And on the other hand, the more dull and ignorant any soul is, the more base and ungenerous, the more senseless it is of the goodness of God, the more averse to humble confession and repentance.
Devotion therefore is so far from being best suited to little, ignorant minds, that a true elevation of soul, a lively sense of honour, and great knowledge of God and ourselves, are the greatest helps that our devotion hath.
4. On the other hand, it shall be made appear, that indevotion is founded in the most excessive ignorance.
And, first, Our blessed Lord and his apostles were eminent instances of great devotion. Now if we will grant, (as all Christians must grant) that their great devotion was founded in a true knowledge of the nature of devotion, the nature of God, and the nature of man, then it is plain, that all those that are insensible of devotion, are in this excessive state of ignorance; they neither know God, nor themselves, nor devotion.
Again, how comes it that most people have recourse to devotion, when they are in sickness, distress, or fear of death? Is it not because this state shews them more of the want of God, and their own weakness, than they perceive at other times? Is it not because their approaching end, convinces them of something which they did not half perceive before?
Now if devotion, at these seasons, is the effect of a better knowledge of God and ourselves, then the neglect of devotion at other times is owing to ignorance of God and ourselves.
5. Farther, as indevotion is ignorance, so it is the most shameful ignorance, and such as is to be charged with the greatest folly.
This will fully appear to any one that considers by what rules we are to judge of the excellency of any knowledge, or the shamefulness of any ignorance.
Now knowledge itself would be no excellence, nor ignorance any reproach to us, but that we are rational creatures.
It follows plainly, that knowledge which is most suitable to our rational nature, and which most concerns us, as such, to know, is our highest, finest knowledge; and that ignorance which relates to things that are most essential to us, as rational creatures, and which we are most concerned to know, is, of all others, the most gross and shameful ignorance.