The fourth SECTION. Of Adoration. The first Act of Devotion.
YOu are to observe, that Praise is one thing, Ho∣nour another, Reverence another, Adoration an∣other. Praise consists properly in words, Honour in outward signs, Reverence in inward respect, but Ado∣ration (considered at large) comprehends all these acts with much eminence. For, Adoration is an act of Re∣ligion, whereby we do homage to the sovereignty of God with a lowly submission, which is not communicable to any creature.
This act is formed and composed of four things, which are as it were its four Elements. The first is a strong apprehension of the greatness and excellency of God. The second, a consideration of our own meanness, in comparison of that great Majesty. The third, a fervent act of the will, which at the thought hereof melts it self into respect. And the fourth, an outward expression both of the mouth and ge∣stures of the body, testifying the resentment of our heart.
To discharge her self in this act of Adoration, the soul first conceives▪ God, great, dreadfull, majestick; she conceives him as a sea, infinite in essence, goodness, beatitude, comprehending within himself all Being, all Good, all Truth; and not onely comprehending, but anticipating it to all eternity with an incompa∣rable eminence.
She beholds the whole universe, in the immensity of God, like a spunge in the midst of the Ocean, an atome in the air, and a little diamond set in the high∣est Heaven. She acknowledgeth God to be the Foundation of all things possible, the Super-essential being of all things that are, and that are not, with∣out whom nothing can subsist, neither actually nor potentially, and that he hath no hold which the un∣derstanding may take, to have knowledge of him. She represents God to her self, as the beginning and end of all things, the Creatour, the Founder, the Ba∣sis, the Support, the Place, the Continuation, the Bound, the Order, the Tie, the Concord, the Con∣summation of all creatures; who hath within him∣self all the good of Angels, of men, and universal Nature; who hath all glory, all dignities, all riches, all treasures, all pleasures, all comforts, all delights, all joys, all Beatitudes, as Lessius very well explains in his Treatise of Infinitie.
This soul unsatisfied, walks leisurely into these fourteen depths of greatness, which are in God; that is, Infinitie, Immensitie, Immutabilitie, Eternitie, Omni∣potence, Wisdom, Perfection, Holiness, Bountie, Domi∣nion, Providence, Mercie, Justice, and the End to which all things tend.
She considers every perfection, first absolutely, then by comparison and application, making return upon her self, and comparing this Infinitie of God with her nothing, this Immensitie with her smalness, this Immutabilitie with her inconstancy, this Eternitie with the shortness of this temporal life, this Omnipotence with her weakness, this Wisdom with her ignorance, this Per∣fection with her defects, this Holiness with her vice, this Bountie with her ingratitude, this Dominion with her povertie, this Providence with her stupiditie, this Mer∣cie with her obdurateness, this Justice with her iniquity, this End to which all things tend, with the necessarie de∣pendances which arise from her infirmities.
Here she is ravished in God, as a little pismire in the Sun, and like Aristotle, who (as it is said) being not able to comprehend the ebbe and flow of an arm of the Sea, threw himself into it: so she drowneth her self in such a multitude of wonders, not willing any longer to measure her love by the ell of her knowledge.
She is transported in this great labyrinth of mi∣racles, otherwise than the Queen of Sheba at sight of the Palace of Solomon: and cannot at the last but break forth into an outward act, and say: My God, and my All, the God of my heart, my portion and my inheritance to all Eternitie!