ti; he I/ exation of the Spirit. it finkes to the Center of the heart : As in nature, the Heavens we know are alway, calme, ferene, uniforme, undiffurbed ; they are the clouds and lower regions that thunder and bluffer ; The Sunne and Starres raife up n Fogges fo high, as that they may imprint any reali blot upon the beautie of thofe purer bodies , or difquiettheir conffant and regular motions ; but in the Lower regions, by reafon of their neareneffe to the earth, they frequent- ly raife up fuck Meteors as often breake forth into thun- ders and ternpefts; fo the more heavenly theminde is, the more untainted doth it kecpe it felfe from the corrup- tions and temptations of worldly things, the more quiet and compofed is it in all effates; but in rnindes u eerely fenfuall, the hotter Gods favours Thine, and the fifer his raine fats upon them, the more Fogges are raifed, the higher Thornesgrow up, the moredarkneffe and diffra- &ions doe fhakc thefouleof fuch a man. As fire under water, the hotter it burnes, the fooner it is extinguifhed by the over - running of the water : fo earthly things raife up fuch tumultuary and difquiet thoughts in the mindes -of 'I men, as doth at laff quite ex tinguifh all the heat and com- fort which wasexpeded from them. Give mee leave to explaine this Vexation in tome one or two of Salomons particulars, and to unfold his en- forcements thereof out of them. And firff, to begin with that with which he begins ; The Knowledge of things, ei- ther naturall in thisprefent Text, or morali and civill,ver. 17. of both which bee concludeth that they are Vanitie and Vexation ofJirit. The firff argument hee takes from the weaknef eofit , either to reffore or corred any thing that is antiffe. That which crooked cannot be made firait . Wee may underhand it feverall wayes : Firff, All our knowledge, by reafon of mans corruption, is but a croo- ked, ragged, impedite knowledge, and for that rcafon a vexation to the minde : for rediitude is full of beautie, and crookedneffe of deformity. In mans Creation his under- handing
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