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…

By all which we are given to understand, that when at any time the ordinary course of Nature is intermitted, when any creature forsakes its native motion, and falleth into confusion and disorder, there is then admitted a breach of a Law; or, as Aristotle calls it, [Greek or Hebrew], an error, (which Saint James telleth us, is [Greek or Hebrew], an iniquity of Nature) also a certain levity, unusefulness, and emptiness of true worth, which I call in Saint Pauls phrase, the vanity of the Creature: thirdly, looseness, decay, and dissolution; and thereupon, discord and unserviceablenesse towards the other parts, with which it should jointly conspire for the glory of the whole.

By all which we are given to understand, that when at any time the ordinarie course of Nature is intermitted, when any creature forsakes its native motion, and falleth into confusion and disorder, there is then admitted a breach of a Law; or, as Aristotle calls it, 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, an error, (which Saint Iames telleth us, is 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, an iniquitie of Nature) also a certaine levitie, unusefulnesse, and emptinesse of true worth, which I call in Saint Pauls phrase, the vanitie of the Creature: thirdly, loosenesse, decay, and dissolution; and thereupon, discord and unserviceablenesse towards the other parts, with which it should jointly conspire for the glory of the whole.

These are the inconveniences that follow Natures; how much greater are those, which follow Reasons disobedience: for all this, touching the Passions of Nature, I have observed only to give light unto those of Reason, there being the same proportion of government in them all; saving that, what in things destitute of all knowledge, is guided by the Law-giver himself, is in the rest performed by a knowledge conjoined, and intrinsical ⟨p. 36⟩to the Worker▪ and this is either Mental, or Sensitive, or Rational▪ from all which, arise sundry degrees of Motions, or Passions: Mental Passions, are those high, pure, and abstracted delights, or other the like agitations of the supreme part of the Understanding, which Aristotle calleth [Greek or Hebrew], the Latins, Mens, or Apex animi; which are the most simple actions of the Mind, wherein is the least intermixtion or commerce with inferior and earthy faculties. Which Motions are grounded first on an extraordinary Knowledge, either of Vision and Revelation, or of an exquisite natural Apprehension both which are beyond the compass of usual Industry, here to attain unto: The former of these, I call with the School-men, Ecstasy and Rapture; such as Saint Pauls was (for so himself calleth it) Novi hominem