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…

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 ¹raptum; and such as was the Passions of the Mind, in the Prophets and holy men of God; when they were inspired with such heavenly Revelations, as did slide into the Soul with that lustre and abundance of Light, that they could not but ravish it with ineffable and glorious delight. And such, no doubt, is that joy unspeakable, and Peace past understanding, which the Apostle makes to be the fruits of the Spirit of God, in those hearts wherein he lodgeth; whereby the purest and most abstracted part of the Soul, the Mind, is lifted up to some glimpses and apprehensions of that future Glory, which in Heaven doth fill the spirits of men with ineffable Light.

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 onely 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 himselfe, is in the rest performed by a knowledge conjoyn'd, and intrinsecall