The Tree of Faith, or The Tree of Life

...every year has renewed within me great declines original: "abatements," referring here to a reduction in her physical vitality or her attachment to the world and a weariness of life and of love for all perishable things. There is a good reason for this: it is because the Heavens stand open before me. My mind and spirit are so well entertained by the objects seen there, in all their substantial varieties, that I no longer care to look for anything in this world.

§. 3 Whenever I am drawn or pulled away from this state by the strong distractions of this world, I am possessed by great woe, pain, and trouble. This is because whenever I am outside of those heavenly places—where my life now truly resides within that secret cabinet of eternity A "cabinet" in the 17th century was a small, private room for study or the keeping of valuables; Lead uses it to describe a protected, inner spiritual space.—I feel lost. I prefer that state as my chief and only excellence. Therefore, I resolve to go