Now this degree which this Author mentions, is attainable by Speculative Knowledge,(nor is it to be doubted but that he had reach’d it himself;) but not that which we have just now mention’d, which notwithstanding is not so much different from it in kind as in degree:  for in that which I mention’d there are no Discoveries made which contradict those which this Author means; but the difference consists in this, viz. that in our way there is a greater degree of Clearness and Perspicuity than there is in the other; for in this we apprehend things by the help of something, which we cannot properly call a Power; nor indeed will any of those words, which are either us’d in common discourse, or occur in the Writings of the Learned, serve to express That, by which this sort of Perception do’s apprehend.

This degree, which I have already mention’d, (and which perhaps I should never have had any taste of, if your request had not put me upon a farther search) is the very same thing which Avicenna means, where he says; Then when a Man’s desires are raised to a good pitch, and he is competently well exercised in that way, there will appear to him some small glimmerings of the Truth, as it were flashes of Lightning, very delightful, which just shine upon him, and then go out; Then the more he exercises himself, the oftner he’ll perceive ’em, till at last he’ll become so well acquainted with them, that they will occur to him spontaneously, without any exercise at all; and then, as soon as he perceives any thing, he applies himself to the Divine Essence, so as to retain some impression of it; then something occurs, to him on a sudden, whereby he begins to discern the Truth in every thing; till, through frequent exercise, he at last attains to a perfect Tranquility; and that which us’d to appear to him only by fits and starts, becomes habitual; and that which was only a glimmering before, a constant Light; and he obtains a constant and steady Knowledge. Thus far Avicenna.  Besides, he has given an account of those several steps and degrees by which a Man is brought to this perfection; till his Soul is like a polish’d Looking-glass, in which he beholds the Truth:  and then he swims in pleasure, and rejoyces exceedingly in his Mind, because of the impressions of Truth which he perceives in it, When he is once attain’d thus far, the next thing which employs him is, that he sometimes looks towards Truth, and sometimes towards himself; and thus he fluctuates between both, till he retires from himself wholly, and looks only to-ward the Divine Essence; and if he do’s at any time look towards his own Soul, the only reason is, because that looks to-wards God; and from thence arises a perfect Conjunction [with God.]