A86527:69
Heautonaparnumenos
Heautonaparnumenos: or A treatise of self-denial. Intended for the pulpit; but now committed to the press for the public benefit.Heautonaparnumenos: or A treatise of self-denyall. Intended for the pulpit; but now committed to the presse for the publike benefit.
London: printed by W. Wilson for Richard Royston, 1646
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.
So then 'tis plain, this him that here is Agent, is something different from himself, that here is Patient, and must Deny him. And yet something without himself it is not, for it must Deny the whole Man, every high Thought, every strong hold, every power and faculty in him, not only the errors of his Understanding, but also the contumacy of his Will, and the Pravity of his Affections; and all this Uniformly, without any Partiality at all: But this it cannot do, unless it be within our Inmost parts, unless it be intus & in cute, as near us as our very thoughts; therefore an Angelic Nature it cannot be, for to our Thoughts they are all strangers.
So then 'tis plaine, this him that here is Agent, is something different from himselfe, that here is Patient, and must Deny him. And yet something without himselfe it is not, for it must Deny the whole Man, every high Thought, every strong hold, every power and faculty in him, not onely the errors of his Ʋnderstanding, but also the contumacy of his Will, and the Pravity of his Affections; and all this Ʋniformely, without any Partiality at all: But this it cannot doe, unlesse it be within our Inmost parts, unlesse it be intus & in cute, as neare us as our very thoughts; therefore an Angelick Nature it cannot be, for to our Thoughts they are all strangers.
Nor can it be any Nature beneath our Selves; for, ye see, him is here the Agent, our Self is the Patient, that must be Denied: Now, as the Greater must Bless, so must it Deny the Lesser too,1 (especially this Denial being no other, but, as I said, an act of Melioration or a Blessing) for 'tis a general and true Rule, Quicquid patitur, patitur à fortiori, The weakest ever suffers and goes to the Wall. Here then sure it must be so, for, I ask, How if it should happen, that the Patient, being the stronger, should refuse to be Denied, and, like a sturdy Beggar, turn the Denial upon the Agent, as surely it would do? should it then be Patient and the other Agent any longer? No sure, the Denial would be frustrate, it would be but formal, at the most, it could not be real.