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 Corruptions of the Desires fastened on him, are the two Extremes of Excess and Defect. The Extremes of Excess are Supers•itlon and Idolatry; a worshipping of false gods, or a false worshipping of the True. Both proceeds from the confused mixture of Original Blindness, with the relics of natural Knowledge. This latter gives us a sight in the Thesis and General, that a God there is to be desired: but touching the Hypothesis, who that God is, with the Circumstances and manner of his Worship, Nature leaveth the Soul by occasion of the latter in a maze of of Darkness and unavoidable Doubting and Uncertainty. So that Nature gives light enough to discover the Necessity of a Duty; but not to clear the Means of Execution. Light enough to enjoin a walking; but the way being a narrow ⟨p. 539⟩way, is on every side hedged up from her view. The other Extreme of Defect, is either Atheism, in not acknowledging, or Ignorance in not seeing, that God whom we ought to serve and desire. Both which (if Affected and Voluntary, as usually they are) proceed either from Guilt; or a Consciousness of fearful Crimes, which make men study to flatter their distracted Spirits in the persuasion that no Judge sees them; or else from a Sensuality and a Desire and purpose to give Indulgence to themselves in their evil courses; thinking like that foolish Bird, that there is no Fowler to catch, no snare to entrap them, if their Eyes be but ceiled up, and their heads thrust into the hedge of their own darkness: Though herein both the Atheists discovers Divinity, and the Ignorant person Knowledge enough to convince their own Consciences, and condemn themselves.

The Corruptions of the Desires fastened on him, are the two Extremes of Excesse and Defect. The Extremes of Excesse are Supers•itlon and Idolatry; a worshipping of false gods, or a false worshipping of the True. Both proceeds from the confused mixture of Originall Blindnesse, with the reliques of naturall Knowledge. This latter gives us a sight in the Thesis and Generall, that a God there is to be desired: but touching the Hypothesis, who that God is, with the Circumstances and manner of his Worship, Nature leaveth the Soule by occasion of the latter in a maze of of Darknesse and unavoydable Doubting and Vncertainty. So that Nature gives light enough to discover the Necessity of a Duty; but not to cleere the Means of Execution. Light enough to enjoyne a walking; but the way being a narrow