Digital Donne: the Online Variorum
The 1654 Prose Letters Letter 36, cont. (p.110) |
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are capable and fit for such revelations when they are offered. If at any time I seem to studie you more inquisitively, it is for no other end but to know how to pre- sent you to God in my prayers, and what to ask of him for you; for even that holy exercise may not be done inopportunely, no nor importunely. I finde little errour in that Grecians counsell, who saies, If thou ask any think of God, offer no sacrifice, nor ask elegantly, nor vehemently, but remem- ber that thou wouldest not give to such an asker: Nor in his other Countriman, who affirms sacrifice of blood to be so unpro- portionable to God, that perfumes, though much more spirituall, are too grosse. Yea words which are our subtillest and delica- test outward creatures, being composed of thoughts and breath, are so muddie, so thick, that our thoughts themselves are so, because (except at the first rising) they are ever leavened with passions and affections: And that advantage of nearer familiarity with God, which the act of incarnation [CW: gave] |
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