aggravates the Soul and the earthly Habitation depresses the Vnderstanding ruminating on many things Wisd 9. Yet in both it is sin only which troubles and dims the sight nor does any thing else seem to separate betwixt the Eye and Light betwixt God and Man For as long as we are in this body we are Pilgrims from God Not that the fault is in the Body to wit this body of death which we carry about us but rather because the flesh is the body of sin in which there is no good thing but rather the law of sin Yet sometimes the eye of the body the mote not still remaining in it but being now taken or blown out seems for a while to see dimly the which very thing he who walks spiritually often experiments in the interior eye The wound is not therefore cured because you have drawn out the Sword but then first it is necessary to apply Plaisters and endeavour the Cure Let no man therefore emptying the sink deem that he is forthwith made clean but let him know that he needs yet many purifications Nor must he only be wash'd with water but also be purged and purified by fire that he may say We have passed through fiâ—e and water and thou hast brought us out into refreshing Psal 65. Blessed therefore are the clean of heart for they shall see God Mat. 5. Now indeed through a glass dimly but hereafter face to face to wit when the cleanness of our face shall be consummated that he may exhibit it to himself glorious having neither spot nor wrinckle CHAP. XXVI Of the Peaceable Patient and Peace-maker WHere very opportunely it 's immediately inferr'd Blessed are the Peacemakers because they shall be called the Sons of God For he is a peaceable man who rendring good for good as much as in him is wills no body no hurt Another is Patient who not rendring evil for evil is able to bear with him who does him hurt And there is also a Peace-maker who returning good for ill he is ready to profit him who does him damage The first is a little one and is easily scandalized nor can he that is such an one easily obtain Salvation in this wicked World and full of scandals The second as it is written possesses his Soul in patience The third does not only possess his own Soul but also gains the Souls of many The first as much as is in him has peace The second keeps peace The third makes peace Deservedly therefore he is beatified with the name of Son because he has fulfilled the work of a Son who being not ungrateful after his own reconciliation does also reconcile others to his Father For he who shall have ministred well acquires to himself a good degree nor is there a better degree to be believed in the house of his Father than that of a Son For if Sons then Heirs Heirs indeed of God but Co-heirs with Christ Rom. 8. ver 17. That as he says Where he is there also his Minister may be Joh. 12. v. 26 I have wearied you with the length of my Discourse and have kept you longer than I should have done So that now seeing that modesty does not the very time seems to command an end to my talkativeness Remember notwithstanding the Apostle who upon a time you read protracted his Sermon until midnight And I would to God that I may use his words that you would yet a little bear my folly for I emulate you with the emulation of God 2 Cor 11. CHAP. XXVII A Reprehension of the Ambitious who having not their hearts cleansed presume to pacify God towards others MY little ones who will shew you how to fly from the wrath to come For no body more deserves anger than an enemy counterfeiting himself to be a friend O Judas doest thou with a kiss betray the Son of man one of the same mind with me who together with me didst eat sweet bits who dip'st thy hand with me in the Platter Thou hast no part in that Prayer with which he prays to his Father and says Father forgive them for they know not what they do Lu. 24. Wo be unto you who take away the key not only of Knowledg but also of Authority neither do your selves enter in and you many ways hinder those whom you ought to have introduced For ye take away and do not receive the keys Concerning whom our Lord complains by his Prophet They have reigned and not by me they have been Princes and I have not called them Hos 8. Whence so great a zeal of Superiority whence such an impudency of Ambition whence such a madness of human Presumption would any of you dare to take upon you the Ministeries to invade the Benefices to manage the Affairs of some Earthly Prince he not commanding but even prohibiting of you Neither must thou think God Almighty approves those things which in his great House he suffers from vessels of wrath fit for destruction Many indeed come but consider who is called Mark the order of our Lord's Sermon Blessed says he are the clean of heart because they shall see God Mat. 5. And then Blessed are the Peacemakers because they shall be called the Sons of God Now the Heavenly Father calls those clean of heart who do not seek their own things but the things of Jesus Christ nor what is profitable for themselves but what is profitable for many Peter says he doest thou love me Lord thou knowest that I love thee Feed my Sheep Joh. 21. For when indeed would he commend Sheep so beloved to one that did not love him And this is required of Dispensators that one be found faithful Wo be to unfaithful Ministers who being not themselves yet reconciled as if they were men that lived righteously take upon them the business of reconciling others Wo to the Sons of Wrath who profess themselves Ministers of Grace Wo to the Sons of Wrath who fear not to usurp to themselves the degree and name of Peace-makers Wo to the Sons of Wrath who lying say they are faithful Mediators of Peace that they may eat up the sins of the people Wo to those who living carnally cannot please God and yet presume to undertake to appease him CHAP. XXVIII That some usurp to themselves the degree of Peacemakers WE do not wonder Brethren we who have compassion on the present state of the Church we do not wonder that from the root of the Serpent has issued a Cockatrice We do not wonder if he gather the Vintage of the Lord's Vineyard who transgresses the way ordained by the Lord. For he impudently invades the degree of a Peace-maker and the Office of a Son of God who has not as yet heard the very first Voice of the Lord making him to reflect upon his own heart or if perhaps at any time he has begun to hear it returning back again he ran to the Fig-leaves that he might be hidden by them Wherefore neither has he as
sense of its internal dammages because it is not within it self but in the belly perhaps or under the belly In fine some mens Souls are in their Platters and others in their Coffers where thy treasure is says our Lord there also is thy heart And what wonder if the Soul feel not its own wounds when forgetful of it self and wholly absent from it self it was gone into a far Country But the time will come when returning home to it self it shall understand how cruelly it tore out its own very bowels under the pretext of a miserable hunting Neither indeed could it then be sensible of it when with unsatiable desire catching at the vile prey of a few sorry flyes like the spider it seemed to make Nets of its own Bowels CHAP. V. Of the punishment as well of Soul as Body and fruitless Repentance after death AND this return into it self shall without doubt be at least after death when all the doors of the Body shall be shut up by which it was wont to wander abroad and go forth to busie it self about the figure of this world which passes away so that now it necessarily remains in it self all egress out of it self being now impossible unto it But it will be a sad and most pernicious return and everlasting misery when it shall be able to have repentance but not be able to do any penitential work for when the Body shall be wanting there can be no action and when there shall be no action neither can there be found any satisfaction For to have repentance is to grieve but to do penitential works is the remedy of grief For one that shall want hands can no more lift up his hands unto heaven But whosoever shall not return unto himself before the laying aside of his body must necessarily remain in himself for ever But in what a self In such a self as he shall have made himself in this life unless perhaps he shall sometimes be worse for better shall he never be who is bad for this very Body which now he puts off he must one day receive again not to do penance but to be punished in it when after a certain sort the condition of the flesh and of sin shall be much a-like for as sin shall be able always to be punished but never be expiated or satisfied for so neither in the Body shall the torments possibly be ended nor yet the Body be consumed with the torments Deservedly indeed shall everlasting vengeance and rage be against the sinner because his fault can never be blotted out and neither shall the substance of his flesh fail lest together with it the affliction of his flesh should be forced to fail also My dearest Brethren he that fears these things is cautious to avoid them but he that slights them falls into them CHAP. VI. That the worm of Conscience ought here to be felt and by little and little extinguished and not to be cherished and nourished to immortality THAT therefore we may return to the Voice we spoke of above whilst there is a way open thither whither his Salvation shews us who with so great piety and compassion calls back thither Prevaricators Nor in the mean time let it be irksome to feel the bitings of the internal Worm nor let a dangerous sowerness of mind or a pernicious softness prevail with us to dissemble our present trouble Then the Worm is best felt when there is also a possible capacity of choaking it Therefore let it bite now that it may die and by little and little cease to bite In the mean time by biting let it gnaw upon putrefaction that gnawing upon it it may consume it and it self altogether with it be consumed and not be nourished to immortality Their worm says he shall not die and their fire shall not be put out Isa 66. Who shall be able to endure from the face of those bitings For at present many little Consolations do mitigate the torture of the reprehending Conscience God is good not suffering us to be tempted above our strength nor does he suffer this worm to molest and vex us beyond all measure especially in the beginnings of our Conversion he supples our wounds with the Oil of Mercy that neither the quantity of our Disease nor the difficulty of its Cure may be further made known to us than is expedient but rather a certain facility seems to smile upon us which afterwards vanishes away when now to him that has his senses exercised a strong Combat is given that he may overcome and learn that Wisdom is powerful over all In the mean time he that hears the Voice of the Lord Return to your heart O ye Prevaricators and finds so many obscenities in his inward Bed-chamber he 's very busy in searching every corner and being very curious he seeks by what passage all this filth flowed in and without any great difficulty the hole yea the holes are manifest unto him But neither is this consideration cause of a little grief unto him when that through his own windows death is found to have entred For that the curiosity of the eyes seems to have let in much filth the itching of the ears much and much also the pleasure of Smelling Tasting and Touching For as for spiritual vices of which are made mention above he being carnal hardly yet examines them as they are Whence it comes to pass that he has less sense or none at all of those things which are more grievous nor is he bitten so much with the remembrance of Pride and Envy as with the remembrance of certain flagitious and facinorous acts CHAP. VII That to some it seems easy for man's will to obey the Divine Voice AND lo again a Voice out of the Clouds saying Thou hast sinned Peace And what is said is to this purpose Now the sink overflowing fills the House with an intolerable stench and whilst as yet the ordures are continually flowing in in vain doest thou go about to pump them out to do pennance whilst thou doest not leave off to sin For who can approve of their Fasts who fast for strife and contention and impiously smite with the fist yea their own wills and pleasures are found in them Such is not the Fast which I have chosen says the Lord Isa 58. Shut the windows of death stop up diligently all the holes and passages and so at length no new ordure entring in thou wilt be able to purge out the old And the poor ignorant man unexperienced in spiritual exercises thinks what is now commanded is easily fulfilled for what should hinder me says he that I should not be able to command the members of my own body Instantly then he lays a command of fasting upon his gluttonous appetite forbids excess in drinking charges his ears to be stopt against hearing of blood turns away his eyes lest they should see vanity he stretches out his hands not to covetousness but rather to giving of
Alms of which also perhaps he will require labour prohibiting them theft as it is written He that stole now let him not steal but rather labour with his hands that which is good that he may have to give to him that is in necessity Eph. 4. But whilst he is thus promulgating Laws and proposing Decrees to all his members on the sudden they interrupt his commanding Voice and unanimously exclaim Whence this new Religion You command to do as best likes you But there shall be one found that will oppose your new Decrees that will contradict your new Laws But who 's that say you And 't is answered to wit she the Paralytick that lies sick at home and is sadly tormented For she it is if you have not forgotten whom you have long siince ordered us to serve to wit to obey her concupiscences Miserable creature at this Voice he waxed pale and with confusion held his peace For his Spirit was troubled at it But the members of his body forthwith address themselves to their unhappy Mistress that they may accuse their cruel Master and complain of his too severe commands Gluttony complains that she 's commanded the mean of a spare diet and prohibited the pleasure of surfeiting and drunkenness The eyes complain a charge is laid upon them to weep and all wanton looks forbidden them The several members going on in these and such like complaints the will is awakened and vehemently exasperated exclaims what is this a Dream or a Fable that you tell me But then the tongue having gotten a fit opportunity for its complaint in very deed says it so it is as you have heard For I also am commanded to abstain from fables and lies and must henceforth speak nothing but what 's serious and absolutely necessary CHAP. VIII How the will of man by Gluttony Curiosity and Pride and by all the senses of the Body rebels against the Divine Voice AT this the old Beldam raging mad leaps out of the Bed and forgetting all her sickness comes forth with her hair about her ears her garment rent her breasts naked scratching her wounds gnashing her teeth and infecting the very air with her virulent breath If there yet remain any thing of reason in the Sinner how can he be but wholly confounded at such a sad meeting and attack of the miserable will as this What says she is this your Conjugal Faith and Fidelity do you thus compassionate my sorrows Is this your forbearing to add grief to my wounds Perhaps it seemed to you that something of my too great Dowry was to be taken from me but this being taken away what 's left me This is all you gave to me miserable Paralytick and you did once know how all its Services were distributed But now if perhaps you have forgotten the triple malignity of this worst of Diseases of which I am sick yet I have not forgotten it For I am Voluptuous I am Curious I am Ambitious and by reason of these three Ulcers there is no soundness in me from the sole of my foot to the crown of my head Therefore my jaws and the obscener parts of my body are deputed to pleasure seeing you will needs have me recount all particulars a new The wandring foot and undisciplin'd eye serve Curiosity The ears and tongue are at the beck of Vanity whilst by the former the oil of Sinners makes fat my head and by the other I my self supply when they seem to have come short or to have done too little in my praises For I am greatly delighted both to receive praises from others and as opportunity serves to praise my self also ever desiring to be commended and extolled by my own mouth and by the mouths of others To which Disease your wit or reason is wont especially to administer very much matter or nouriture Moreover the hands which are free to be moved every way these we do not depute to any special work but they exhibit a very diligent service sometimes to Vanity sometimes to Curiosity and other whiles to Pleasure All which things being so disposed none of them could ever yet in any one thing fully satisfy me because the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing and I wish sometimes when I am beholding something that likes me that my whole body were made an eye or when I am at meat that all my members were turned into jaws And do you now attempt to take from me this little comfort which I in a manner beg Thus she And with indignation and fury going away I am in possession said she and long long will I hold it CHAP. IX How the reasonable part of the Soul being now vexed and afflicted is convinced of the vainly presumed facility and confounded at the difficulty of this matter SO now meer vexation gives understanding to reason now at length the difficulty of this business is in some measure made known now the presumed facility is vanished For it sees the memory is full of unclean filth and it sees other and other ordures in great abundance flowing in it sees the windows which are open to death can by no means be shut and that the over-ruling languid will still commands all notwithstanding all the putrid corruption did flow out of her Ulcers In fine the Soul sees it self defiled and this not by another but by its own body nor from any other than it self But as there is something of the Soul to wit the memory which is infected so the will is that which infects Finally the whole Soul is nothing else but Reason Memory and Will But now even Reason also is found defective and in a certain manner blind for that it has not all this while seen these things and absolutely infirm for that when the matter was discovered it could not prevail to temper and reduce all to order the Memory most foul and noysom the Will languid all over full of horrid Ulcers And least of all the things appertaining to a man there should remain something untouch'd even the Body is become rebellious and all the members so many windows by which death enters into the Soul and without ceasing the confusion encreases more and more CHAP. X. A comfortable Respiration to the poor in Spirit LET every Soul therefore which is such an one hear the Divine Voice and let hear her it with astonishment and admiration saying Blessed are the poor in Spirit because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Who more poor in Spirit than he who in all his Spirit finds no rest finds not where he may lay his head And this is the counsel of Piety that he who is displeased with himself should be pleasing to God and that he who hates his own House to wit an House full of filth and infelicity should be invited to an House of Glory an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens And no wonder if he trembles at the greatness of this condescention
all men vvhom the net shall dravv shall the vessels of the Fishermen receive but it shall happen vvhen they shall be come to shore they shall pick out the good into their vessels but the bad they shall cast avvay Nor yet let us be content with this girding of our loins but let us also light our Lamps and fervorously work that which is good remembring that every tree not only which shall have brought bad fruit but also which shall not have brought good fruit shall be cut down and thrown into the fire to wit into that eternal fire which is prepared for the Devil and his Angels Let us so abstain from evil that we also do good let us seek Peace and not Glory For that is Gods and he will not give it to another My Glory says he I will not give to another Isa 42. And the man after God's heart said Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name give the Glory Psal 123. Let us remember also the Scripture which says If thou rightly offâ—rs and doest not divide rightly thou hast sinned Gen. 4. Brethren the division we have made is right and just let no body find fault with it But if perhaps somebody may be less pleased with it let him know that it is not ours but the Angels For the Angels first sung Glory be to God on hâ—gh and upon earth Peace to men of good will Luke 2. Let us therefore keep Oil in our Vessels lest perhaps which God forbid knocking in vain at the Wedding-Gates now shut we chance to hear a sad word the Bridegroom answering us from within I know you not Still notwithstanding Death lies not only near impiety unfruitfulness and vanity but also neer the entrance of even pleasure Wherefore we have need of fortitude against the temptations of sin that being strong in Faith we may resist the roaring Lion and with this Buckler manfully repel his fiery darts We have need of Justice that we may work that which is good We have need of Prudence lest with the foolish Virgins we be rejected Finally we have need of Temperance lest indulging to sensuality we one day hear what that miserable Epicure when he cried for mercy after all his Junkets and fine Clothes heard Remember Son that thou receivedst good things in thy life and Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Luk. 16. ver 25. In good deed God is terrible in his Counsels about the Sons of men But if he be terrible he is also found merciful whilst he does not hide from us the form of the Judgment that is to be hereafter For the Soul which shall have sinned that shall die and the branch which shall have born no fruit shall be cut off Ezek. 18. v. 4. The Virgin which shall have wanted Oil shall be excluded the Marriage-Feast and he who shall have received good things in this life shall be tormented in the other But if perhaps it happen that in some one all these four things together be found such an estate is in the highest degree desperate CHAP. XVIII That the Spirit being enclined to good the Flesh resists it THese things then and such like things as these Reason interiorly suggests unto the Will and this so much more copiously by how much more perfectly it is instructed by the illumination of the Holy Ghost And happy they indeed whose Wills so yielded and acquiesced in Reason's Council that conceiving from fear were afterwards cherished by the Celestial Promises and in fine brought forth the Spirit of Salvation But perhaps the will shall be found rebellious and obstinate and not only impatient of admonitions but even worse for them harder for threats and more embittered by all the kind of cherishings you can use Nay perhaps she will be found not only nothing moved by the suggestions of reason but perhaps being put into a strange fury may answer saying How long do I endure to hear you prattle your Preaching concerns not me I know that you are crafty but your craft has no place in me And perhaps calling to her all the parts of the Body she commands them more than usually to obey her wonted Concupiscences and to serve her accustomed Wickednesses Hence to wit is that which we learn by daily experiences that they who are deliberating to be converted are more smartly tempted by the concupiscence of the flesh and they are urged more grievously in works of dirt and brick who strive to get out of Egypt and to rid themselves of the Tyrannical Empire of Pharaoh CHAP. XIX That we must Mourn and after Mourning be Comforted BUT I would to God that he who is such an one would forbear sinning and have a care of that terrible depth of which it is written The profane man when he shall have come into the depth of evils contemns Prov. 18. For truly he is cured by a very strong Potion and will easily be endangered unless with great solicitude he study to obey the counsels of his Physitian and to observe his Precepts His tentation is vehement and almost desperate unless he gather together his whole force and convert his whole affection to take compassion on his Soul which he sees to be so piteously miserable and hear the Voice which says Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted Mat. 5. v. 4. Let him mourn abundantly because the time of Mourning is come and these things are sufficient to dissolve him into continual tears Let him mourn but not without an affection of Piety and hope of being comforted Let him consider that no rest is to be found in himself but all full of misery and desolation Let him consider that there is no good thing in his flesh but that also in the wicked World there is nothing but vanity and affliction of Spirit Let him consider that neither within him nor beneath him nor round about him is any consolation to be met with but at least at length let him learn that it is to be sought for above and to be hoped for from above In the mean time let him mourn lamenting with grief let his eyes run streams of tears and let not his eye-lids rest For the dim eye is purged with tears and the sight is sharpned to be able to look upon the clarity of the brightest light CHAP. XX. That after Consolation we are to set our selves to Contemplate Heavenly things FRom this time let him peep through the hole let him look through the lattice let him follow with his eye the comfortable ray and as a diligent imitator of the wise men with light let him seek light For he shall find the place of the admirable Tabernacle where man eats the bread of Angels he shall find the Paradise of Pleasure our Lord's Plantation he shall find the pleasant and flourishing Garden he shall find the seat of Refreshment and shall say O if that miserable Will would but hear my voice
gladly be satiated and have his desire filled Let him begin to hunger after Justice and he cannot but be satisfied Let him desire that Bread of which there is such plenty in his Fathers House and he shall find himself instantly to loath the husks of Hogs Let him study but even a little to experiment the savour of Justice that hereby he may desire it more and more as it is written He that eats me shall still have hunger he that drinks me shall still have thirst Eccl. 24. For this more natural desire and more allied to the Spirit does more vehemently occupy the heart of man and more powerfully expel out of it all other desires So to wit the strong man armed is overcome by one stronger than he so one nail is wont to be driven out by another Blessed therefore are they who hunger and thirst after Justice because they shall be satiated Not indeed with that fulness with which no man shall be satiated and live but with all other things which formerly were unsatiably desired that henceforth the Will ceasing to vindicate the body to her self to serve her former concupiscences may wholly submit it to reason and her self rather urge it to serve Justice unto Sanctification not with less zeal than formerly she made it serve iniquity to iniquity CHAP. XXIII That Sins that have been punished and are not reiterated cannot hurt us BUT now the Will being changed and the Body brought into servitude and so the Fountain being in some measure dried up and the inlet stopt there remains yet a third and an harder thing to be done to wit the purging of the Memory and emptying of the Sink For how shall my life be got out of my memory A vile and thin membrane has wholly imbib'd a strong ink and by what art shall it be blotted out For it has not only dyed the upper superficies but has penetratively sunk into it all In vain should I labour to scratch it out the Paper would be sooner cut in pieces than the sad Characters would be expung'd For perhaps oblivion might be able to destroy my very Memory to wit that losing my senses I might not remember what Sins I have committed But that my memory should remain entire and yet the spots of it should be done out what Rasor could effect it Nothing can do it but the living and efficacious Word more penetrating than any two-edged Sword Thy sins are forgiven thee Mar. 2. v. 5. Let the Pharisee grumble and say Who can forgive sins but God only For he who speaks that to me is God and he shall not be esteemed another from him who has invented every way of discipline and has given it to Jacob his child and to Israel his beloved one Besides this he was seen in our earth and he conversed with men Bar. 3. His pardon blots out sin not indeed that it should not at all abide in the memory but that what formerly was wont both to be in the memory and to infect it may hereafter be so in the memory as it shall by no means discolour or stain it For we remember many sins which we know to have been committed by our selves or others but our own sins only defile us others do not hurt us And why this but because we are singularly ashamed of these and these we fear shall singularly be imputed to us Take away Damnation take away Fear take away Confusion all which a full Pardon absolutely takes away and they shall not only not hurt us but shall also cooperate to our good to make us devoutly return thanks to him who has pardoned them CHAP. XXIV Of Mercy which is promised to the Merciful BUT now to him making supplication for remission it is congruously answered Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Mat. 5. Have pitty therefore on thy Soul who wouldst have God have pitty upon thee Wash thy Bed every night remember to water thy Couch with thy tears If thou hast compassion on thy self if thou labourest in the groans of repentance which is the first degree of mercy thou shalt assuredly obtain mercy But if perhaps thou hast been a great and manifold Sinner and seeks great mercy and a multitude of miserations do thou also strive to magnify and to multiply thy mercy be reconciled unto thy self for thou wast made grievous to thy self because thou wast put contrary to God And this peace being restored in thy own House it is necessary then that it be dilated towards thy Neighbours that last of all thy Beloved may kiss thee with the kiss of his mouth and as it is written Being reconciled thou maist have peace with God Rom. 5. Forgive those who have sinned against thee and it shall be forgiven thee what thou hast sinned Mat. 6. v. 14. Whilst with a secure Conscience thou shalt pray to thy Father and say Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors v. 12. If perhaps thou hast defrauded any one restore if not doubly at least simply what is over and above give to the Poor and shewing mercy thou shalt obtain mercy If thy sins shall be as Scarlet they shall be made white as Snow and if they be red as Vermilion they shall be white as Wooll Isa 2. That thou maist not be confounded for all thy inventions by which thou hast prevaricated and in which thou now blushest give Alms if thou canst not of earthly substance of a good will and all things shall be clean not only thy Reason shall be enlightned and Will corrected but also thy very Memory shall be clean that henceforth thou maist be called to our Lord and maist hear the Voice of him saying Blessed are they whose hearts are clean CHAP. XXV That the Heart is to be cleansed that God may be seen BLessed are the clean of heart because they shall see God Mat. 5. v. 8. It is a great promise Brethren and worthy to be affected with all our desires For this vision is our confirmation as St. John the Apostle says We are now the Sons of God but it has not yet appeared what we shall be We know when he shall appear we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3. v. 2. This vision is Life eternal as Truth it self says in the Gospel This is Life eternal to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Joh. 17. v. 3. Detestable spot which takes away from us the beatifying vision and execrable negligence by which we dissemble the cleansing of that eye For as our corporeal sight is hindred either by some interior humour or by the injection of some exterior dust so also the spiritual sight is sometimes troubled by the allurement of our own flesh and sometimes by worldly curiosity and ambition Which truly is taught us no less by our own proper experience than by the Divine Scriptures where it is written The Body which is corrupted