"O be at leisure to look within, and get David's Candle and Lanthorn to go into those dark Corners of your Soul with it, and it may be you may see that within which may make your Heart to ake, and your Joints to quiver, and your Spirits to faint within you."

— Janeway, James (1636?-1674)


Date
1667, 1710
Metaphor
"O be at leisure to look within, and get David's Candle and Lanthorn to go into those dark Corners of your Soul with it, and it may be you may see that within which may make your Heart to ake, and your Joints to quiver, and your Spirits to faint within you."
Metaphor in Context
But if you see nothing at all of the Treachery and Baseness that is in your Heart, search, and search again, it's your ignorance and Blindness, and not the Goodness of your State, that makes you to know nothing by your self. What, are you better than David? he was so jealous of his own Heart, that he dar'd not to trust to his own Examination of it, but he desires the great Heart-searcher to help him in this Work. Are you more excellent than Paul after his Conversion? had he more Reason to complain of himself than you have? O be at leisure to look within, and get David's Candle and Lanthorn to go into those dark Corners of your Soul with it, and it may be you may see that within which may make your Heart to ake, and your Joints to quiver, and your Spirits to faint within you. Paul was sometimes as confident as you, he took no Notice of the Enmity that was within against God, though he was as full of it as an Asp is of Poison; yet before he came acquainted with God the Case was altered with him; he was of another mind when that Light shined about him, and he cried out, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? he now thinks it is hard kicking against the Pricks, dangerous opposing of God, and persecuting of Christ in any of his Members; and he desires nothing in the World so much as to be reconciled to God, and to have him for his Friend, whom before he fought against as an Enemy.
(pp. 294-5)
Provenance
ECCO-TCP
Citation
At least 11 entries in ESTC (1667, 1669, 1671, 1673, 1677, 1685, 1710, 1730, 1760, 1761).

Text from Heaven Upon Earth: or, the Best Friend, in the Worst Times. Being a Legacy to London. By James Janeway. (London: Printed for Eben. Tracy, 1710.) <Link to ECCO-TCP>
Date of Entry
11/10/2013

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.