certainly such a temper is apter for a right conversion then a harsh and sowre constitution of the mind the first is a good mould of earth with ill seed cast into it and so the fruit may be ill while the pregnancy of the earth is good the other is a heath naturally unfruitfull and requires much more manuring to make it beare Wherefore that nature which hath not a kindly pregnancy in it to beare love is not the best mould for the seed in the Gospell for though it may render thirty it can hardly yeeld the increase of a hundred fold in Devotion Certainly we may then very religiously preferre the constitution of such mindes whose powers are best disposed for the act of loving for love as it is the greatest treasure of our soules so is it the only security stands bound to God for all our debts all the other faculties of man seeme to be receivers only and this the discharger of all their accounts but love hath this extraordinary blessing the greater expense it makes upon this occasion the richer it growes for the more our love payes God the more it improves the same estate but we can assigne nothing but this pure species of love to the receipt of heaven Wherefore all empty formalities and unsincere affectations in exteriour exercises that would passe for Devotion are me thinkes like servants that have got on fine clothes of their Masters by which strangers may mistake their quality but their Masters are not deceived by them so these garments and coverings of Devotion may abuse the eye of the world but we know the master of all sanctity distinguishes dissimulation in all the specious similitudes it weareth And I should beleeve a varnished hypocrite may be more offensive to the sight of God then a zealous unvailed idolater for this is but mistaken in God and the other seemeth to suppose God may be mistaken in him and certainly there is nothing more capitall against the lawes of Heaven then counterfeiting the coyne which piety may not improperly be tearmed as being the price and measure of all exchanges between heaven and earth of these false coyners King David sayes They slatter God with their mouth lye unto him with their tongues and he gives them Gods answer thus The Lord shall laugh them to scorn We may conclude then that the sincere love of God is the spirit and soul of Devotion and therefore is to be intire in every severall part of our religious exercises when God dignifies man with similitude to his own image it is the soul not the body that hath this Divine relation so in the service of God which is a consistence of two such parts united of spirit and of matter the spirit and breath of life doth not reside in the materiall part which is sensible religious offices but in the informing and animating part which is Devotion the which answereth to the soule in humanity as I have endeavoured to demonstrate And thus I hope that I have not indecently apparell'd Devotion in the habit of the place it is recommended to clothing it in this soft rayment of passion being to come unto the houses of Kings But now me thinkes I heare some sensuall and voluptuous persons cry out to warne their passions to stand upon their guard objecting that I like a pyrat have thus put up friends colours while I am in chase calling devotion love and passion that it might the easilyer enter our hearts which when it hath done it takes and imprisons all our humane delights To these I may answer that I have put up these colours indeed that those vessels I would speak with might not fly from piety at first sight as from an enemy to pleasure that speaking with them I might shew them how Devotion comming and possessing our mindes doth rather compose the munity then infringe the true liberty of our affections For grace findes Humane Nature like a vessell richly fraught for commerce with Heaven most commonly in a mutiny where the affections that should saile her rise up against their Commander resolving to make spoile of their commodities and to turne to the piracy of sense taking all whereof sensuality can possesse it selfe and if Devotion enter and compose this sedition and convey the affections cheerefully to their direct commerce with Heaven this may be rather thought a delivery then a violation And surely our senses cannot more justly complaine of Devotion as a dispossessor of their properties then wilde people can call a Law-giver a tyrant For piety doth but regulate the functions not ruine the faculties of our senses and licentiousnesse cannot more rightly be called the mindes liberty then nakednesse the bodies freedome For lawes and apparell doe both in their kinds cover natures nakednesse and lawes like clothes impart conveniencies the one to the minde as the other to the body without impeaching the decent and proper exercises of either and so Devotion doth but reduce the wild multitude of humane affections and passions under the Monarchall Government of the love of God under which they may enjoy a more convenient freedome then let loose in their owne confused Anarchy which they confesse when they are converted by God to this belief of their condition that to serve God is to raigne The Fift Treatise Discoursing whether sensible pleasure may consort with Devotion In two Sections §. I. The rectifying our Affections chiefely our love in the sense of beauty UPon the title of this Chapter me thinkes I see our humane affections stand with the same perplexed attention as a condemn'd multitude at the reading of a Proclamation of Grace to some particular specified names each one watching and praying for his owne Thus doe our humane passions seeme now concerned believing themselves all condemn'd by piety each one me thinkes in a frighted and tacit deprecation of their censure is expecting with anexity to know whether Devotion will allow them life and consistence with her edicts The answer to this must be that I shall only put to death the blind and the lame whch are commonly set to keep the strong hold of our corrupted nature against virtue As they were upon the walls of Sion to keep out David Such Devotion must destroy for they are hated by her Soule and are not to be admitted into the Temple Secular justice is allowed a latitude in mercy to which this spirituall judge cannot extend his favour viz. rather to save diverse guilty then to cut off one innocent for Devotion must rather put to death many innocent affections then save one criminall by reason that in this case mercy renders the judge a complice of the crime so that our Devotion must not looke upon the face of any of our affections but judge by the testimony our conscience brings in against them Yet piety is not so inhumane as many may apprehend that know not the nature thereof for it delighteth not in the death of our
of whom I may say with the Apostle That in the midst of a perverse generation they have shined as lights in the world their mindes seeming to be kindes of Spiritual fixed Stars which never altered their distances from the Earth and intended onely the finishing their course at the same time imparting light unto the world by divers irradiations respective to their positions therein either of Prayer or other Edifications Wherefore of such habits of minde the Holy Spirit saith The path of the just is as the shining light that proceedeth even to perfect day which is Contemplation consummated when the day-Star whereby Saint Peter expresseth it shall be risen in our hearts whereof these acts of our intellect seem to be some inchoative or imperfect rays and to give you as fair a view as I can of this abstruse object I shall set it in the most luminous definition I can deliver it out of the mouth of S. Augustine Contemplation is a clear in t 〈…〉 on and a delightful admiration of perspicuous Verities so that the minde in that state may be said to walk in the meridional light of Faith towards the incomprehensible clarity of perfect vision and this light of Grace wherein a pure Contemplative Soul inhabiteth may me thinks be said to hold some such proportion to the purer light of glory she expecteth as the sight which the three Apostles had of Christs Body transfigured on Tabor holds to that they are to have of it glorified in Heaven for as the brightness of Lightning and the cand or of Snow did in some measure represent to them the far transcending lustre and beauty that was to be looked for in his Body beatified so these admirable intellectual Verities which are the objects of a true Contemplative Soul in this life do in some degree figure to it the unexpressible notions rising out of a fruitive Contemplation of the increated Verity insomuch as these elevated Spirits may be conceived to have such a kinde of advantage over others who may also be faithful in lower stations of Christianity as the three Disciples called up to Tabor had of them that were left below the Mountain For certainly this sight must have imprinted in their mindes a more lively and affecting image of the amiableness of glorified Bodies then the others could apprehend But as Christ admitted few even of his Apostles to this sight of him so doth God vouchsafe to select and elevate but very few to this superlative pitch of Contemplation of whom we may say with the Psalmist This is the generation of them that seek the face of the God of Jacob who we know was one of the most eminent in this high vocation feeding on this bread of Angels and having this Spiritual Manna showâ—red down upon him while he was feeding the flocks of others in a servile obligation And holy David in all his exterior bitternesses tasting of this Spiritual reflection saith as it were this Grace to it How great is the multitude of thy sweetness O Lord which thou hast hid for them that fear thee thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face from the disturbance of men This expresseth well their state of minde which is covered from the sight of the world in the secret of Gods face that is in his most private and reserved kindenesses and as God hideth himself in his own inaccessible light so such Souls adhering unto God and becoming as the Apostle â—aith one Spirit are hid to the world in the excessive light of their Graces which common apprehensions cannot penetrate of such mindes we may most peculiarly say Who knoweth the things of such men save the Spirit that is in them which searcheth the deep things of God while their apprehensive faculty perfecteth it self by extracting the pure species of Truth and their affecting power is perfected by transmitting it self exteriorly upon the object that attracteth it Thus the understanding is never satiated by a continual receiving nor the affection ever diminished by an incessant issuing it self out upon the object but doth rather acquire by this perpetual Self-alienation In this admirable commerce doth the true Contemplative Soul negotiate with her own Maker while what is imported from him into the Understanding obligeth the Will to export unto him her faculty of loving and thus knowledge infused draweth forth love and love efused remitteth back fresh illuminations This Angelical correspondence with God the Contemplative Man entertaineth and hath in proportion to his Nature the same priviledge that Angels have when they assume apparent Bodies for their ministery on Earth namely to finde no intermission of their seeing God So in all the exterior offices which the Soul acteth by the ministery of the Body in such persons the Minde doth not remove out of that apprehended presence of God whereof her transitory state is capable insomuch as a profound Contemplator may be said to be never so much alive to this life as when he seemeth to be the most dead to it For in the image of Death when the other powers of his Minde cannot controul his Fancy that may introduce imaginations into him superfluously relative to this life and removed from the scope of all his reasonable cogitations which never move but in a presential reverence of God So that the Natural Man may be said to live in him no longer by the strength or power of his Nature but meerly by the infirmity of it that requireth such a suspension of the Spiritual Man which lives so powerfully in such a person as he seems fully in possession of Christs promise of his Fathers and his coming and making his abâ—de with him which according to the division made by the Holy Ghost of the whole Man may be conceived to be done in this maner The Father residing in that portion called the Soul as it importeth the Origine of all vital operations the Son resting in the Minde as that is the seat of our actual intelligence or understanding and both of them may be said to expirate and breathe forth the Holy Ghost into the Heart as that is taken for the continent of our affections and by this means the whole Man cometh as near the loving God with all his Soul with all his Minde and with all his Heart as this traverse and interposed vail of Flesh and Blood can admit him forgetting with Saint Paul the things that are behinde and stretching forth himself to those that are before by this constant Application preserving the whole Spirit Soul and Body without blame to the coming of our Lord Christ Jesus Considering then the properties of these golden vessels of Charity placed within the outward vale of the Temple and looking continually towards the Propitiatory seated within the inward vale which figured the beatifical vision even their Bodies may be well compared to the grate upon the Altar of Incense from which all the ashes of carnal appetites
fall away down under the Altar it self represented by their mindes from whence the fume of those fragrant Odours of Vocal and Mental Prayer is directed towards the wings of the Cherubims and so what is sweet in the Spirit ascendeth to Heaven and what is unclean in the Flesh falleth to the Earth and doth not remain as a foulness upon the Altar which is kept always bright and odoriferous And in these Temples of the Holy Ghost there is not onely a continual emission of fire from Heaven falling upon the Altar but even a fresh provision of materials to incense upon it that is to say new supplies of Meditations descending from the Father of light from whom the same beam imparteth at once the ardor of love and the light of Science so that this matter can never want that flame nor that flame ever want this fomentation O how incomprehensible is the clarity of the Divine Elsence whereof if the little light shed on us do shine so strangely even in us being as yet but dark lanthorns to carry it how much must those splendors of purity and sanctity radiate which never issue out of it self whereof we have but few or no glances in this imperfect state of Contemplation to wit little or no intelligible perception of the Mysterious light of the glorious Trinity consistent with that most simple Vnity in which the Trinity of persons is comprised and yet the simplicity of the Unity is not at all diminished In which speculative Verity the best plumed Sâ—raphins of our mortal Nature when they soar never so high on these two wings of Grace and Contemplation must cover their faces with these two other of Faith and Wonder singing with the Psalmist I shall be satisfied when thy glory appeareth and in thy light we shall see light §. II. The gradations whereby we ascend ordinarily up to this station I May well suppose that there will be many who being dazled by the radiancy of the faces of these Moses's we have exposed will with the people turn their heads away from this object And I may imagine that some as being taken with the beauty of this light will conclude with the Apostles That it is good to live upon this Mount and may perchance think of making Tabernacles for their abode in this place that is design all the powers of their mindes to the forming in themselves such a state of Contemplation wherefore it may be pertinent to look a little downward upon such subjacent stations as are the direct way up to the top of the Mountain whereunto the nearest conterminate part is that of Speculation and the next to that Lecture and after that Mortification which lieth indeed as the basis of all the elevation and as it hath this property of the ground-work to consist of the most gross matter so hath it this likewise of being the support of the whole erection and in that order I will re-ascend to the summity from whence I have dismounted While the Soul of Man receives no intelligible species but such as are raised from sensible matter and acteth onely by corporeal organs by Natural Reason it is evident why Mortification is requisite for the best extent of her intellectual powers as rendring these passages the clearer through which all images enter into our discursive faculty and also keeping that power the more free and active in all her exercises The purer the glass is the better we see all things in the room and the farther we may see out of the room when we look outward through the glass so both the species that enter into our mindes through clean and unobstructed organs are the clearer and the acts also of our discourse and speculation looking outward towards immaterialities are the more sharp and penetrating I shall not need to argue how much corporeal pleasures and sensualities do obscure the light received by the apprehensive faculty and clog the operations of the reasoning power of the Minde Wherefore even in this Natural respect a convenient suppression of the appetites of the Flesh seemeth the platform of all Spiritual exaltation but we have a firmer supernatural ground whereupon to raise this Conclusion of the requisiteness of Mortification towards speculative gifts the word of the Holy Ghost saying They that are in the flesh cannot please God and if they be removed even from Gods favor they must needs be very distantial from that grace and familiarity which is imparted to Contemplation Saint Paul was allowed so little to think of his body when he was raised to his highest point of illumination as he knew not whether he had any body about him or no at that time And we finde that he took the best course he could all his life to feel the least he might possibly of his body in order whereunto he saith He did not onely chastise his body and keep it in subjection but affirmeth likewise That he did dye daily It seemeth he found no means of clearing the operations of the Soul but by making as it were a quotidian separation between her and the Flesh And me thinks we may say of all Saint Pauls converted life notwithstanding his humility in owning infirmities that which he himself said of some part of it namely Whether this man in Christ lived in his body or out of his body we know not God knoweth so little sense we finde him to have had of his body in point of Mortification and so little impediment by it in Contemplative operations And doth he not say himself That it is not he that liveth but Christ in him and referring to us he declares the requisiteness of Mortification telling us That they that be Christs have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences and if this kinde of crucisixion be requisite even for the practical part of Christianity whereunto all are called much more must it be pertinent to the perfect speculative state thereof to which so few are chosen I am therefore well warranted to lay Mortification as the ground or foot of this Mount of Moria which signifieth the Land of Visions whereunto all such as shall despise ascensions in their heart must take their rise from this foot and remember what was figured by Abrahams leaving his Servants and his Ass afar off when he saw the Mountain and the prohibition of any Beast to come near to Mount Sinai to wit that no carnal or sensual dispositions might presume to approach towards the mysterious lights of God So that whosoever aspired to go up to this mount Moria of Contemplation must be advised to follow Abrahams order to leave afar off all voluptuous and sensual appetites figured by the Servants and the Ass and carry in his hand the Fire and the Sword that is Zeal and Activity for the sacrificing of his Flesh and Blood to the honor of God This is the Fire that he who was typified by Isaac brought into the earth and
those powers of my Minde form some digested Character of what I design which finished Draught of my own thoughts when I shall reade over I shall no longer work upon it but behold the Image I have framed out of the past divisions and compoundings of my thoughts and then my Minde will rest and enjoy my determined notions So that as I do now speculate and shall upon the finishing of these two Characters contemplate them without any farther agitation of my Minde In like maner the state of Speculation is a disquisition of sundry Divine Verities whereby to form some determined notions which are the objects that Contemplation is to be fixed upon in an acquiescent state when the discursive motion is arrived at the term of rest it pointed at and then contemplating the result of our former discoursings we do as it were reade over and enjoy this digest of our Imaginations wherefore as the act of our Comprehending doth excel that of our Reasoning in respect the intellect sees at one look or intuition what the Reason collecteth but by divers circuits of Discourse and so seemeth but a purveyor of what the intelligence possesseth in one instant In like maner the Contemplative state by the same reason transcends the Speculative and 〈◊〉 thinks in such a proportion as the intellect of Angels excelleth that of rational Souls for the first comprehendeth in one act without the tardity of discourse all intelligible species connatural to it and the last is fain to stay upon the abstracting of intelligible species from materialities and the conferring and co 〈…〉 of them with one another by ratiocination before it can settle conclusions wherefore Speculation seemeth to be a Humane act and Contemplation as it were an Angelical These lines have I hope drawn a fair parâ—ition between these two acts of a devout Soul whereby they appear not to be coincident as they are commonly misunderstood although they are co ordinate to one another not that I do presume that God hath obliged himself to this order of transfusing this grace of Contemplation always through the medium of studious Speculation For I am not ignorant of his immediate communicating this hand of intuitive fruition of his Verities to some choyce Souls unqualified for this preparatory course of Reading and Meditation God is admirable in his Saints in manifesting his Grace and Omnipotence by divers maners but as Saint Paul saith Though none 〈…〉 eth the minde of the Lord yet we have the minde of Christ wherefore I have given this direction as I said when I first entred upon it to conduct Travellers in this path which is Christs high way marked for us of Asking Seeking and Knocking and this is the beaten track of his Church which doth not circumscribe God within this method Sometimes the Spirit of the Lord catcheth up some humble illiterate Souls and setteth them immediately upon the top of this Mountain as he did Philip the Deacon at Azâ—â—us but for the most part he conveyeth those he calleth to this land of Visions as he did Abraham by these three days journeys I have gested to you before they come to this high station For God doth commonly carry these Spiritual discoverers which he calleth to take a little sey of the fruits of the Land of Promise all over this course of Spiritual exercises before they come to gather this fruit of Contemplation which seemeth to be a bunch of Grapes of that immense Vintage of Wine whereof the Psalmist speaking saith They shall be inebriated by the fulness of thy house For an inchoative state of Contemplation in this life is as it were a cluster of Grapes of the same Vine to wit the Grace of Christ which afterward is reduced into what was the last intent of the planter that is into the Wine of the Saints perfected Contemplation of the Divine Essence So that having given you clear and practicable instructions in order to the taking a right way towards this state of acquiescence the singular excellencies whereof I have with my best skill pourtraicted unto your judgements and affections I shall adde onely this laudative of the Holy Spirit as very appliable to this happy state of Contemplation Many daughters have gathered together riches but thou hast passed them all Upon these premised Considerations I may conclude the same order observable in the offering up this Spiritual Incense which was held in the preparing and burning the material Incense of the Tabernacle which act was a figure of this our Religious Duty we must then first by Mortification keep clean and fair the grate of the Altar by Lecture and studiousness we are to gather and mix the Gums and Spices of pious Conceptions by Speculation and meditating we must bear and pounce the Odours into a fine powder to wit collect pure and refined images of Verities and then by Contemplation we come to fire and exhale the perfume of the whole Composition By this method we erect our hearts according to those gradations designed by the Psalmist and the Law-giver shall give a blessing when they go thus from vertue to vertue the God of gods shall be seen in Sion §. V. Of the sensible delight springing from this Head of Contemplation as also the close of the whole Work HAving treated the blessedness of the intellectual part of this Contemplative state which may be said to stand for the Soul thereof there remaineth the adjoyning that portion which answereth to the Body in this compound of happiness which is the sensible joy wherewith the affections are replenished which delectable good affecting the sensitive powers is a redundancy or waste falling from the vertue of that Truth which overfloweth in the supremest portion of our Minde in some such maner as the beatitude of the Body is derived from the superfluent riches of the Soul in the state of glory and as the Soul shall then over-pay all the ministerial offices of her Body in this life by the mediatâ—on whereof her powers are now exercised imparting to the Body far more noble capacities So doth the intellect in this life when the minde is in the state of Contemplation superabundantly recompence the ministery of the Senses for the conveyance of those species whereupon the understanding acreth in Lecture and Speculation by far exceeding joys and â—uavities diffused upon the affections such indeed as are not to be conceived unless it be by those that have tasted them whereof the Psalmist saith Blessed is the people that knoweth jubilation upon which words St. Gregory noteth that the Holy Spirit saith Not speaks but knoweth this jubilation because it may be conceived but not fully expressed by the enjoyer of it The Soveraign Contemplator King David by the assistance of the Holy Spirit giveth us the fairest light we have of it when he saith My heart and my flesh have rejoyced in the living God the first whereof imports the satisfaction of the intellectual and the last
waking and comprehending the true nature even of the things wherewith we are the most affected In so much as while the truth is that our life in this world is but a kind of dreame or shadow we dreame so strongly as we doe not discerne it to be but a dreame for the momentanynesse and inanity of our life seldome comes into our fancie which though it be so susceptible of all levities yet seldome admits the thought of mans owne lightnesse into it the vanities of our life shadow and cover to us our lives being but a shadow and thus while we breath continually in this element of vanity it becomes as the ayre to us which we feele not sensibly in our familiar respiration and yet our breath is nothing else but aire after this manner while our life is nothing but vanity we are the lesse sensible of this constitution So vaine a thing is meere humane nature as when your wit hath fancyed the most ayerie and light conceptions it can for images of this inanity man seemeth yet so much vainer then all those expressions as even all of them leave no impression on man of his owne vanity for he makes no use of those his apprehensions but lives as if hedid traduce and abuse himselfe in his conceptions and expressions of his owne vacuity and emptinesse and falls not at all into consideration of those disabusing notions and thus he verisies what the holy Spirit sayes of him that man compared to vanity is found lighter then it For as if the variations and instability of his owne state were not sufficient for his vexation doth not man adde to them the changeablenesse of many other creatures more vanishing and fleeting then himselfe by fastning his love to them namely to riches honour beauty and the rest of this worlds flashes and blazes of delectation which goe out very often even before they have so much as warmed our senses §. II. Treating Mans abuse of what he might learn by the mortality of the creature and the frailty of his nature evidenced in all sorts of persons and tryals ALL the creatures seeme to tell man in their perishing variations that they were made so transitory to passe away as attendants on the flux and motion of his life whereby to instruct as well as serve him by their subjection yet is he so little advertised by them of his own frailty as he rather applies their variations to amuse him in the imperception of his owne instability For while all his pleasures are derived from the continuall changes and mutations of things even out of this variety of delights he drawes the inconsideration of his owne continuall flux and consumption For he neither seemes to beleeve the nature of the things themselves in all these evidences of their mutability while he fixes his heart upon them as if they were immoveable nor doth he so much as learn the variablenesse of his own minde by the experiments of so frequent alterations of it which happeneth after even without so much cause as satiety meerely by the lightnesse of his owne constitution Doth not this seeme a strange incongruity in the nature of man who while he states all his delectation in the intermixture of changes even of his owne minde as well as of forreine fruitions that in this occupation he should divert himselfe from the animadversion of his owne vanity and impermanency How justly may it be said then O wretched man who shall deliver thee from this body of delusion When all the creatures that passing away and dying open themselves in an Anatomie of thy fraile nature thou wilt not so much as looke upon thy owne frame and composition which thou canst not see in those living figures thou art playing and sporting with for the life of man cannot see it selfe truly but by reflex from death and every perishing dying or dead creature reflects to man his own image and yet as the Apostle sayes Man so frequently beholding his naturall face in this glass of death forgets what manner of man he is Therfore the Author of life in his Word hath often set his hand to his manifest of the creatures which they all make for Man in their successive corruptions and in very pregnant tearmes he hath declared to man That his life is but a vapour that appeares but a little time and then vanisheth If then our life which is the foundation of all our vanity be but so slight and subtile a thing what can we say of riches beauty and honour and the like temporalities which are but the accidents of that substance which is it selfe but a vapour Wherefore all they seem but colours diversified by the severall variations of that light which is but a flash of lightning for life it selfe is but such an esclat of light This considered when the nature of all the worlds toyes and nugacities is rightly discussed all the specious good of them is found to be but opinion and imagination which may be tearmed the fume of this vapour of our lives as it is exhaled and vanisheth away and yet this fume of opinion darkens to us the nature of our lives as smoake often doth the matter out of which it is raised For how familiarly the eye of our reason is deprived of all exercise by this smoak of opinion I need not urge since every one that goes abroad into the aire of the world palpably seeth what sore eyes Reason hath almost every where by living in this smoak of opinion O then how much worse then nothing is the life of man thus lightned and evaporated by his own fancie when at the best of his carnal nature in the holy Spirit 's account it is but a shadow a dreame or a vapour And certainly it was an expresse act of Providence relating to our undeceiving this of Gods choosing Solomon among all his Secretaries to make the most ample and precise manifest of the nature and conditions of all temporalities for as Alexander is said to have furnished Aristotle largely with expences requisite for all sorts of Anatomyes when he designed him to write the history of Nature that his experiments might afford him both light for himself and credit with others so God seemes to have provided Solomon an abundance and affluence of all those creatures in their best degree of sincerity and perfection whereof he was to deliver to the world the nature and properties that the sensiblenesse of his experience might move and affect the world joyntly with the charity of his speculation S. Iohn Baptist who had the same spirit of truth I by an immediate infusion but did never exercise it in any practical experiments had not been an organ of this truth so proportinate to our infirme apprehension which embraces truth sooner clothed with sensible particular experiments and so becomes as it were palpable then in the universality of notions while it remaineth more abstracted in speculation King Solomon therefore was an
god-head she could in number have made up that losse of quality she brought in all the celest all bodies into the account of Divinity serving the Militia of Heaven instead of the maker and we may call to minde that as humane bodies grew Giants mindes seemed to shrink into dwarfs when they fell in love as I may say with the daughters of men that is the conceptions of their owne naturall Reason in this point of Divinity And we may well suppose that the Giants soules in the law of nature became so by espousing this daughter of God which we may properly call Grace whereby their heads passed the skie and touched Heaven it selfe in this beliefe of the unity of the godhead and by this conjunction with grace reason produced their issue of a rectified Religion hence is it that we finde the Patriarks frequently visited by celestiall spirits as the allies as I may say of this daughter of Heaven they had espoused and most doe conclude that all those who in the law of nature continued in a rectified belief and worship of God were maintained in that state by grace supplementall to the virtue of single Reason How far humane Reason may alone finde the way to rectified Religion is a question to exercise curiosity rather then excite piety and very commonly reason in the disquisition of faith doth rather sink the deeper into the earth by falling from her over aspiring then she doth six her selfe upward in her proper station and besides this danger me thinkes there is this difference betweene them that are working upon reason to extract Religion and those that are feeding upon sincere faith that the first are labouring the ground for that fruit which the last are feasting on or that the first are plowing while the last are gathering of Manna I shall indeavour therefore to serve in this spirituall refection ready to be tasted treating of faith already digested rather then to be provided by ratiocination for devotion is faith converted into nourishment by which the soul contracting a sound active strength needs not study the composition of that aliment it finds so healthfull §. II. Treating the best habit of mind in order to the finding a rectified Religion ME thinks Religion and Devotion may be fitly resembled to the Body and the Soule in Humanity The first of which issues from an orderly procession of nature by a continuing virtue imparted all at once to mediate causes the last is a new immediate infusion from heaven by way of a creation continually iterated and repeated So Religion at large as some homage rendred to a supreme relation flows into every mind along with the current of natural causes But Devotion is like the Soule produced by a new act of grace directed to every particular by speciall and expresse infusion and in these respects also the analogie will hold that as Religion hath the office of the body to containe Devotion so Devotion hath the function of the soule to informe and animate Religion And as the soule hath clearer or darker operations according as the body is well organized or disposed so Devotion is the more zealous or remisse proportionately to the temper and constitution of the Religion that containeth it Sutable to the Apostle Saint James his intimation to us that Pure Religion keeps us unspotted from the world I shall not take upon me the spirituall Physitian to consult the indispositions and remedies of differing Religions but relying more upon the Testimony of confessed experiments then the subtilty of that litigious art I shall prescribe one receipt to all Christian tempers which is to acquire the habit of Piety and Devotion for this in our spirituall life is like a healthfull aire and a temperate diet in our naturall the best preservative of a rectified faith and the best disposition to recover from an unsound Religion for the Almes and Prayers of the Centurion were heard and answered when they spoke not the language of the Church and the Angel was sent to translate them into that tongue in which God hath chose onely to be rightly praised that which his Eternall Word Christ Jesus hath peculiarly affected and annexed to his Church this shews the efficacie of piety and the exactnesse of Gods order who hath inclosed his eternall graces within those bounds into which he brings all that shall partake of them and so doth naturalize all such strangers as he intitleth to them doth not allot any portions to aliens but reduceth all them he will endow into that qualification he requireth which is into the rank of fellow-citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God he leaves none with a dispensation of remaining forreiners The Angel that called the Centurion directed him to the gate of the Church Saint Peter did not bring him a protection to rest in his owne house with the exercise of his naturall pieties and so for those that are straying without the inclosure of the Catholique Church if they walk by the light of naturall charity morall piety and devotion in their religious duties this is the best disposition towards the finding of the way the truth and the life of whom the Psalmist sayes He is neere to all those that seeke him and those who are thus far advanced in morality may be said to be in atriis Templi in the Church-yard which is in a congruous disposition for farther advance into the body of the church I shall endeavour then to affect every one with the love of purity and holinesse of life for to those that are already rooted and growing in the Church this disposition will be are that fruit the Apostle soliciteth for them that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement And in those who are yet strangers and forreiners as he calls them this reverentiall feare of God seemes to chase the wax for the seale of the holy Spirit for Prayers and Almes doe as it were retaine God for their Counsel and as his Clients open their cause to him in these tearms of the Psalmist Lord cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soule unto thee And such may be said to be halfe way towards their end that doe worship in a zealous spirit and are likely never left there but helped on to the other part of worshipping in truth by him that hath ordained our worship to consist of Spirit and Truth so that devotion sincerity in any Religion are the best Symptomes of our designation to the true and sincere Religion Wherefore having made this generall presentation of piety and virtue to all parties I shall not stay to wrastle in the Schooles but rather strive to set such Church-musick as all parties may agree to meet at the service and this I presume may sound in tune unto most eares that where consort and harmony in faith appeareth it is a good note of that
designe to fix it and so convert it into earthly treasure but as good Physitians do onely in order to the extracting medicines and remedies out of it And by this Method as they render Mercury beneficiall by drawing from it some good quality and fixing that upon some other body while that substance remaineth unfixed and volatile We may likewise without setting our thoughts to work upon temporall goods in hope to make our happynes by the fixure of them wel derive great utility from them by the infusion of some of their virtue making thereof remedyes for the necessityes of our neighbours Such an extraction Daniel counselled the King to draw out of his perishable felicity and by this Method while the matter of worldly goods remaineth fluent and transitory there may be great utility derived even from the consideration of these qualities For by using this matter according to the nature of it by keeping it passing and transient through our hearts and hands we may provide a fixed and eternall happinesse This advice is given us by the Author both of Nature and Grace to make out of the unfaithfull company of this worlds friendship such loyall friends as shall receive us into those tabernacles where no good is lesse then eternall This is a practicall use which Devotion will alwayes introduce in our temporall possessions There is also another speculative influence which it hath in order to the settlement of our mind namely the frequent meditation on the instability of all things sublunary which cogitations are pregnant seeds of the contempt of this world whereby we learn to draw the cure of the venome out of the bowels of the beast it self distilling out of the serious contemplation of the mutability of all worldly happines a remedy against the evill of that ficklenes and impermanency and by this course we raise some succour out of the adverse party of our own frailty For they who ponder frequently how all things sublunary move continually in an interchangeable flowing and refluencie may easily learn not to imbarque their mindes in any earthly delights never so fairly secured without expecting adverse revolutions and repeales of those joyes and by this preparation Devotion doth by degrees teach us to make our peace Postable upon all the tides of fortune understanding them to be truly the current of Divine providence This light we can receive onely from the beames of Grace and they shine the clearer in our hearts the more Devotion is kindled in them For this Spirituall flame as it riseth alwayes attracteth more of that first fire that lighted it and thus from our affections being inflamed by devotion our understandings take this light whereby they discerne the greatest security we can contrive for our contentments in this world to be the being so prepared for mutations that our wils may be so loose from anchorage upon any earthly pleasure as they remove easily from their hold on that delight and put out to the sea of Gods providence in all the stormes of adversity And considering how Gods way is in the sea and his paths in many waters and that his foot-steps are not to be discerned Our affections may easily repaire their earthly losses by that treasure they may find in this Ocean of Gods will the riches whereof we make ours by entring into his will as often as we are driven out of our own by the variations of this world and by this Pious acquiescence to all vicissitudes of this life we shall come to a constant good habit of mind as men at sea obtain an unmoved state of body for as they do not confirm their health by the steddynesse of the vessell in a calme but by the custome and habitude of the rowlings and tossings of it in severall weathers So shall we settle the peace of our mind not by the calme equality of a prosperous condition but by the acquaintance and inurement to severall adverse revolutions And this is undoubtedly the best Method in point of attaining a good constituton of happynes in this life for King David himself found little security in this I have said in my prosperity I shall never be moved For he seemeth to retract this opinion all in a breath the next words confessing Thou hast hid thy face from me and I was troubled Wherefore his reflexion upon the instability of our humane condition proved a more assured stay for him in his agitations when he concluded Doubtlesse all things are vanity every man living surely man passeth as an Image yea and he is troubled in vain §. III. Resultancies from the meditation of humane frailty and a resolving the right of Happynes as belonging to Devotion THe state of humane Nature being thus determined me thinks there may be an excellent medicinall extraction drawn by prudence directed by Grace out of the nature of temporal felicity in order to the fortifying our minds which may not improperly be tearmed the Spirit or salt of humane frailty since it may work upon the mind as Phisitians say those kind of Diaphoretical medicines do upon the body the which although they do not produce any violent sweat yet they clense by opening the pores and keeping the body in a continued transpiration and breathing out of the Malignity After this manner may our minds be purged and rectified by this meditation of our frailty which notwithstanding it forceth not out any notorious expressions of the contempt of this world in a sensible alteration of our course of life yet it may maintain the mind in a constant temper of purifying by a soft evacuating much of the uncleannesse of her sensitive appetite through an insensible perspiration of mortifying thoughts and the proper time to minister this receipt is in the health of our fortune while we are in an easie fruition of the joyes and solaces of this life for then the perswasion of their insecurity holds us loose from that dangerous adherence which carryeth away our peace along with their removals but this prescript looseth much of the efficacy when it is taken but after our mindes are decayed and infeebled by the sadnesse and weight of affliction because in that ease they commonly want that vigor of reason which should cooperate with this remedy and in that respect what might have been a sufficient stay to our minds while they stood straight and upright may not be able to redresse and erect them when they are faln and dejected I will therefore leave this prescription thus signed by the Holy Spirit Say not I possesse many things and what evill can come to me hereafter but in the good dayes remember the evill for the malice of one hour maketh oblivion of great voluptuousnesse and therefore in another place the same hand giveth this advice From the morning to the evening the time changeth All things are soon done before the Lord A wise man will fear in every thing But lest me should conceive happynes to be
inconsistent with this injunction of continuall fear we must understand that there are two feares respecting this world which may stand in morality answering most of the properties of the same in Divinity viz a filiall and a servile feare the first whereof feareth but as a child of humanity by the knowledge of the frail Nature of all temporalities the other as a slave to mundanities being mastered and subjected by Sensuality So that the filiall fear riseth from an ordinate love and right apprehension of the condition of the Creatures and the servile springeth from a misprision of their Nature and an undue subjection unto them wherefore this first filiall fear is but virtuous and precautionall and so compatible with a happy constitution for it perplexeth our present fruitions no more then the generall notion of our mortality offendeth our present health the knowledge that we must die doth not make us sick no more doth the understanding that our temporary delights are to passe away disrelish their present savour Let this prenotion then of intervenient changes in all our most secured conditions of stated as requisite for the settlement of tranquility in our mindes since at all times temporall felicity is either going away from us or we from it for whatsoever the best of our times bring us in their revolutions they carry us away from them at the same time by the motion of our Mortality in proof whereof the Spirit of Truth telleth us we are but a breath of aire passing on and not returning Thus have I after the method of Saint Paul with the Athenians indeavored to confute the two Sects of the Stoicks and Epicureans and I conceive to have voyded both their titles to happinesse the first claiming it in the right of our single Naturall Reason the other challenging it in the name of our satisfied senses to neither of which I hope in God to have shewed that felicity can rightly be adjudged by reason the speculations of the Stoicks are but like well painted scenes which at a convenient distance seeme to expose reall fruits waters and shades but when you come into them you finde nothing but paintings and barren colours Much after this manner while you looke upon the pure Theory of their maximes they seeme to containe peace serenity and satisfaction of spirit iâ— all the earthquakes of this world yet this faire shew lasteth but while our conditions are at a convenient distance from a necessity of acting those principles for when we are pressed under the ineumbeâ—t miseries of this life to practise this I deal self-sufficiency we are then brought as it were into the scenes of those maximes for then we finde all those figurings of apathy and impassivenesse to prove but coloured and fruitlesse conceptions in respect of those Soveraigne effects were promised the minde at the distance of speculation And I presume to have cast the other Sect by these two evidences brought against it viz. the unfaithfulnesse of all materiall goods in point of duration and fixure and the ficklenesse even of our owne affections in the esteeme of such fruitions wherefore the former of these two Sects stands convinced of stating happinesse in what can never be obtained and the other in what can never long be preserved whereupon they may both justly receive their sentences the first from the Apostle pricking thus their swelling knowledge If any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know and the case of the other stands thus judged by the Prophet you shall conceive heat and bring forth stubble your spirit as fire shall devoure you May I not then say that felicity is in the worlds opinion as the unknowne God was in the Religion of the Athenians for though it have an Altar assigned unto it yet neither the true nature of happinesse is rightly apprehended nor the addresses to it duly determined and the termes of Saint Paul on that occasion will very â—igh fit my purpose What therefore you ignorantly pursue that I declare unto you and manifest how the true felicity of this life dwelleth not in temples made with hands that is to say it is not seated in the speculative edifices of Philosophy nor in the materiall structures of sensible fruitions but resideth in this spirituall mansion of fervent and rectified Devotion which produceth a right understanding of the value of all things transitory and induceth a confidence of enjoying eternall peace of mind and invaâ—ible felicity of body I have already set up before you an entire figure of Devotion by which you may draw the just proportions of that virtuous bit which calmeth all humane passions in that degree our nature can be serened and quieted in this life instructing us how Gods universall order admitteth not our being happy in all our temporall desires and therefore Devotion fixeth all our desires upon Gods order and so maketh the accomplishment of his designes the chiefe terme of our wishes and by this course as God changeth his exterion sentence sometimes but never his i 〈…〉 councell so godly and devout soules may â—ary in the apparencies of their present happinesse but never alter in the inâ—rinsique state of a blessed condition For as much as in all extrinsique changes Devotion hath this rest of the Psâ—lmist when upon the vexations of the senses the soule 〈…〉 s to be reduced to My soule refused to be comforted there followeth presently I was mindefull of God and was delighted in this mindfulnesse of God Devotion sixeth all our security and by fastning our mindes to what is immoveable they themselves are rendered as it were unalterable Upon what we have discoursed I may conclude my proposition firmely established and resolve by the Authority of the wisest of men The heart that knoweth the bitternesse of his soule in his joy shall not the stranger be mingled That is an advised man man admits an exterior foundation of his happinesse And for an unquestionable security of my promise I will leave you this ingagement of the Psalmist Delight in the Lord and he will give thee the petitions of thy heart The seventh Treatise How true Devotion induceth those notions wherein consisteth the happinesse of this life In three Sections §. I. The fallicies of Opinion the Virtue of Truth treated ME thinkes I heare many very impatient to see some more sensible object of temporall happinesse exposed by Devotion for our nature is not easily drawn to looke off from the delights it seeth as I may say face to face and turne to those that are seene but darkly as through a glasse which are the joyes of the other life speculated only through the perspective of faith I will not therefore propose to those vocations which are the addresse of my perswasions the putting their nature into any severe straights or pressures in hope only of remote reversions I will assigne present conveniencies for the entertainment of our
how many little uncleannesses do we see that being wiped off as soon as they light upon our clothes come out again with any stain which if they be neglected sinke in and leave their spots upon the place nor is there any morall immundicity of a more dangerous insinuation then this of wanton discours by reason it introduceth it self in a harmeles apparence so subtilly as even many who aime at purity of life are sometimes if not affected at least amused diverted by it in their design and unto such wel disposed minds do I addres this animadversion to such I say in whose lives these amusements are the most apparent defects for in such subjects in whom these excesses are the least of their corruptions where out of the abundance of the heart the mouth overfloweth in these pollutions I cannot hope to wash off so easily this soule graine of their interior disposition this particular being so twisted inwrapped in other grosser vices like strawes or fethers cleaving to some tenacious matter as it cannot be easily severed or expurged but in some fair souls these levities are but like some loose dust or feathers that of themselves come up and swim upon the top of their entertainments and so may easily be scum'd off by a gentle hand of reprehension whilst in fordid and foul mindes this filth sticketh to such heavy vices as keep them in the bottome of their hearts insomuch as they seem to require some storm of affliction that may move and agitate the deepest parts of their ill habits and by that meanes cast out all the foul weight together that lay sunk in the bottome of their hearts I will therefore onely addresse these gentle prescripts unto such as intend the observance of Solomons advise of keeping their garments alway white that they must not onely set a guard over their heart but also a watch over lips that no indecent freedomes may creep into a custome for in that incroachment they shall never discern the possession they have taken till they attempt their remove and the smalnes of this fault in the commencements of it proveth the most dangerous part towards the progresse thereof for it may be compared in a perverted sense to that grain which is the least of all seeds when it is cast into the ground but at last it groweth to a nest for the fowls of the ayre because commonly what is at first but levity and veniall wantonnesse groweth up very familiarly to beare and harbor all kind of foulnesse and impurity Wherefore Solomon warneth us thus against such deceptions There is a way that seemeth right unto man but the end thereof is the way of death §. II. Some speciall causes of the growth of this licentiousnesse and some expedient proposed towards the suppression thereof THE admission of these liberties by well disposed persons is derived commonly from the inconsideration of the dignity and duty of a Christian upon this suggestion from him who transfigureth himselfe into an Angel of light that the maimed and defectuous were onely forbid the Altar not debar'd the Congregation to wit that Candour and immaculatenesse of conversation is onely required of such as are sequestred for God by some vow or consecration and that other vocations need not attend to so much cleannesse of heart as is intimated by these scrupulous suggestions but this flash of lightning of the evill Angell will quickly vanish when we turne our eyes upon these beames of the Sunne of Righteousnesse which shine out so fully in these words Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Whereby our Saviour seemeth to presse so much our purity as he setteth us a higher patern then even himselfe as he did then appeare to the eye of his disciples and this similitude injoyn'd cannot possibly admit any voluntary adherence to the least unlikenesse and dissimilitude to this exemplar and how distanciall the most triviall imperfection is from his infinite purity the Angels themselves cannot determine How much ought we then to apprehend the slightest touch or dash of our pensill in the copying this Immaculate Originall If we could discern the staynes and taints even of our best workes wherein we perceive no faultinesse we would never venture the voluntary exposing any to the sight of God wherein we our selves find spots and blemishes when the man after Gods own heart was fain to appeale to Gods mercy for his secret and undiscerned sinnes how vain a thing is it to esteem any sinne light or inconsiderable which we our selves are able to discover O what an honour is a Christian trusted with when not onely the rejoycing of Angels is within his capacity but even the satisfaction of the holy-Ghost which is intimated by Saint Paul when he chargeth us not to grieve or make sad the holy Spirit and certainly all the loose mirth and jollity wherewith we flatter our nature is so much contristation to his holynesse and purity and alas how often do these impure sparks of our tongues passe to a higher offence when flying inward they kindle such a flame as doth extinguish the order of the holy Spirit how little a spark sets a whole wood on fire is too frequently attested by unhappy experiments in this kind wherefore Saint James warning us further of the ill consequences of our tongues disorder tells us that the tongue is the helme of the whole body so that if it be ill steered it must needs mislead the course of our whole lives Nothing methinks evidenceth more the faultinesse of these libertyes then that the presence of any notedly good and virtuous person doth commonly restrain such freedomes of speech doth not this forbearance avow their unjustifiablenes and reproach the idlenesse of our inconsideration while we forget the continuall presence of Almighty God in reference whereunto we are pressed even by instinct to pay this reverence unto men of vailing our loose inclinations if the eyes even of the children of light are able to dispell these foule mists the consideration of the presence of the Father of lights though in an invisible manner may well dissipate the matter of these meteors the substance whereof is alwayes earthy and viscous though the flame be never so bright for the subject of lascivious words is alwaies sordid and unclean though the flame of fancy they glitter in be of never so clear and sharp conceptions The best expedient then in order to the bridling our unruly fancyes is to awe them often with the presence of God who is termed a consuming fire for such minds as are habituated to that aspect and whose thoughts walk before the Lord will be no more entangled with these levities then they are retarded by Atomes walking in the ayre and to indue this presentiall consideration of God let us remember often that we are not our own but are bought with a great price by him who will be glorified as well as carried in our bodyes
this the Sword which he saith he came to send and not Peace Wherefore this hostility declared against our Flesh must be remembred to be the first Article of that peace of the Spirit which is concluded in Contemplation §. III. The requisiteness of Lecture in order to this Spiritual elevation THe next Stage whereby we are to rise is pious Lecture which subject calls back my thoughts upon the first state of mans knowledge wherein we may consider That the first Humane Soul came into this world perfect in the intellectual part by Science infused and needed not stay for the help of her corporeal organs to acquire any for those instruments whereby she was to act were ready in their perfection before she was seated in them since Gods forming perfectly the body of man preceded his breathing into it the breath of Life And so we finde that he was able to reade presently in the book of Gods works wherein he read the character of Gods hand in every creature that was set before him and as I may say superscribed their names upon them by the secret impression he read of their Nature But not being satisfied with this excellent degree of intelligence he began to affect the reading even in Gods own increated book The knowing like God himself Upon this presumption the rational soul of Man was cast down from this high form and set so much backward as ever since both the Vegetative and Sensitive souls precede her long in the perfection of their acts and she is obliged to stay their leisure before she can act her best according to her faculty which must cost her also pains and care to reduce it unto the best extent thereof Thus is now the rational Soul sentenced to feed her self by her kinde of sweat and labor so that she is not onely to acquire most of her natural knowledges by a laborious industry but she is also set to work by study and attention even upon those supernatural Principles that are infused into her as those of Faith Hope and Charity even these infused habits will not so much as remain in her without her own study and solicitude to preserve them much less can they be improved to their best degree without much intendment and application And to facilitate the perfection of the Soul in this life God hath been pleased to make his own Character and to leave it legible under his own Hand his holy Scriptures wherein all his attributes are penn'd in the fairest maner to affect our understandings and to take our affections insomuch as of the holy Writ it may be well said to God The light of thy countenance is impressed upon it This living spring of Verities the Holy Ghost hath left upon the earth from whence all the rivelets of pious Books derive their waters which are so proper to refresh and see undate the minde of Man as the Holy Ghost doth but rarely use his own power of impregnating and replenishing Souls with immediate inspirations but vouchsafeth for the most part to be conveyed into our mindes by the mediate spirations into them of vertuous notions from his subalternate instruments the pens of his holy Ministers which he doth certainly inspire with qualities â—o well proportioned to our capacities as they deliver Divine Truths unto our mindes under such familiar and agreeable forms as are most apt to work upon our affections This is the design of the Holy Ghost in all pious Books wherein his Spirit remaineth covered in the elements of mans conceptions for words may be said to be a kinde of body to thoughts as the Divinity of Christ did under the vails of Flesh and Blood In like maner it is the Divine vertue of the Holy Spirit that worketh all those devout effects which are produced by the instrumental conceptions of pious Writers Wherefore as the Scriptures are to be read with perswasion that God is presentially speaking to us so all Books of Devotion are to be used with this opinion of their speaking to us as delegated and deputed from God The minde of Man abhorreth vacuity and though her Nature tend upward to be replenished with Spiritual notions yet if she be void of them she sinketh presently to earth to take in any grosser furniture so that if she be not provided with such pure species as may keep her pointing at her own Centre in stead of being elevated as it were above her self in Contemplation she will fall below her self into some terrene amuzement Wherefore a habit of pious Lecture is most necessary in order to the replenishing her with Spiritual Images that may keep her eye always erected up upon them and may we not well infer the requisiteness of reading for the support of the Spiritual Man since Saint Paul doth not onely advise his so elevated Disciple Timothy to attend unto reading but chargeth him with great solicitude to bring him some Books even after he had told him he had consummated his course and the time of his revolution was near If he who had been in Paradice already in a transcient state and was so near his going thither to a permanent did still make use of Books how necessary must they be for all such as aspire to any Spiritual exaltation §. IV. Speculation placed as the last step in this ascent of the Soul THis last station carrieth us up to the top of this Mount Moria from whence we have descended and so is the steepest part and the uneasiest mounting of all the rest as it is nearest the vertical point of our fixure This last step then is Speculation or Meditating which act of our discursive faculty is commonly taken as univocal with this other of our minde fixed in Contemplation but when they are rightly distinguished there appeareth such a diversity as is between the last strains of motion and the term of acquiescence For Speculation is properly the busie attention of the minde in the inquest of truth ranging and casting out all ways to bring in conclusions for the Spirit to fix and rest upon in Contemplation which as I have said is a fruitive possession of Verities which flowers the minde doth no longer gather or collect but rather hold in her hand ready made up in nosegays that she is smelling to Me thinks these two different states of the Minde may be rendred very intelligible by a conception my Fancy hath sprung while it is ranging for some fit expression of this very act which my Minde is now exercising and I may say That Speculation and Contemplation differ â—ust so as my present writing of their differences doth from my reading them anon when I have finished them For now my imagination is beating and casting all ways for some well suited similitude whereby to illustrate the diversity of these two acts and my memory is sifting and sorting apposite words to express my conceptions and thus by degrees I shall by means of this studious Application of