The Government of the Thoughts, Chapter 1 – Chapter 2
CHAP. I. Of the Chief Governor, the Soul.
THERE are diversity of Things, of whose Being we know, whose Quality we know not: All confess we enjoy a Soul which Commandeth, and Restraineth, in us. What a one it is, none can tell. Hence are those many Disputes concerning its Essence, Seat and Subject, with the subordinate Faculties of it. No Person hath throughly been acquainted with this secret Governor in Man. Some Philosophers have defined it a Harmony: Some a Divine Vertue, a Particle of the Deity: Some the most exile and slender Air: Some, a Blood: Some, Heat, or Fire: Some, Number. So innate is Error, that we most Err concerning our own selves.
2. MORE judiciously do they define it, who attest it an Immortal Spirit, an Incorporeal Substance, Created by Infusion, and Infused in its Creaation, made to the Image of the Creator, capable of the light of Understanding, Wisdom, Holiness, Blessedness, and Eternity: So that in its conjunction with the Body, it Animateth, giveth Life, Action, and Motion, (wherein it differeth from an Angel) and in its separation from the Body for a time (untill it shall be re-united at the Resurrection) it Subsisteth, as the Angels, and hath its proper Acts and Apprehensions, as they have: Now, as the Eye beholds the Eye in a Glass; so the Soul discerneth it self by a kind of Reflex.
3. THE Soul is a divine Ghost sent from Heaven, into these Tabernacles of Clay, to give them Life and govern them; yet is it neither visible coming nor departing: It is an Immortal Form of Mortality: The Body Decayeth, the Soul doth not, being neither subject to Time nor Age: The Motions thereof are Eternal; it apprehendeth things Present, Absent, Past, and Future; it Deliberateth, Formeth, Directeth, Discourseth, Judgeth, Doubteth, Concludeth: So excellent it is, that Cicero the Orator said, God hath not given any thing so Divine to Man; and that there are certain Lineaments thereof more beautiful than of the Body.
4. THE Body is adorned by the Soul; without which, Beauty it self appears Gastly: And good Abraham said, Give me a possession of a Burying-place, that I may Bury my Dead out of my sight, Gen. 23.4. The Soul cannot be Deformed by any unevenness, discomposure, or disproportion of the Body which it Animateth: As a beautiful Creature is the same in a poor Cottage, as in a magnificent Palace: So is Vertue, which is the Beauty of the Soul. Could we but behold the Soul of a Saint, there's no Embellishment on Earth so Glorious; no Created Beauty here of so divine a Lustre.
5. THE Soul, tho now enclosed in Obscurity (having only some diviner Breathings in the Raptures and Heavenly Contemplations, which sometimes allarum it up, like Moses, to the Mount, or like a Jacob's Ladder, ascendeth it into God's Presence) hath some knowledge of its Original by Faith and Joy unspeakable in the apprehension thereof, 1 Pet. 1.8. which arresteth the Desire, as appeared in St. Peter seeing Christ's Transfiguration, Matt. 17. and St. Paul's wishing to be Dissolved, was a signal Evidence of our interest in Heaven; therefore our Pusilanimity cannot deter us from it, Phil. 1.
6. HE knoweth whether he shall go who remembreth whence he came: But what shall be the transcendent Beauty of a Devout Soul in its Separation, when it shall be restored to its native Heaven; when it shall be all Illumination, and God shall be all in all? Christ's Raiment on the Mount became shining white as Snow, so as no Fuller on Earth could white them, Mark 9.3. And Moses Face when he talked with God, became so Glorious, that Israel could not behold it without a Veil, 2 Cor. 3.13. What then shall our Glory be when we shall be like Christ? 1 Joh. 3.2.
CHAP. II. Of the Faculties of the Soul.
THE Faculties of the Soul are the Vnderstanding, Will, Memory, Affections, and Senses Internal and External. My purpose being not to enter the List with Philosophers, but to direct Christians, I shall not further consider these, but what concerns the Practical part, and right governing the thoughts of the Heart and Mind, to the Service of God and our Mortification, and the means of qualifying our selves for it.
2. THE Heart, in Scripture often taken for the principal Seat of the rational Soul, imparteth any Faculty hereof: The Mind is the inward act, the result and product of its Reason, and Discourses the Thoughts. The Learned affirm, the Mind is the fountain of Counsel, and Soul of Life: And again, we understand by the Mind, and live by the Soul. The Mind of Man is sometimes a Sovereign, to govern in Vertue and Sanctimony it self; and the Body sometimes a Tyrant, and indulging to Vice, which like the Worm bred in the Wood destroyeth its own Original: It is often misled by tumultuous Passions, Lusts, Vain-desires, and other Perturbations of a discomposed Mind, which unthron'd Reason dangerously gains an Usurpation.
3. A prudent Man, whose Knowledge is his Life, in the light, height, and use thereof, differing him not only from the Brutes, but ignorant Men; doth principally enjoy himself in his Mind and inward Man. There is indeed in humane Possessions, nothing great and excellent, but a magnanimous and good Mind; contemning External Greatness, or supposed Excellencies, such as Power, Strength, Riches, Beauty, Wit, &c. obvious to Sense in respect of that which is within, apprehensible by the enlightned Understanding.
4. AND certainly the All-wise God, who Created the Affections, ordained them to some excellent end and use in the Soul, as Hand-maids to Devotion and Religion: neithere would he in our Regeneration, kill, but correct them, by moderating them, where they grow extream; and retrenching them into their own Channels, where they over-flow their banks, like over-rank Water Sources, becoming muddy and choaked up with that which they fetch in from without; or reducing them, where they are Exorbitant.
5. ALL Extreams are foolish and dangerous: A Stoical Apathie is incompatible with a well-composed Mind, as a violent Passion with a Prudent: The dead Calm corrupteth Air and Water, and violent Blasts disturb them; the moderate more safely purifie; but the mean is best. Affections are, as it is said of Caligula, There is no better Servant, nor worse Master; they are good commanded, but mischievous reigning; like Fire, and Water, very necessary, and very destructive.
6. WITHOUT Love there can be no acceptable Service; without Anger, no Zeal; without Fear, no co-ercive power in the Soul; without Hope, no Comfort; which bringeth us to a necessary Consideration of the Hearts Corruption; the vanity and exorbitancy of the Thoughts; and the necessity of their Regulations by some Rules of Practice.