateriality the less doth it partake of knowledge as all Corporeal Inanimate substances for their overmuch Materiality have no knowledge at all but your animalia sensitiva Sensitive Souls participate of a certain kind of knowledge because they have some power over their matter and in some measure are capable of Forms without matter and this knowledge is called Sensitive now the Reasonable creatures higher than they have attained to a degree of Intelligence their knowledge is called Intellectual because though their Souls inform the matter they may notwithstanding subsist without the matter so clear it is by how much more the Reasonable Soul in this life stands in need of the body by so much is it less knowing but by how much more freed from the body overcoming the imperfection of matter by so much the more Operative by so much the more Knowing But because the Soul of Man so long as it is in this body cannot exercise all its Operations out of the body therefore the Operation knowledge of the Soul in this life of Spiritual and Immaterial substances especially cannot be so full and perfect as it is out of the body in another life First therefore of the knowledge wee have of Saints and Angells in this life We have no Quidditative knowledge as the Schoolmen call it of abstracted forms essences in this life that is such a knowledge as to define them not onely with their Common but their Proper names also even to the last specficial difference which is the proper and positive knowledge of them such a knowledge we have not which was a question started by Aristotle but not assoiled but a Quidditative knowledge improperly so called to wit a confused knowledge of some Essential predicates but not of all and those too by Imperfect notions partly Common partly Privative or Negative not Proper or Positive such we have Some Essential
attributes we know which are not Proper to them but Common with other things as that they are essences entia realia perse existentia substances not accidences that they are Incorporeal Immaterial Intellectual Incorruptible spirits of a finite power and perfection all this hath been found out by the strength of natural Reason heathen Philosophers have taught it and Aristotle writes a whole Book de deo intelligâ—ntiis abstractis wherein he acknowledgeth them to be entia realia for asmuch as he grants them a being in nature Substances for as much as they are per se existentes not inhaering like accidences in any Material or Immaterial entity if then Substance not Material nor Inhaering they must be Incorporeal and Immaterial and if Immaterial then Intellectual as hath been said whence cometh their name Intelligenâ—ae which is attributed to these spiritual essences by the heathen Philosophers and that they are finite in power and perfection their creation is an argument for no created substance is infinite but created they are and all of them though not all alike in a necessary and an Essential order among themselves depending one upon another and all upon one as head which is God whom Aristotle calls intelligentia prima And thus much of the Nature and Essences of Angells and Separated Souls by the light of Nature what they are now of their Operations what they do The power of Angells and Souls abstracted Of the power of Angels Forms abstracted in their unstanding is seen in three things viz. in their Understanding in their Will and in their External Actions and Operations as for the power of their Understanding for as much as wee have proved them to be Intelligences Immaterial and of an Intellectual Nature it must needs follow they have in them the Act and Operation of knowledge and this in a far more eminent manner than any Rational Soul in this life by it Natural strength can attain unto wee shall first speak of the Act and manner of knowing themselves then of their Act and manner of knowing others The faculty of knowing themselves Every created Intellectual spirit hath this power to know it self which is not difficult to demonstrate by Natural Reason since every Intellectual Spirit is of it own nature Intelligible yea of it self actually Intelligible and a proportionate Object to any Understanding much more to it own therefore doth e-Intellectual Spirit actually know it self yea with an Intuitive Quidditative and Comprehensible knowledge know it self and is known by it self And how The manner of knowledge which it hath of it self is not as ours in this life per species impressas by Intelligible Forms imprinted of some outward Object nor as it knows other things per species congenitas innatas but it knows it self per propriam subst antiam by its own substance It needs no Accidental Form to represent it self by but every spiritual substance knows it self by its own substance as an Adaequate and proportionate Intelligible Object closely conjoyned to it own Understanding this is the way of knowing themselves God is known by all Intellectual Spirits after the same manner they know themselves by their own Substance Their power of knowing God and how and God by it as their Cause Principle and Author no other Spiritual or Corporeal substance is known this way save onely God yet is not this knowledge God of a proper Quiditative adn Comprehensive but an Improper Imperfect and confused Science for God cannot properly be known as he is in himself of any creature either by his Substance or proper Form who is Incomprehensible by any finite Power much less perfectly known by the proper substance of any Intellectual creature which is but a very imperfect Analogical representation of the Divine Nature Therefore when it is said God is known by the proper substance of any creature it is not to be understood of such a Quidditative knowledge whereby he is known as he is in himself but a knowledge of God per substantiam tanqnam per effectum as the Cause is known by the Effect and thus the Angelical Natures know God by their substance yet as the Effect of such a Cause which standeth with very good Reason for if here we may attain to the knowledge of God in this life by Effects if the invisible things of him from the creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead much more and in a more eminent manner may Angelical Spirits and Separated substances know God by their own Substances as by Effects for as they know their own substances so must they know them to be Effects necessarily and Essentially depending upon God and so by their own Substance as by the noblest Effect made after the Image and likeness of God may they Naturally attain to the knowledge of their Maker Of their knowing others and how But the knowledge which Angels and separated substances have one of another and of other inferior creatures is after another manner not per substantiam but per speciem by Intelligible Forms nor are these Forms imprinted by any outward Object presented to the Senses and so to the Phantasie but are Innate Connatural and ingendred together with their Nature and altogether Intelligible The difference twixt Sensitive Rational and meer intellectual knowledge True it is the Sensitive knowledge is per speciem as well as the Intellectual but perfecter the Intellectual than the Sensitive and the Angelical perfecter than the Humane the Sensitive creatures know nothing but per species and those of Objects singular it knoweth nothing of Universals the Intellectual know per species too but by those he understandeth Universals as well as Singulars all à genere generalissimo ad infimam speciem as for example when we conceive in our mind Substance which is the highest Genus in the Scale of the Predicaments and understand it aright we understand also all its Species under it the whole with all its parts so the Intellectual creatures know per speciem but such as represents some Universal Nature with all its Singulars the Genus with its Species the whole with its parts thus the Intellectual creatures excel the Sensitive in the manner of knowing per speciem And as the Intellectual excel the Sensitive so do they differ in excellencie among themselves the Humane from the Angelical and abstracted Intelligences and these one from another the Separated substances know that at once unico intuitu by one and the same Form which we cannot but by many several Forms running over the Cause with its Effects the Universal Nature with its Singulars with one simple aspect and apprehension which we cannot but under many and divers Conceptions and notions And thus much touching the Operation of the Angelical Intellect Now of their Will and Freedom Where there is Knowledge there is Desire and Appetite where there is no