Redemption the infinite Love and Charity of the Blessed Jesus and the glorious rewards and promises offered to all that will be true Christians While men shall be so stupid as to neglect these 't will be no hard matter to impose upon them and it must not seem strange that the means are despised where the end it self is disregarded Vntil Christians make it their first and chiefest business to secure a blessed Eternity by living holy lives it cannot be expected they should make wise and serious enquiries into those truths which are more disputable and less necessary For the mixing secular interests with things of Religion first made and still maintains the errors and breaches of the Christian world and the way to bring to an end many controversies is not so much to decide as to bury them at least to make them give place to those things which are much more plain and much more requisite and beneficial And here again I might have a just occasion to commend this Church we live in for the best guide of Souls for either she meddles not with many disputes or else she always stands on the much surer side of the question holding that which even her Adversaries cannot but acknowledge for truth and never amusing her Children with unnecessary speculations or unprofitable contests But as it is her great design to make us obedient to the Gospel of Christ and bring us to a sincere practice of all holy vertues so I shall conclude this Preface with an Exhortation to the same purpose That thou wouldest seriously and often consider that thy life is short and uncertain and that the world passeth away and all things here below and that thou resolve thereupon not to lose not to venture thy portion of good things above for any earthly enjoyment That thou wouldest bear Eternity in mind and weigh the importance of these two words which conclude our Creed Life Everlasting and that afterwards thou resolve carefully to follow the way that leads to it the Doctrine and Example of our Blessed Saviour who hath purchast and promist it to all that love and follow him Live therefore as one that follows the King of Eternity to a blessed Eternity and despise the world Vse diligently such means as will make thee know thy duty and incourage and assist thee in the discharge of it and amongst them good Books which read with attention and a design to make their goodness our own are very useful instruments of Vertue and Religion This I hope will somewhat conduce to their advancement Nay I am sure thou shalt be much better'd by it if thou wilt transcribe it with thy Life as I have with my Pen and make it thy hearty Endeavour as I do my Prayer L. B. THE Authors Dedication TO ALL TRUE CHRISTIANS WIth due Reverence I offer this small volume to you blessed Souls vessels of honour and mercy elect and holy Children of God predestinated to glory before the foundation of the World who being redeemed from death by the bloud of Christ and from sin by the gift of grace are not asham'd to own the despised Cross of your Redeemer For to you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven to you that are not born of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God You are call'd by the Father to a portion of the inheritance of the Saints in light that ye might be holy and unreprovable in his sight in love and in Christ you are chosen according to the purpose and good pleasure of God not for your own works and merits For you the Blessed Jesus prayed when being ready to leave the world and go to the Father he said I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them me I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine He prayed not for the world because all that is in it the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are not of the Father And therefore they that are of the world hear not or at least will not regard and understand the words of eternal life for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God And though Christ be the true light which lightens every man that comes into the world yet the world sees him not nor knows him neither can it receive the spirit of truth On this will be grounded the iust judgment of the wicked This will be their condemnation that light came into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil and every one that doth evil hateth the light Now if Christ was a light in his life and doctrine he was so much more in his sufferings he did shine on the Cross most gloriously to all the world The tree of death to which he was tyed became his pulpit whence he preached his divinest Sermons teaching us that great lesson dying which he set while he was alive He that doth not take up my Cross and follow me cannot be my disciple Therefore to take up our Cross and follow Jesus is our greatest safety as well as duty our surest title to glory the Cross is the highest pitch of Christian learning to know Jesus Christ and him Crucified I heartily wish that they that shall read the ensuing Precepts and Practical Rules may have sanctified affections and a clear understanding that by the divine grace they may be brought to know and to follow the truth And my prayer for them is that God would strengthen them by his good Spirit in the inner man that love may abound in them more and more and that they may be sincere and unblameable replenisht with the fruits of righteousness pleasing to God in all things without contention and without offence I also beg for my self of the divine goodness that the glorious light of Christ may enlighten and guide my mind and that his strength may be perfected in my weakness lest after having preached to others I my self should become a cast-away by acting contrary to my own instructions And therefore I also beseech you good friends of God Blessed Christians who are the sheep of his Pasture remember me in your Prayers that what I teach I may fulfil that the precepts contained in this Book may be my practice by his divine grace and assistance without whom we can do nothing who with the Father and the Holy-Ghost liveth and reigneth one ever glorious and adored God Amen Imprimatur Geo. Hooper R. P. D. GIL Ep. Cant. Ã Sacris Dom. May 29. 1677. THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART PART I. Of the Christian Life and of its end and offices Pag. 1 CHAP. I. OF the distribution of all Christians into three ranks good middle-sort and bad ibid. CHAP. II. A further Description of
audible voices to the ears The pleasure which those senses receive from a beautiful sight or a sweet harmony may be called their life and their death or mortification in proportion to this is their being deprived of those objects whereon they act with delight which deprivation is very useful if not altogether requisite to arrive to a state of vertue and sanctification For nothing is more destructive of a Christian Life than a life of sense the imagination being as it were in the middle betwixt the soul and the senses when these work upon her as they are moved by outward objects she likewise works upon the soul and draws it to assent to the voluptuousness of lower faculties and this is not to be avoided without we bar our senses by a strict restraint from those things which affect them with sinful delights 3. In this consists the death of sense which is to be considered as twofold the first Natural when there is such a real separation betwixt sense and its object that they cannot possibly meet The second Moral when sense perceives but enjoys not its object being restrain'd from the pleasure of it The first some judge to be less difficult and more safe it being easier to avoid all occasions of sinful pleasure than to keep a due moderation when we ingage in them but in this discretion and due measures are to be observ'd The second is accordingly thought to be more dangerous because sensual pleasures are very inticing and insinuating and are known by sad experience to have a great prevalency over the Soul and nobler affections 4. And then farther it is to be consider'd that we suckt the poyson of voluptuousness together with our milk from our very infancy we learn'd to indulge sense and though we have often experimented that its delights and satisfactions are short and vain and unsatisfying and withal pernicious and highly afflictive to the Soul yet still we have the same notions of them they stick close to our mind and those pleasing though false apprehensions which first entred our hearts will not be rectified nor be gone till we have a long time used serious reflections and considerations till by many acts of self-denyal and contrary virtue we have imprinted in our minds the true principles of Christianity God is a Spirit and a spiritual life is the way to him to chastize and restrain the fancy to keep under the body and be guided by divine precepts is the way to spiritualize our selves and to come to God CHAP. VII Of denying our Sensual appetites especially Intemperance 1. IT is no difficult matter for a man who truly loves and fears God and studies to please him to despise and forsake all worldly pleasures pomps and vanities but to abstain from all food is not to be done for by it our bodies are rescued from death and the necessity of it returns upon us daily But because there is something of delight in the satisfying of this need there is danger also lest luxury mingle with it and pleasure which may follow after be the leading cause to our refection therefore though we cannot wholly forbear eating and drinking yet we must take great heed of the voluptuousness of it that necessity be not the pretence and pleasure the design of eating Nature is satisfied with a little but greediness or daintiness are always craving and sometimes we know not whether want or wantonness call for food and we are glad and willing to mistake that we may have an occasion to gratifie the unruly appetite In these we must daily watch our selves because these temptations do daily return and we must diet our selves with such moderation that we may nourish our bodies and not feed our lusts Plain abstemious and frugal food is the health of Soul and Body and he that pampers not his flesh by the quality or quantity of his meat and drink may easily master all carnal desires 2. To seek after feasts and dainties and to make them the matter of our discourse and our meditation is the part of an Epicure of one whose God is his belly and who minds earthly things but a Christian should be indeed and also live as a penitent pressing necessity should bring him to his table and thither he should come as if bread and water were his onely allowance that whatever is superadded may relish better and he may be more content and thankful and also moderate This we might easily do if we would duly consider how abstemious primitive Christians were how much our blessed Lord fasted and how for us he tasted vinegar and gall This if we would often call to mind and seriously set our selves to the imitation of their Blessed examples our conversation would be in Heaven and our thoughts would be far enough from dwelling in caves and kitchins As for the other fleshly lusts which also war against the Soul all occasions to them are to be avoided and idleness also a strict watch over our senses must be kept the rules of a severe modesty must be observed and especially we must shun all frequent and familiar converse with the other Sex for this without our knowledge and against our will kindles a dangerous and secret fire And lastly we must take great heed that we be not confident of our selves for in such a slippery way he is in some manner already fallen that fears not to fall CHAP. VIII Of Talkativeness and Silence 1. THE Evils of the tongue are past number therefore saith the wise man Prov. 10.19 In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin but he that restraineth his lips is wise Indeed talkativeness is a fountain and a torrent of iniquity It is a mark of ignorance it betrays much folly and is a great enemy to serious thoughts and recollection Mens words for the most part proceed from something of Pride for they commonly speak to teach others and to shew their own wisdom and great parts Every one thinks he knows much and to make it appear and be thought somebody he commonly outs with more than he knows As bad air drawn in doth in time affect infect the body so doth the breath of many words much prejudice the Soul It dissolves the spirit and breeds quarrels and contentions and utters lies and detractions and brings forth loose unseemly jesting and jeering and evils of all sorts In vain doth he indeavour to be devout and to have peace within who doth not refrain his tongue and set a watch before his lips In vain doth he endeavour to amend himself that censures and speaks ill of others This is a snare wherein many are caught to be indulgent to themselves and severe to others to boast and magnifie what is theirs and slight as much what relates to others Few there are that wholly renounce to this vice few that lead so uncorrupt a life as not willingly to tax others corruptions The propensity to this sin is so great that many counted good Christians
our Blessed Saviour commanding to all without distinction Luke 11.41 Give Alms of such things as you have And the great Preacher of Repentance injoyn'd the multitudes that asked him what they should do Luke 3.11 He that hath two Coats let him impart to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do likewise I hear the Psalmist declaring that Blessed is he that considereth the Poor for the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble Psal 41.1 And the Prophet instructing all Penitents on this wise Deal thy Bread to the Hungry and bring the Poor that are cast out to thy House when thou seest the naked cover him and hide not thy self from thine own flesh Isa 58.7 I hear Religious Tobit giving this Lesson to his Son Give Alms of thy substance and when thou givest Alms let not thy hand be Envious neither turn thy face from any Poor and the Face of God shall not be turned away from thee If thou hast abundance give Alms accordingly If thou have but little be not afraid to give according to that little for thou layest up a good Treasure for thy self against the day of Necessity because that Alms do deliver from Death and suffer not to come into darkness Tob. 4.7 c. 3. What can be said more than all this to prove Alms-giving to be much a Duty and most advantagious But yet let us hear also what the Beloved Apostle saith in this matter 1 John 3.17 Whoso hath this Worlds good and seeth his Brother hath need and shutteth up his Bowels of Compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in Him If not the love of God then self-love that is lust and sin dwell and reign in him and his Portion in the next world shall be with the rich man in the Gospel Luke 16. who was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day and yet would not give Lazarus so much as the crums that fell from his Table The Conscience of the Covetous cryeth or ere long will cry against him why dost thou put by that poor hungry man thou art his murtherer in that thou art able and dost not feed him that Bread which thou canst spare is his those garments which fill up thy Trunks belong to the Naked and the money hoarded in thy Coffers is the just right of the Necessitous Christ in the great Judgment will condemn to Hell such merciless wretches as thou art Go ye saith he into Everlasting Fire for I was hungry and you fed me not I was thirsty and you gave me no drink naked and ye clothed me not Mat. 25.42 He doth not mention such pressing extream necessities as must be now supplied and could be relieved by none else such occur but seldome not once perhaps in a mans life Therefore we must not stay for such Extremities to be Charitable but we must spare as much as we can and what we can we must give in Good Works for Charity is the band of perfectness and shall cover a multitude of sins Neither yet must we as some do delay our Charity till we can keep no longer what we have That which Death makes us give if we could have given it before will be nothing so acceptable as what we our selves freely distribute when we have power to keep it CHAP. XVIII Of Patience in Bearing and Forbearing 1. OF all the Virtues wherein Christians must exercise themselves that they may come to Life Eternal none is more excellent and none more useful than Patience By it we imitate the forbearance and long-suffering of God who provoked by so much wickedness and disobedience yet doth good to all men and makes his Sun to rise upon the Just and the Unjust Patience governs the mind and preserves it in Peace and an even Temper it breaks Anger and bridles the Tongue and mortifies Pride and a high Spirit it ends Quarrels and entertains Friendship and it conquers the World it tames the Flesh overcomes Temptations bears nobly and meekly reproaches and persecutions and it perfects and crowns the life of a Christian If all men were Patient the evils of mankind would be nothing so great nor so numerous as they are and we should be happy with abundance of love and quietness By Patience a wise and good man may be distinguish'd from a vicious fool It is so diffusive a vertue that it is necessary to all other vertues and contrary to all vices and God instructs and proves the best of his Children by exercising their Patience Nothing can hinder but that injurious Words and Actions shall affect and stir up our minds and nothing but Patience can make us masters of our selves can pacifie our tumultuous Spirits and restrain us from mischief and revenge 2. Philosophers themselves have extold very high the Praises of this excellent vertue and they made it the chiefest mark and ostentation of their own wisdome But as they know not the true God from whom proceeds and to whom tends all true vertue so their Patience was false as well as their wisdom But we that live in the School of Christ are taught by him that through many Tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God and this is the only true wisdom to know Jesus Christ and him crucified and to love and chearfully bear his Cross For a Christian must be made conformable to his Crucified Saviour our life must be the Image of his Death So that he is no Christian that hates and refuseth the Cross and will not suffer Let none of us sinful men that own God for Father expect to be without Chastisement in this World for his own natural Beloved Son was not though he was without sin even the Christ was to suffer that he might enter into his Glory Every one in this life is visited with pains and sorrows either for his conversion or for his greater perfection but the most afflicted endures nothing that can be compar'd to the shame and the Cross of Christ CHAP. XIX Adversities are occasions of Vertue and must be Patiently indur'd 1. THis our present Life is the way through which we must go to Heaven and in it we find all the properties that belong to a way sometimes it is even sometimes rough sometimes it is pleasant sometimes full of briers rocks and precipices in some places it is crowded with company in some it is desart and solitary and here and there you meet with wild beasts and robbers rain and fair weather daily succeed each to other obstacles and difficulties frequently occur and even in Grace and Religion the Philosophers saying doth take place Omnia fieri secundum litem that there is contention and opposition in all things We see it in Vertue which is acquired by fighting by resisting Temptations and mans strength and fortitude would be unknown and of no use should he not meet with afflictions and uneasie tryals I know this is not the sense of the world the fools party
last will turn them into joy 2. Let us therefore look upon afflictions as very necessary and useful to us and let us receive them as pledges of Gods love and assurances of his care for us according as St. James exhorts Jam. 1.2 My Brethren count it all joy when you fall into divers Temptations knowing this that the tryal of your Faith worketh Patience but let Patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing Reproaches slanders persecutions and all other evils we suffer in this world are to be lov'd by pious men and to be counted good for though they be afflictive to flesh and bloud yet they proceed from the divine pleasure they come to us from God and as our Blessed Saviour told his unjust Judge John 19.11 They could have no power at all against us if it were not given them from above So that in all events we may meekly submit and rest satisfied considering this power from above And if we do not thus consider and receive our sorrows if we view them by themselves and not in their first cause that wise God who is the contriver of them and the fountain of all goodness then our minds will be afflicted with a thousand grievous fancies of things past present or to come which yet never were or shall be and we shall be sleepless and restless full of anguish and fears and distractions Whereas if we used our selves to refer all things to God and did look up to him in our Tribulations we should find rest and tranquillity his gracious will and appointment would answer and silence all our objections and whatever hapned we could quietly say with patient Job Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. That God who will have me to be afflicted is gracious and compassionate and hath a tender care of me He hath laid this cross upon me which I resolve to bear till he himself is pleased to take it off CHAP. XXII That Detractions and Derisions must be indur'd and derided 1. IF we grieve more for the Evil men speak against us than for the Evil we our selves commit against God then 't is a plain demonstration self-love prevails in us above the love of God He infinitely perfect and holy bears patiently with innumerable blasphemies and provocations and all the while bestows many blessings upon the offenders And we wretched sinful creatures who can hardly hear worse than we deserve a disobliging word or the least mention of our faults puts us into a fit of anger and fury though we infinitely deserve it we will not bear with reproof or contempt Whereas indeed we should rather fear the undeserved praise of men lest the prosperity and honour of the world cut off our communion and fellowship with the Cross of Christ Should the pains which our sins deserve and the Torments Christ suffered for them be laid in one scale and in the other the evils and injuries we suffer these would have no weight and be nothing compar'd to the other And farther if it be consider'd that the injuries we receive are made grievous according to our own apprehensions and not according to the intention of our enemies the disproportion betwixt our sufferings and deserts will appear yet greater For he cannot be injur'd that slights injuries and he is not wounded that will not by his impatience tear open his wounds The soft flesh not the angry hand that flings the dart is the cause of the hurt Should a mans body be hard as a rock arrows thrown against it could never enter and 't is from the softness and frailty of our minds that reviling words and affronts have power to make impression 2. Blessed is he that so orders his life that malice it self cannot fasten a calumniation upon him and next to him blessed is he that indeavours to be innocent and to have a good conscience in all things otherwise he is a peevish fool that will not hear what he delights to do But if it so happen that notwithstanding our Christian prudence and our perseverance in well doing men will speak ill of us then this is our comfort that we suffer with Christ undeservedly and we must remember his saying Mat. 5.11 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly Let men think and say what they will we are happy if our conscience doth not accuse us before God Mens opinions and their judgments are false and inconstant and vain and can make us neither better nor worse and therefore St. Paul saith that if we seek to please men we cannot be the servants of Christ Gal. 1.10 For it is impossible for one to please all mens thoughts differ as their inclinations and what some admire others will censure When a Philosopher was told that others laugh'd at him he answer'd At ego non derideor that others might laugh but he was not laugh'd at for it neither did hurt nor afflict him Meaning that those injuries are nothing for which we our selves will not be concern'd CHAP. XXIII Remedies against Discontent and Anger for what abuses we receive 1. IT would be much to the purpose of comfort and patience in all our adversities to fix our minds stedfastly upon God and take it off of our trouble which we increase by reflecting on it for whilst we affect our selves with pitty at the consideration of what we suffer we soften our spirits and the sense of our misery makes the deeper impression upon them Now all our afflictions proceeding from a present or a feared loss the best and most universal remedy against them would be to set our affections upon that supreme increated Good which is subject to no change and can never be taken away from them that love it And that we may also observe an outward Decorum and not disgrace our selves by giving way to impotent passions we must refrain and quite hold in our tongue as soon as we find our selves provoked by any word or deed for as it is a symptom of a weak stomach not to be able to digest harder meat so 't is a certain sign of a poor and weakly spirit not to have strength enough to bear with a cross word or a cross accident and it was the saying of a Wise and Religious man that he never found any thing so grievous but by silence he did overcome it For whatever others do to vex us comes to nothing if we slight it and if we shew our selves much concern'd we betray our weakness or our guilt and we make it appear that we well deserve the abuse 2. But 't will not be enough thus to repress our grief and our talkativeness we must farther reprove and humble our selves with the consideration of our sinfulness and unworthiness acknowledging we deserve more contempt than can be
therefore the evils men can do to us but those we do against our selves by an angry impatient and revengeful Spirit Let us but pray and labour for Christian Charity and it will make us invincible it will make us conquer and overcome all wrongs and afflictions Many waters cannot quench love neither can the flouds drown it Cant. 8.7 The waters of Calamities and Persecutions cannot put out that bright and ever-burning flame kindled by God in pious hearts CHAP. XXXIX That the love of the Supreme Good comprehends all goodness 1. GOD is our true and sovereign good him we must love with all our soul and strength and to him we must direct all our ways For the love of God comprehends all vertue and godliness it is temperance whereby we despise the pride and delights of the World that God may have our whole hearts to himself it is constancy whereby we patiently bear any cross for and from God It is justice whereby we serve and obey God alone and with due moderation command his creatures it is prudence and the highest wisdom whereby we diligently avoid the obstacles and use the means to come to God it is all that can make us good and make us happy Now God must be lov'd for himself for nothing can be better than God he is infinitely good and the beginning and end of all goodness Therefore other things must be lov'd only for his sake and in such proportion as they are more or less related to him but he must be lov'd on his own account as much as is possible without bounds or measures for his perfections are vast enough to swallow up all our affections nay they infinitely exceed them so that nothing must share our love with him it is all infinitely more than due to him 2. It much concerns us therefore to be very careful that those lower sensible goods wherewith we converse in this Earth do not steal our hearts from God the giver of them For though we set the greater value upon things Spiritual and Eternal yet because now they are out of our sight and we cannot reach them our affections to them are dull and heavy and must be forc'd and listed up whereas they are brisk and swift to such things as are the object of sense and we naturally fall down to our sensual nature and without great care we cannot avoid to be by it cheated into self-love If we would therefore be replenish'd with the Holy and Beatifying Love of God we must first cast the World out of our hearts for as a full vessel cannot receive better liquor except it be emptied no more can our hearts love the Creator if they are possest by creatures Therefore saith Saint John the beloved Apostle of Jesus Love not the world neither the things that are in the world for if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2.15 Worldly things are made for our use and there is in them some beauty but how much more beautiful is he that made them and made us for the enjoyment of himself He that seeks for happiness out of God shall never find it but if we love him above all things then we are certainly happy for he also loves us and his favour is all CHAP. XL. Wherein consists the Love of God 1. IT consists chiefly in joyfully suffering for God for Love is a passion and he therefore loves most that is most patient as the Blessed Apostles returned from the Council rejoycing that they had been worthy to suffer shame and stripes for the name of Jesus There may be much of nature in that tenderness of devout affection and those tears that proceed from it which are observ'd in some but true vertues and solid joys do proceed from a Love practical and obediential For he that truly loves obeys in all things cheerfully for savour not for fear and if any burthen unpleasant to the flesh be laid upon him Love makes it light and acceptable too Therefore the Scripture saith that Gods Commandments are not grievous to let us know we are not yet perfect in Love when we find them grievous and difficult and that we should pray and labour for an increase of Charity The keeping of Gods Commandments is doubtless very hard to them that are acted by fear but Perfect Love casteth out Fear and as it fulfills the Law so it makes it easie and delightful to us For there is no trouble nor difficulty in that service which Love obligeth to what duties it binds on a good servant are ever thought pleasant and readily discharg'd whereas the same imposed by fear will make subjection grievous and obedience to be cavill'd at and by some means eluded 2. By this they are convinc'd to want the Love of God who complain of the strictness of Gospel-precept and count morality a needless burthen and by pretences and objections seek to loosen the yoke that they may shake it off Such are they that have itching ears and heap to themselves teachers after their own heart such as may more comply with their humor and inlarge their wanton liberty by restraining Gods Laws and the injunctions of his Church For men now adays will not be held in by duty but will range according to their will they have disputed themselves out of meekness and Charity and now that their actions are not govern'd by plain precepts but by opinions and parties they may be warranted to do in a manner whatever they lust But alass before Christs dreadful Tribunal we shall not he judged by vulgar opinions nor by the exceptions of contentious men but by truth and by divine Laws There mens fancies and relaxations and the doctrine of probability as some do teach it will be found to hare been only pernicious cheats whereby men sought to warrant their looseness and disobedience 3. But these things are not weighed nor understood but by them that sincerely love God and are therefore ready always to obey him in all things he requires For 't is by Love that the Soul gives up her self to God and by cleaving to him becomes one will and one spirit with him for God is Love saith the Scripture and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 And from this union flows an holy peace and a delicious joy when by love we are subject to our Beloved and are possest of him in whom and by whom are all things and who is the fountain of all happiness and the satisfaction of all our desires Now by this shall a man know whether he truly loves God and adheres to him if God be the last end of all his purposes and actions if his thoughts and desires always run after him and if above all things he seeks to please and to obtain him CHAP. XLI That there is more of Love in Practical Knowledge than in Speculation 1. TO desire knowledge is natural to man and still the more