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…

As we see in external riches of the body, none desire them more eagerly than those that possess them; and the more virtuous the Soul of man is, the more is the heart enlarged in the Appetition of a greater measure▪ as the putting in of some water into a Pump, doth draw forth more. No man is so importunate in praying, Lord help mine unbelief, as he that can say Lord I believe. Thus even present things may be desired in order ⟨p. 168⟩to improvement, and further degrees of them: as many times a man hath a better stomach to his meat after he hath begun to eat, than when he first sate down unto it. Again, things present may be the Object of our Desires unto continuance, as he that delighteth in a good which he hath, desireth the continuance of that Delight. And therefore Life, even while it is possessed it is desired, because the possession of it doth not cause the Appetite to nauseate or surfeit upon it. Few men there are who desire not old Age, not as it is old Age, and importeth decay, decrepidnesse, and defects of Nature: For a young man doth not desire to be old now; but as it implieth the longer and fuller possession of Life: For a man being conscious to himself, first of his own insufficiency to make himself happy, from and within himself; and next of the immortality of his Nature: as upon the former reason, he is busied in sending abroad his Desires (as the Purveyors and Caterers of the Soul) to bring in such things as may promote perfection: so those very Desires having succeeded, do farther endeavour the satisfaction of Nature,¹ by moving towards the Perpetuity of what they have procured. It was a sordid and brutish wish of Philoenus in the Philosopher, who wished that he had the throat of a Crane or Vulture that the pleasure of his taste might last the longer (it being the Wisdom of Nature, intending the chief Perfections of Man to his Soul, to make his Bodily Pleasures the shorter.) But surely the Soul of Man having a reach ⟨p. 169⟩as far as Immortality, may justly desire as well the Perpetuity as the Presence of those good things wherein standeth her proper perfection.

As we see in externall riches of the body, none desire them more eagerly than those that possesse them; and the more vertuous the Soule of man is, the more is the heart enlarged in the Appetition of a greater measure as the putting in of some water into a Pump, doth draw forth more. No man is so importunate in praying, Lord help mine unbeliefe, as hee that can say Lord I beleeve. Thus even present things may be desired in order