must only be owing to such divine Revelations Before we speak of which particularly we shall in the next place give some account of the three main branches of our present Methode SECT II. A brief description of the Illuminative Purgative and Vnitive way in Religion 1. THE seeds of Religion being sown in the heart by God himselfe and some smaller and dimmer strictures cast into man by the same hand directing man to God it is the duty of every one to improve the same by orderly progressions to the measure of the stature of Christ as the Apostle speaks Ephes 4. To this end Antiquity not without competent grounds in Holy Scripture hath pitched upon three more considerable states of a Christian and ascents of the Soul towards God by Religion though not absolute yet necessary to Salvation For Saint Johns words 1 Epist 12 13 14. seem to tend to this distinguishing little Children Young Men and Old Men or Beginners Proficients and Perfect not so absolute as God may not finde fault with yet so as before man they may be irreprehensible and allowable by God according to the scantlings and infirmities of Flesh and Blood. And agreeable to this Cassian in his Collations with some others have observed that Solomon wrote three Books One for instruction and illumination in wisdome which we commonly call the Book of Proverbs initiating young beginners in the knowledge and fear of God which is there called the beginning of Wisdome and good understanding laying the foundation to eternal Life The other Book of Solomon called Ecclesiastes represents to the eye and understanding the vanities of the world and the pollutions of earthly joyes with a tacite disswasion from the use of them to the dishonour of God which performed introduceth a man to the third and last degree of perfection in this world contemplation of God and divine matters whereby such a sensation of the divine goodness is so far wrought in the Soule that it becometh united more entirely with God which we call the Vnitive way and seems to be figured out to us by that Song of Songs called commonly Solomons And this threefold Cord binding the Soule to God seemeth to have some little insinuation made to us from the wisdome of the world the Ancient Pythagoreans teaching three manner of wayes of attaining happinesse Labour and Action about Vertue Meditation conducting to Knowledge of God and Love of God which is the true conjunction of the Soule with God. 2. Such concurrence then there being of divine and humane wisdome to justifie such a partition of Religion no wonder that the reputed Dionysius the Areopagite took hold of such an occasion given to him to commend this tripartite doctrine of the Illuminative Purgative and Unitive way of serving God in which many have imitated him and much and perhaps too far advanced it From whom I take the libertie so far to varie as to make Illumination the foundation and first step to all regular ascent to Godward as proceeding from that faith which is the foundation of all Christian graces For by it we come to have the eyes of our understanding opened and judge our selves and purge our selves and fit our selves for an higher and neerer conjunction with God as will appear more fully hereafter SECT III. Of the necessitie and use of Illumination and of Faith with its subordinate graces properly conducing thereunto 1. FAmous is the distinction of St. Paul of Theologicall Vertues into Faith Hope and Charitie as of them upon which all other Christian duties and vertues are founded and move towards that perfection competible to believers in this life Faith illuminating Hope purging and Charitie or love of God uniting us unto God. For the naturall man is blinde and cannot see afar off as St. Peter teaches us And naturally we all lye polluted in our blood and so naturally are aliens from God and unreconcileable by any other name or meanes but that of Christ Jesus in whome to believe is to know God and our selves For as the Wise man saith Proverbs 19. 2. That the soule should be without knowledge is not good Faith with Christians begetteth knowledge properly divine in Christians being the light and eye both of the soule regenerate So that as it is not possible for the blinde man to work any curious work without the use of his eyes but every act tending that way must be a fault and errour For how can it be expected that any man should sew well that cannot thread his needle so they on whom the light of the Gospell shineth not who are not enlightened The first thing that God produced in creating the world was light not that he absolutely needed it but that the creatures did and to intimate unto us the order of true Regeneration that it must begin with Illumination And therefore God who more immediately of old revealed himselfe to his chosen servants did in following ages set up and fix a light in his Church the written word of God which received by faith should become a constant Guide to our Feet and Lanthorne to our Pathes passing through this dark Vale towards the Mount and true City of God. 2. For without this the Philosophers of this world professing themselves as St. Paul speaks Rom 1. 22. wise became fools erring in the very first step and prime principle of divine knowledge which teaches the only true God they for their part in groping after God changing the glorie of the incorcorruptible God into an Image made like unto corruptible man as St. Paul allso observeth v. 23. which is much the same as to turne the image or very substance of man into God. But when it pleased God that the Day-star should arise in our hearts as St. Peter speaks which is Christ revealed to the world and minds of men and when as St. Paul speaks 2 Corinth 4. 6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ then did the shadowes of darknesse and ignorance flee away Holy David having foretold of this when he said Psalm 36. In thy light shall we see light So that as Christ saith of himselfe He that gathereth not with me scattereth in like manner may it truly be said Whoso enlighteneth not with by and from him darkeneth as it happened to those subtile and wise disputants Jobs Friends Job 38. who darkened counsell by words without knowledge 3. And too near do they approach to the like errour who darkening of late the doctrine of Faith and the use of it imagine the strong perswasion they have of the goodnesse of God and Grace of Christ sufficient to the great end of light and salvation and that the Instrument whereby they should work is the work it self to be performed by them and such in which a man might acquiesce as having fulfill'd the whole Will of God and thereupon entertain such a perswasion
Possessions And I can think little more reverently of the frequentation of Visions and Revelations celebrated in the Lives of those three famous Women published together viz. Hildegardis Elizabeth Micthildis which afford us such instances by bushells as it were I will not instance in Jacobus de Voragine his Golden Legend nor Caesarius Heiberstachius as I could to the great disadvantage of that Cause which was intended to be advanced thereby as such at which the modester and graver of the Roman Communion need not any other to put them upon blushing at they doe it of themselves But when I read in the Visions of Katharine of Sienna sainted a perpetuall storie of God himselfe appearing to her and preaching in person to her almost through the whole book though I like the Sermon very well and must needs acknowledge the Documents deliver'd to be many of them very Divine and usefull I cannot assent unto the Scene there given us If these Revelations as we say of Phanaticall and pretended Inspirations and gifts of Prayer in Publick were so Divine as reputed and affirmed why doe they not become Canonicall Why are they not equallized to the Holy Scriptures But things are not come to that height thankes be to God unlesse with them who glorying immodestly of a Light within them and the Word and Will and Wisdome of God given into them contemne the written Word themselves for this very reason becoming suspected convicted and detestable 10. But those Visions which are so practicall and grosse as that they end as in their consummation in the gratifying of our senses outward and them the grossest overthrow in my opinion the spiritualnesse and even the honesty of Revelations and notably shake the reputation of that Religion which countenances them If it were recorded only in an unapproved Author what I finde in the Sermon of an eminent Preacher Granatensis Vol. 5. pag. 387. concerning the same Katharine of Sienna Granatens Vol. 5. Conc. 3. in Cathar pag. 387. it might have been lesse scandalous to read of the great and frequent familiarity between Christ and her so that termes of wooing passed between them for a long time till at length she was sensibly espoused to him but what were the consequences of that Wedding I know not This to my apprehension is a true consequence of such Revelations that it must be the Devill rather than Christ that so appeared and led away a silly Woman laden with sinne in the midst of her profession of Sanctity or that these Talemongers have shamefully belied that reputed Saint And on the other side the like instances might be given of such who were so vehemently devoted to the Virgin Mary as to win her love so far as to condescend to suffer her breasts to be handled by her Saints A little more cleanly and credible is that story in the Remains of Gregorie Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neocaesarea of an Exposition of the Faith which he received from Saint John the Evangelist by the meanes of Mary the Mother of God. But the Romanists themselves are so modest we thank them as not to hold it to be the same we now have under that name And we are so bold to tell them that their Visions Miracles and Revelations so much sometimes with the ignorant sort boasted of have done them more discredit with the wiser than good or honour 11. And to these another note of true and false Illuminations and Alluminations which I may call all outward Discoveries made to the senses may be that made by the observation of the Masters of such Learning That in the true and near approach of God and his Holy Spirit to the sense outward or minde inward first great trouble surprisement consternation and deep humiliation are wrought upon the spirit of him the Lord vouchsafes so to honour with his presence as it appears by Ezechiell the Prophet Daniell and before them by Manoah who were struck with dread and confusion at the Revelations made unto them as likewise was the Blessed Virgin at the aspect and Annunciation of the Angell Gabriell but in the winding up and conclusion they were all refreshed and comforted aboundantly On the contrary the specious Pageantry and Insinuations of Evill Angells are begun with great delight of the deluded minde and in the conclusion bring shame sorrow and confusion answerable indeed to the method of the tempter in all other Cases in which the good Wine is brought forth first of which when men have well drunk followes the bad but Christ first sets before his faithfull servants the bad and keepeth the best to the last of all that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to doe thee Good at the latter end as it is said Deuteron 8. ver 16. Brisk Pert and vaunting are the gifted by Evill Spirits reflecting upon such their perfections above others but modest humble and grave are they who are indeed taught of God. 12. And thus having briefly prepared the true Christian with a prospect given him of the nature use and necessitie of true Spirituall Illuminations translating him out of the Kingdome of darknesse into the marvellous light of saving Knowledge and Faith before due progresse can be made to the life and power of Faith in holy Conversation and likewise shewed the hazards of miscarrying through mistaken Light I proceed to the Second Part of Christian walking with God by walking according to that Light consisting principally in Spirituall Purgation or Sanctification A Prayer for Spirituall Illumination O Allmighty God and Heavenly Father the Light and life of the world lying in darknesse Who by thy Son Jesus Christ coming into the world enlightenest every one that cometh into the world and whome to know is eternall Life But who can know thee the Father but the Son and he to whome he shall reveale him and yet none can come unto the Son unlesse the Father draw him and none doth the Father draw unto him but by his holy Spirit teaching all things Send down I beseech thee that Spirit of light life and truth into my minde and heart that they may preserve me prevent and informe me and rule me that by that key of knowledge the door of my heart may be opened and the eyes of my understanding to perceive the things of God which are only spiritually discerned and that I may not love darknesse rather than light because my deeds are evill But grant that in thy light I may see Light and know how to choose the good and refuse the Evill not calling darknesse light nor light darknesse nor bitter sweet nor sweet bitter nor good evill nor evill good Various are the Mazes and Labyrinths of this World and many are lost in them Difficult is the road and strait is the way that leadeth unto trueth and life and few there be that find them Dangerous it is to lean to mine own understanding or wisdome who am but of yesterday and know nothing as I ought
they presently feel most grievous torments And this I rehearse verily believing that God by his holy Spirit doth elevate some men so extraordinarily as that they exceed humane order in contemplations and sensations heavenly and that evill Spirits may counterfeit notably the same effects in their Servants And hereupon I leave these few Rules to all sober faithfull and devout Christians tending to the discerning of Spirits good and evill 5. First they who pursue the great meanes ordained of God to arrive at the heighth of the Love of God uniting them to God and causing an acquiescence and rest in him so that in effect their reasons and senses naturall inconsisting with such perfection should be lost in God and in Christ and they live in the world undisturbed by it are laudably and safely extaticall 6. Secondly That they who may have surpassed others in the exercise of Christian Vertues and the Unitive Way with God and no wayes aim at such Perfections or desire them as at the best not making the Soule more good but more great rather and not more dear or acceptable to him which should be every prime Christians studie and endeavour may have exaltations of this nature which importunately coveted may provoke God to deliver them over to delusions of evill Spirits 7. Thirdly Seeing counterfeit Ware comes too often under the countenance and resemblance of what is pure and passing good the soundnesse of the faith professed by such is not proved by such excesses but such excesses must be rather judged by the Law and Testimonie of God as Isaiah speakes Chap. 8. upon which Faith is grounded and by which it is directed For no otherwise true is that description of Extasies given by that auncient Authour called Dionysius the Areopagite That Extasies are a wisdome putting a man besides himselfe than that suspension or absorption of naturall knowledge and understanding is occasioned by the dominion of divine Irradiations truely so called So that this excesse of Light and Love must be it selfe subject to tryall and that twofold principally the one taken from the Antecedent and the other from the Consequent Circumstances For if sobernesse of believing and divinenesse of behaving our selves lead not to these Extasies they are spurious and dangerous Again if such transported mindes thereupon fall into unreasonable unjust or ridiculous actions inconsistent with the gravitie and puritie of the divine Presence there supposed it is but reasonable to suspect the Scene to be managed by idle Spirits For Rapts of a Royall stamp are such as Gerson describes An experimentall knowledge of God obtained by a conjunction of spirituall affection Which Unitive and experimentall knowledge may be had without the disorder of the naturall understanding and may allso dissetle it so as to depend for some time wholly upon Gods supportation and transportation and that especially in the estimation of the world and common judgements For thus was Christ judged to be Mark 3. 21. and that by his own Friends besides himselfe and Saint Paul allso by Festus and by some other Believers as may be gathered from 2 Corinth 5. 13. SECT IV. Of the Vnion of the Soule with God by Divine Contemplation and Meditation with some instances of particular Subjects of this latter 1. WHEN Meditation and Contemplation are distinguished as sometimes they are Contemplation may be said to be directed immediately to God and the fixing of the minde and heart on him and from and through him to cast an eye on the Creatures and the various acts of his Providence in which he is seen allso with an Evening Light and Knowledge as he is with a Morning Light as Saint Austin was wont to speak by that immediate Intuition which yet properly is to be attained onely in Heaven But Meditation is the consideration of created things not so much as they are in themselves which is the employment of naturall Philosophers but as they are effects of a Divine and supernaturall Power and designed to the assistance of duller and weaker Eyes which are not able to behold the Glorie of God but as men doe the beauty of the Sun in Water And yet from hence ascent is made to a faithfull and fruitfull apprehension of God himselfe where the Soule mounted as was Peter James and John at the transfiguration of Christ desireth to abide and have its residence for ever 2. But Grace and Goodnesse here being in their minoritie yea and under Tutours and Governours as the Apostle speakes Galat 4. 2. We are not to take possession of the promised and expected Inheritance in this life But the Methode hereunto is this which we finde exemplified in David speaking thus Psalm 17. I will behold thy face in righteousnesse here when I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likenesse For as Saint Paul allso saith 1 Corinth 13. 12. 2 Corinth 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glorie of the Lord are changed as into the same Image from glorie to glorie even as by the Spirit of the Lord meaning hereby that the Spirit of God concurring with the Glasse of Gods Creatures and his revealed Word gives us a true but a distant and so dimme representation of God as through Perspectives And these to improve to the best degree and advantage is the great businesse of our present state here as whereby we are dayly wrought to a conformity to the Image of Christ and God defaced in us and returne unto his likenesse and a liking of him which two are both Unitive of us to God and actuall Union with him according to our present capacity For it is true in Religion what Philosophie in her Sphere teaches that the Understanding is made all things answerable to its Object the minde of man wonderfully conforming it selfe to such things as are brought unto it by the Ear or Eye and is in a manner figured by them as we see that Water admitting any Body more solid than it selfe into it selfe gives way to it and receives the shape thereof within it selfe as doth the Air allso though not so visibly to our sense So the minde of man contemplating and conceiving God and Divine matters is formed or conformed to the same morally loosing its naturall shape and posture and propensities which is thus expressed by Saint Paul Rom. 12. 2. And be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minde that ye may prove what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of God. For instance a man hearing and taking pleasure in absurd riotous and obscene Discourses or Books as is in part noted before is conformed thereunto and corrupted therewith the Images of things so imbibed or impressed being with great difficulty to be removed and with great facility and promptitude stirring up or at least yielding to sinfull temptations as occasion shall be offered agreeably And so in mens reading of the Histories of far and unknown Countries and the strange fruits of
reward of Good and Evill done now in the body is another article of our faith not demonstrable by the wisdome of this world but discerned by Revelation 15. To this likewise appertains the knowledge which Faith teacheth us of the Second coming of Christ in glorie and Justice to be the Great Judge of Quick and Dead bringing his reward with him so that they who have done good shall goe into life eternall and they that have done evill into everlasting fire 16. Lastly as the nerve and bond of our Faith we are by Gods Holy Word taught assuredly that God hath two Cities or Societies in this world of his own Constitution and not framed by the will or power of Man. The one is that Civill Government wherein God hath set his Delegates to maintain order and unitie by the due administration of Justice to whom men are to be subject as the Ministers of God sent to those ends The other is the Church of Christ or companie of true Believers of whom Christ is the supreme Head From whom the whole bodie fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the bodie unto the edifying it selfe in love Ephes 4. 16. And it being impossible that Faith it selfe should subsist long the Church being dissolved and it not being possible the Church should not be dissolved where there is no order of Superiour and Inferiour nor possible that such order should be preserved without subjection and obedience the Catholique Church is to be believed to be holy and obeyed as our Guide and Governour and so is every particular Church managed by lawfully succeeding Pastours to be reverenced and obeyed untill such time that they or it be convicted of some grosse errour and defection from Christ and not only till all exceptions made against them be resolved to our mindes So that enviously and proudly to oppose that Hierarchy instituted by Christ or the precepts delivered by them for the conservation of the Bodie in faith and worship of God is to resist God and not man and to make themselves obnoxious for officiousnesse without authority received of God to shame and perdition 5. And this Abstract of knowledge given us by God in his Revealed Word I held very requisite to premise as the grounds of our Christian faith and as so many instances of his singular favour to his Elect ones in discovering unto them such mysteries as the Princes of this world were and are ignorant of and we might walke worthy of such light given us And to these of a speculative nature might we adde those of the practicall order whereby God doth teach us above the doctrines of men not only not to commit such things which are dishonest unjust unreasonable filthy and the like but not so much as to desire them and that inward concupiscence of evill is a sin condemned by God however tolerated by humane Lawes either because they doe not actually break the peace of the Common-wealth or because such close iniquities cannot come under the cognizance of humane judicature But God searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and judges the inward motions of the soule as our faith tells us The summe of which knowledge is given us by St. Paul Rom. 7. 7. when as learned as he was he tells us I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet So that from hence we may discerne the truth of what David saith Psal 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule The Testimonie of the Lord is sure making wise the simple And again v. 8. The Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes And what David saith there and elsewhere Solomon in his Book of Proverbs more fully confirmeth and especially in the first Chapter as in the beginning giving us the Subject of the ensuing Treatise To know wisdome and instruction To perceive words of understanding to receive the instruction of wisdome justice and judgement and equitie To give subtilty to the simple to the young man knowledge and discretion So foolish are they and ignorant who out of mistaken greatnesse and Gallantry and presumption of knowledge falsely so called are prone to despise the Revelations of Allmighty God and establish their own imaginations serviceable to their Lusts and scandalous manners falling thereby under the just censure of the wisest of Men Prov. 1. 7. Fools despise wisdome and instruction the reason whereof is because it is their enemie in the unrighteous and unreasonable courses they choose to themselves verifying what our Saviour Christ saith John 9. 41. of the haughty Pharisees If ye were blinde i. e. through unaffected and involuntarie ignorance ye should have no sin but now ye say We see therefore your sin remaineth SECT V. Of the Grace and Act of Faith leading to Illumination and of the difficulties and means of believing 1. NOW we proceed to the second sense of Faith mentioned before and that is the Grace or Gift or both by which we believe or the next disposition of the minde towards Illumination For as it is in nature so likewise is it in the case of Religion To him that is naturally blinde and discerneth nothing exteriour objects are in themselves as visible as they are to him who hath the perfect use of his eyes and seeth all things duly offered to his sight but the indisposition of the organe hindereth the exercise of the same So we finde that what is presented alike to all mens understanding and faith hath not the like effect upon men to apprehend or believe what is spiritually discerned 2. One reason whereof may well be that which our Catechisme directed by Gods holy Word assures us of viz. that we were borne in sin of which state blindnesse is a principall part So that as it seemed an incredible thing to the Jewes John the 9th that Christ should open the eyes of him that was borne blinde may it seem one of the greatest difficulties to us that being so naturally ignorant and averse to spirituall things we should be cured of so great a maladie But the resolution of this doubt is given us by Christ himselfe in the same Chapter v. 39. saying For judgement am I come into this world that they who see not might see and that they who see might be blinde Christ therefore calleth himself the light of the world John 5. 8. yea and more than so John 1. 9. according to the testimonie given of him by John the Baptist He was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world that is all men that come into the world and are enlightened by him only they are enlightened 3. And when it so falls out that men are not the better for the light offered to them and shining before them a reason thereof is to be fetched from themselves and the depravation of their own will and
Christ in the first place and derived unto his faithfull members from him the head mentioned by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 11. such as Quick understanding Wisdome Counsell Might or Fortitude Knowledge and the fear of the Lord and if there be any others distinct from these into which quarrell I will not now enter surely they are the speciall gifts of God given unto man for his instruction direction guidance and assistance in the affairs of his soule SECT VII Of Illumination reflexive whereby a Christian soule comes to the knowledge of its selfe in its Spirituall state 1. BY the Book of Nature a man attains to many rare and usefull things and especially of God and by common revelation in holy Scriptures may the mysteries of God and Godlinesse be made known unto him all which may be said to be necessary and usefull but scarce otherwise than as they lead him to the knowledge of himselfe and the state of his soule towards God to which a twofold Revelation is required The first common to all Christians declaring the Doctrine of Faith and rules of holy Life principles of well believing and doing But the second we are taught to be more necessary than the first that is such a knowledge or rather sense of a mans particular and inward man which tends to a censuring and condemning himselfe or a peaceable and comfortable perswasion of such a state of Grace and Gods favour as ends in immortall Blisse 2. And as our Saviour Christ saith What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soule So may we say What will it profit a Christian to know the whole world and to be ignorant of his own soule For to know the Heavens themselves and their nature and number and various motions is no heavenly knowledge And to know God himselfe by extraordinary speculations is no Godly knowledge of it selfe but the knowledge of a mans selfe in the particular relations he hath to God and Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the world and of himselfe especially For this knowledge God seems to reserve to himselfe to be communicated at his pleasure For as Christ himselfe teaches us Matth. 11. 27. No man knoweth the Son but the Father and no man knoweth the Father save the Son and he to whom soever the Son will reveale him it may no lesse truly be said No man knoweth himselfe in his Religious or Spirituall capacities but he to whom God hath revealed himselfe For this kinde of knowledge a man is as averse to as he is prone to naturall knowledge by industrious speculation For who desires to finde an hole or spot in his own Coat Yea who can patiently be told of any blemish in his Face that his Nose is too bigge and that his Eyes are too little or that his Face is pimpled and high colour'd or that his Mouth is too wide or that one Leg is shorter than another or such like imperfections of nature or deformities And the minde and soule being more neer unto us and valued by us than our visible parts much more troubled are we when any defect is in them noted For as it is observed that Nature hath made all men handsome enough in their own opinion as to their outward person so hath it made all men wise enough vertuous enough and holy enough And though a current principle of Religion teaches many men sometimes and upon some occasions in a manner to acknowledge their weaknesses and imperfections yet if another affirms the like things of them they are much molested and offended conceiving some ill will or spite to be the cause of such censures And men doe naturally but jest with themselves to others when they undervalue themselves in hopes and expectation that such as hear them will take an occasion from thence to refute them by the return of praises and commendations of their worth for that very thing in which they disparaged themselves more than recompensing such defects 3. Religion then and that not in Books but written in the tables of the Heart and affecting rather than advising can alone sufficiently imprint in a man the knowledge of himselfe towards God to which notwithstanding a good preparation is made by Gods Word untill the Grace of God and Illumination truly supernaturall shall open more fully the eyes of the understanding as Saint Paul speaks to a more perfect sense of a mans selfe by the consideration of these Five things What we were not What we were What we are What we ought to be and What we certainly shall be hereafter 4. By what we were not I mean that once we were not at all which Divine Revelation hath only infallibly taught us and determined above the Philosophie of some and against the Philosophie of others And once it was that not so much as in the loyns of Nature man was to be found as all we at present may be said to have been in the loyns of Adam before we appeared in the world For Adam himselfe was no where amongst naturall causes to be found in the most slender being of all untill God had produced him absolutely nothing of it selfe producing only nothing and being worse than that vile lump of earth out of which man was shaped all these things concurring to humble man upon the review of his base extraction by his Mothers side and being no better by his Fathers side God Creatour of all things than other ugly and odious creatures in his eye but much the worse as the masse of humane flesh being leaven'd with the vain cogitations of the minde and inordinate concupiscences and affectations corrupted himselfe above other creatures and by that contagion infecting him With what great blushing and confusion then should we reflect upon our frustrating Gods designe and order which being to be exemplarie in vertue and obedience to God unto other inferiour Creatures have render'd them more vile and disorderly And which is more lamentable as it is most shamefull in the state degencrate into which man is fallen by his free frailty for man to be more puffed up and fansie to himselfe an Empire even while he is tyrannized over by the rebells of his own brest this is that which requires his severest examination and judicature of him and not as the common manner is with modester Christians to shuffle up accounts between God and the soule others taking little notice of one way or other their past perfections or present imperfections and to confesse we are all to blame we have all sinned and are fallen short of the glorie of God and that we generally carrie about us a bodie full of spirituall infirmities and subject to failings and falls But these things touch us not more particularly or that besides the confused masse of sin acknowledged to dwell in us we have some proper and speciall passions or addictions to sin this we either cannot discerne in our selves or through selfe-conceitednesse naturall to all