A10663:554
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…
A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the several dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edward Reynolds, late preacher to the honourable society of Lincoln's Inn: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire.A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the severall dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edvvard Reynoldes, late preacher to the honorable society of Lincoln's Inne: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire.
London: printed by R. Hearne and John Norton for Robert Bostock, 1640
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
CHAP. XXIV. Of the causes of Hope, Want, and Weakness together, Experience and Knowledge. In what sense Ignorance may be said to strengthen, and Knowledge to weaken Hope: Examples quicken more than Precept. Provision of Aids: the uncertainty of outward means to establish Hope, Goodness of Nature, Faith and Credulity, wise Confidence.
CHAP. XXIV. Of the causes of Hope, Want, and Weakenesse together, Experience and Knowledge. In what sence Ignorance may be said to strengthen, and Knowledge to weaken Hope: Examples quicken more than Precept. Provision of Ayds: the uncertainty of outward means to establish Hope, Goodnesse of Nature, Faith and Credulity, wise Confidence.
The next things to be considered, are the causes of this Passion: the first impulsive cause of Hope is our Want, & our Weakness put together, the one driving us ad Bonum, to the Object; the other ad Auxilium, to the Aid (and wheresoever there is Indigence, there is Impotence likewise.) Now in what man soever we find these two unsupplied, there is the root and fundamental ground of Hope; notwithstanding for the defects of other conditions, the creature may be carried to the quite opposite Passion▪ out of an apprehension of an inevitable subjection unto evil, and utter banishment from the fountain of good. So then of those three estates of man; the estate of Fruition, which is their Sabbath and rest; the estate of Travel, which is the day ⟨p. 241⟩of work, and the estate of damnation, which is the night of despair: In the first we have the accomplishment; in the third the final overthrow; in the second the exercise of our Hopes:) because in that alone our Indigence may by Gods fullness be filled, and our Impotence by his Will and Power supplied. In which respect, all men have room for Hope to enjoy God their last Good; though not a hope of Confidence, assurance, and Expectation, which is peculiar only unto the godly (who alone have a present interest in his promises;) yet such a general Hope as may well suffice to sop the mouth of any temptation, whereby we are solicited to undervalue the Power, or to conclude the unwillingness of God to help us.