A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the…A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the…

The last Condition (which is restrained only to the utmost end of mans desire) is that it be proposed, Sub ratione Immortalis, as an Immortal Good. The Endlessness of Happiness is that only which maketh it a perfect End. For the Mind of man naturally is carried to an Immortality of Being; and therefore also consequently to an Immortality of Happiness; it being a necessary Desire of all Natural Agents, to attain a Perfection proportionate to the measure of their Continuance. So then mans End must not be only Good, but for ever Good, Totally and Eternally: not only a Fullness of Joy in the nature of it; but a Fullness of Perpetuity in the Continuance. Most perfect in proportion in the Spirituality; most infinite in proportion to the Immortality of mans Soul. The Frailty and Languishing of any Good, and a Foresight of the loss thereof, with the ablest Mi•ds doth much weaken the Desire of it. And the reason is, because Providence and Forecast is a certain companion of the humane Nature; and he which is most a man, is most careful to contrive ⟨p. 526⟩the advancement of his Future Estate. It is bestial to fasten only upon Present Good; this being a main difference between the Understanding, and the Sensual Appetite, that this respecteth only the present Joy that is at hand; but that being secretly conscious of its own Immortality, fastens it self upon the remotest times, yea outruns all time, and suffers it self to be ever swallowed up with the Meditation and Providence of an Endless Happiness. And therefore¹ the reason that Aristotle brings against his Masters Ideas, argues an Understanding less Divine in this particular than Plato's was, when he saith that Eternity doth no more perfect the Nature of Good, than Continuance doth the Nature of White. For though it be true, that it is not any Essential part of Goodness in it self; yet it is a necessary and principal condition to make Goodness, Happiness; that is, an Adequate Object to mans Desires; there is not then the same proportion between Eternity and Good, as there is between Continuance and White: For Continuance is altogether Extrinsical and Irrelative in respect of White;

The last Condition (which is restrained onely to the utmost end of mans desire) is that it bee proposed, Sub ratione Immortalis, as an Immortall Good. The Endlesnesse of Happinesse is that only which maketh it a perfect End. For the Mind of man naturally is carried to an Immortality of Being; and therefore also consequently to an Immortality of Happinesss; it being a necessary Desire of all Naturall Agents, to attaine a Perfection proportionate to the measure of their Continuance. So then mans End must not be only Good, but for ever Good, Totally and Eternally: not onely a Fulnesse of Ioy in the nature of it; but a Fulnesse of Perpetuity in the Continuance. Most perfect in proportion in the Spirituality; most infinite in proportion to the Immortality of mans Soule. The Frailty and Languishing of any Good, and a Foresight of the losse thereof, with the ablest Mids doth much weaken the Desire of it. And the reason is, because Providence and Forecast is a certaine companion of the humane Nature; and he which is most a man, is most carefull to contrive