SECT. XIII.
I Desire it may be considered farther,
(3) That God himself affords his intimacies and converses to the better Souls, that are prepared for it; which is a priviledge infinitely beyond Angelical Correspondence.
I consess the proud and phantastick pretences of many of the conceited Melancholists in this Age, to Divine Communion, have prejudiced divers intelligent Persons against the belief of any such happy vouchsafement; so that they conclude the Doctrine of immediate Communion with the Deity in this Life to be but an high-flown notion of warm Imagination, and overluscious Self-flattery; and I acknowledge I have my self had thoughts of this nature, supposing Communion with God to be nothing else but the exercise of vertue, and that Peace, and those Comforts which naturally result from it.
But I have considered since, that God's more near and immediate imparting himself to the Soul that is prepared for that happiness by divine Love, Humility and Resignation, in the way of a vital touch, and sense, is a thing possible in it self, and will be a great part of our Heaven. That Glory is begun in Grace, and God is pleased to give some excellent Souls the happy Antepast. That holy Men in ancient times have sought and gloried in this Enjoyment, and never complained so sorely as when it was with-held, and interrupted. That the expressions of Scripture ran infinitely this way, and the best of Modern good Men, do from their own experience attest it, That this spiritualizeth Religion, and renders its enjoyments more comfortable and delicious. That it keeps the Soul under a vivid sense of God, and is a grand security against Temptation. That it holds it steady amid the Flatteries of a prosperous State, and gives it the most grounded anchorage and support amid the Waves of an adverse Condition. That 'tis the noblest encouragement to Vertue, and the bigest assurance of an happy Immortality. I say, I considered these weighty things, and wondred at the carelesness and prejudice of thoughts that occasion'd my suspecting the reality of so glorious a Priviledge; I saw how little reason there is in denying matters of inward sense, because our selves do not feel them, or cannot form an apprehension of them in our Minds. I am convinc'd that things of gust and relish must
