Sec. 61.  Thus far his Knowledge had brought him towards the end of the fifth Septenary from his Birth, viz. when he was 35 Years old.  And the Consideration of this Supream Agent was then so rooted in his Heart, that it diverted him from thinking upon any thing else:  and he so far forgot the Consideration of the Creatures, and the Enquiring into their Natures, that as soon as e’er he cast his Eyes upon any thing of what kind soever, he immediately perceiv’d in it the Footsteps of this Agent; and in an instant his Thoughts were taken off from the Creature, and and transferred to the Creator.  So that he was inflam’d with the desire of him, and his Heart was altogether withdrawn from thinking upon this inferior World, which contains the Objects of Sense, and wholly taken up with the Contemplation of the upper, Intellectual World.

Sec. 62.  Having now attain’d to the Knowledge of this Supream Being, of Permanent Existence, which has no Cause of his own Existence, but is the Cause why all things else exist; he was desirous to know by what Means he had attain’d this Knowledge, and by which of his Faculties he had apprehended this Being.  And first he examin’d all his Senses, viz. his Hearing, Sight, Smelling, Tasting and Feeling, and perceiv’d that all these apprehended nothing but Body, or what was in Body.  For the Hearing apprehended nothing but Sounds, and these came from the Undulation of the Air, when Bodies are struck one against another.  The Sight, apprehends Colours.  The Smelling, Odours.  The Taste, Savours.  And the Touch, the Temperatures and Dispositions of Bodies, such as Hardness Softness, Roughness ad Smoothness.  Nor does the Imagination apprehend any thing, but as it has Length, Breadth and Thickness.  Now all these things which are thus apprehended, are the Adjuncts of Bodies; nor can these Senses apprehend any thing else, because they are Faculties diffus’d through Bodies, and divided according to the division of Bodies, and for that reason cannot apprehend any thing else but divisible Body.  For since this Faculty is diffus’d through the visible Body, ’tis impossible, but that when it apprehends any thing whatsoever, that thing so apprehended, must be divided as the Faculty is divided.  For which Reason, no Faculty which is seated in Body, can apprehend any thing but what is Body, or in it.  Now we have already demonstrated, that this necessarily Existent Being is free in every respect from all Properties of Body; and consequently not to be apprehended, but by something which is neither Body, nor any Faculty inherent in Body, nor has any manner of dependance upon it, nor is either within it, or without it, nor join’d to it, nor separated from it.  From whence it appear’d to him, that he had apprehended this Being by that which was his Essence, and gain’d a certain Knowledge of him.  And from hence he concluded, that this Essence was Incorporeal, and free from all the Properties of Body.  And that all his External Part which he saw, was not in reality his Essence; by that his true Essence was That, by which he apprehended that Absolute Being of necessary Existence.