Let but the intention of the mind be strongly carried another way, and for that time, (though there be no guilt or wound upon the soul) the most pleasant enjoyments lose their pleasure. What deliglit, think you, would bags of gold, sumptuous feasts, or ex- quisite melody have afforded to Archimedes, when he was wholly intent upon his mathematical lines ? By this then it is evident, that the rise of all pleasure is in the mind, and the most agreeable and pleasing objects and enjoyments signify nothing without it : the mind must be found in itself, and at leisure to attend them, or we can have no pleasure from them.
Consid. J^. Of all natural pleasures in the wo?-ld, intellectual plea- sures arejhund to be most agreeable, and connatural to the soul of man.
The more refined and remote from sense any pleasure is, the more grateful is it to the soul ; those are certainly the sweetest de- lights that spring out of the mind. A drop of intellectual pleasure is valued by a generous and well-tempered soul, above the whole ocean of impure joys, which qome to it sophisticated and tinged through the muddy channels of sense.
No sensuahsts in the world can extract such pleasure out of gold, silver, meat and drink ; as a searching and contemplating mind finds in the discovery of truth. * Heinsius, that learned library- keeper of Leyden, professed, " That when he had shut up him- " self among so many illustrious souls, he seemed to sit down there» " as in the very lap of eternity, and heartily pitied the rich and " covetous worldlings, that were strangers to his delights.**
* In qua simulac pedem posui,foribus jiessulum obdo, et in ipso cclertiitatis gremio, inter tot Ulustres animas sedeni mihi suviOy cum ingcnti quidem animo : ut subiiide magnaium misereor, qui hancjalicitatem ignorant, Epist. prin.
4i A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAK.
And when * Cardan tells us, " That to know the secrets of na- " ture, and the order of the universe, hath greater pleasure and " sweetness in it, than the thought of man can fathom, or any " mortal hope for.'' " Yea, such beauties, saith f Plutarch, there " are in the study of the mathematics, that it were unworthy to *" compare such baubles and bubbles, as riches with it."*' " Yea, " saith another, it were a sweet thing to be extinguished in those " studies +.''
Julius Scaliger was so delighted with poetry, that he protested he had rather be the author of twelve verses in Lucan, than em- peror of Germany. And to say truth, " there is a kind of enchant- " ing sweetness in those intellectual pleasures and feasts of the " mind ; such a delight as hardly suffers the mind to be pulled " away from them §." These pleasures have a finer edge, a higher gust, a more agreeable savour to the mind than sensitive ones ; as approaching much nearer to the nature of the soul, which is spi- ritual.
Consid. 3. And as intellectual pleasures do as far exceed all sen- sitive pleasures, as those which are proper to a man, do those which we have in conmnon with beasts : So divine pleasures do again much more surm^ount intellectual ones. For what compare is there betwixt those joys which surprize a scholar in the discovery of the secrets of nature, and those that overwhelm and swallow up the Christian in the discovery of the glorious mysteries of redemption by Christ, and his own personal interest therein.
To solve ^e phcenomena of nature is pleasant, but to solve all the difficulties about our title to Christ and his covenant, that is ra^ vishing. Archimedes' ej^r/xa, " I have found it," was but the frisk, or skip of a boy, to that rapturous voice of the spouse, " My be- " loved is mine, and I am his." These are entertainments for angels, 1 Pet. i. 11. a short salvation for the season it is felt and tasted, 1 Pet. i. 8. after these delights, all others are insipid and dry. And yet one step higher.
Consid. 4. All that divine pleasiire, which ever the holiest and de- voutest soul enjoyed in the body, is hut a sip or preUbation, coin- pared ccith those full draughts it hath in the uncmbodied state.
Whilst it is embodied, it rejoiceth in the earnests and pledges of joy ; but when it is unembodied, it receives the full sum ; Psal. xvi.
* Jrcanrt cccli^ nahirce secreta, ordinem universi scire ; Tnajoru Jcelicitatis et dulcedinis est, gu-avi cogitnlione gtiis assequi potest^ aut mortalis sperare.
f Talis est mnthematum pulchritudo, vt his indignum sit divitiarum phaleras istas et bullas et puerilici sj^ectacula compnrari.
f Dulce est extingui mathcniaticarum artium studio. Leon. Digg.
§ Talis siiavitasy ut cum quis ea drgustatxrit, quasi Circeis jjoculis captus, non potest un- quam ab illis diidli. Cardan.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAX- 45
11, " In thy presence is fulness of joy/"* This fulness of joy is not to be expected, because not to be supported in this world. The joy of heaven would quickly make the hoops of nature fly. When a good man had but a little more than ordinary joy of the Lord poured into his soul, he was heard to cry, Hold, Lord, hold ! thy poor creature is but a clay vessel, and can hold no more ! These pleasures the soul hath in the body, are of the same kind indeed with those in heaven, but are exceeding short of them in divers other respects.
1. The spiritual pleasures the soul hath in the body, are b\it by reflection ; but those it enjoys out of the body, are by immediate intuition, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. now in a glass, then face to face.
The pleasures it now hath, though they be of a divine nature, yet they are relished by the vitiated appetite of a sick and distem- pered soul ; the embodied soul is diseased and sickly, it hath many distempers hanging about it. Now we know the most pleasant things lose much of their pleasure to a sick man ; the separate soul is made perfect, thoroughly cured of all diseases, restored to its perfect health ; and consequently, divine pleasures must needs have a higher gust and relish in heaven, than ever they had on earth.
'3. The pleasures of a gracious soul on earth are but rare and seldom, meeting with many and long interruptions. And many of them occasioned by the body, which often calls down the soul to attend its necessities, and converse with things of a far diff*erent nature ; but from these, and all other ungrateful and prcjudical avocations, the separated soul is discharged, and set free ; so that its whole eternity is spent in the highest delights.
4. The highest pleasures of a gracious soul in the body, are but the pleasures of an uncentered soul, which is still gravitating and striving forward, and consequently can be but low and very imper- fect, in comparison with those it enjoys, when it is centered and fixed in its everlasting rest. They differ as the shadow of the la^ bourer, for an hour in the day, from his rest in his bed, when his work is ended.