Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	believe_v	faith_n	object_n	6,980	5	9.0206	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17888	A spirituall combat a tryall of a faithfull soule or consolation in temptation. Written in French by I.P. Camus Bishope of Belley, and translated into English by M.C. P. of the Eng. Coll. of Doway.; Lutte spirituelle, ou encouragement à une âme tentée de l'esprit de blasphème et d'infidélité. English.	Camus, Jean-Pierre, 1584-1652.; Carre, Thomas, 1599-1674.	1632 (1632)	STC 4553; ESTC S107507	60,746	308

against me * If thou be with me saith the diuine Apostle who can be against me * Now as starrs doe not onelie looke downe vpon the earth but also doe dart downe vpon it diuerse influences so the eyes of God are not meerely cast vpon vs as IOB saith as one man beholds another but as the scripture doth teach vs they doe infuse a certaine force into vs * which makes vs become valourous against our enemies So we reade of SAMSON who ouerthrew the Philistians while the spirit of God did assiste him This supplie of courage doth also appeare in humane vallour For what doe souldiers performe when they haue the honour to fight in presence of their Prince doe they not lend belowes about them euen beyond their force Yet are they ordinarily moued therto by humane respectes and vanitie too often is their motiue * What then ought not a truelie faithfull and generous soule doe for an Eternitie Is she not in this behalfe to imitate the Angels of light who threw downe to Hell those of darknesse in that great battell which was fought in Heauen by that word which testified their inuiolable alleagance WHO IS AS GOD who is as God In like manner when those legions of wicked thoughtes of infidelitie abomination and blasphemie shall discouer thēselues to your thoughtes and as importune Drones shall buze about your hart you are but to make this protestation WHO IS AS GOD Who is like vnto our Lord God who doth inhabite the heauens aboue and doth lend a fauorable ey to things below * Thence proceeded those sacred eiaculations which wee see in manie passages of holy Scripture holy Saintes made in like occurrences IOSEPH being tēpted protests that he will not offend his Master SVSANNA also resistes temptation out of the apprehension she had of Gods presence S. PAVLE I liue in the Faith of the Sonne of God who hath loued me and who gaue himselfe for me * S. BLANDINE being drawen to martirdome vsed no other words then that she was a Christian and dyed in that holy protestatiō S. PETER MARTYR being wounded to death and left vpon the place by the Murderers had yet leasure to write these words vpon a stome with his fingar dipt in his owne blood I BELEEVE * And Saincte TERESA drawing neere vnto death said sometimes at the least Lord I die a child of thy Church making thereby a briefe profession of her Faith whereof she made vse as of a fierie sword to driue away all illusiōs cōtrarie to her beleife and intire loyaltie Thus it is that those that are faithfull in Loue * doe exercise thēselues against the assaultes of the midday diuell * For the rest I will assure you that those who by interiour or exteriour actes of Faith doe make heade against the temptations of the spirit of infidelitie doe soudainely dashe all his designes and doe what he can they frustrate his attēpts For like as a Maide can neuer be married while she saith No because it is the consent that tyes the knot of marriage so temptation can neuer cast a soule into sinne and by sinne marrie her to death and Hell * till free-will yeald it selfe vp to so loose a disloyaltie as to forsake the Creatour for the Creature and the liuing fountaine for a drie Cisterne The difference betwixt Meditation and Contemplation CHAP. VIII NOw these actes of Faith wherof I haue spoken THEOPISTE are produced in this life which the Misticalls tearme Actiue by meanes of vocall Prayer if they be exteriour or by Meditatiō if they be interiour But if you desire to make them equall in vigour and force to their excellencie as dartes by how much they are sharper by so much they are the more penetrating I will yet furnish you with other meanes which are in my iudgment two of the most forceable remedies that are to be found not onely to disperse repell those troublesome tēptations but euen to draw so great a riches out of them that you will be cōstrayned to crie-out with that Aunciēt we had bene lost if we had not bene lost Both of thē shall be taken out of the boxe of Contemplation the vse of which doth Wonderfully refine Faith as it doth also inflame Charity but in two different degrees For the first shall be drawen out of simple the other out of eminent Contemplation And this being said I haue no more to say vnto you but onely to leaue you in the hands of God almightie and with MOYSES to the kisse of our Lord. * You are alreadie sufficiently instructed in spirituall affaires to discerne the difference betwixt Meditation and Contemplation yet to renew in you the memorie therof you may please to looke what our B. F. saith of it according to his ordinarie that is excellently in the 6. booke of his Theotime I will say onely that which is absolutely necessarie for the clearing and illustrating of that which I am about to tell you Meditation which is no other thing then the groning or murmuring of the Doue * a misticall ruminating * or recogitating * wherof frequent mention is made in holy Scripture is made by an attentiue consideration or interiour discourse which tends to moue and excitate the soule to holy affections and resolutions To this pourpose it doth bend apply and imploy all the faculties of the soule replenishing the Memorie with the presence of God and with the pointes which she is about to examine The vnderstāding with discourse reasons and intelligible species The will with aspirations resolutions affections The Imagination with figures and Idea's following that which the Philosopher doth teach vs that he that doth meditate is to frame vnto himselfe Idea's or Images So that Meditation doth sound examine the truth of things or hidden misteries by peace-meale making as it were an anatomie of them imitating therin the Fisher and fowler the one wherof doth beate the feilds and bushes th' other the riuers to find out their game or els to one that is eating who turnes and chewes the meate in his mouth before he be fed with it It s game and foode are the diuers Actes which the powers and faculties of the soule doe produce which is neuer done without labour and paine though indeede that paine is solaced by Charitie For he that loues labours not or if he labour he loues that beloued labour by reason of the Obiect which is the deare cause therof All IACOBS labours seemd light to him by reason of the loue and affection he bore to the beautifull RACHEL It fares not so with Contemplation for it resembles drinking a flowing action sweete and easie It is made in vnitie not in multiplicitie It leaues the actiuitie of MARTHA to meditation and takes to it selfe MARIE'S best part which shall neuer be taken frō her * It is a simple singular and louely looke cast vpon any Truth or Misterie yet a looke which in its one onely simple and naked Act doth comprehend in

forme Resolutions Yet further giue her a modell of thankesgiuing vnions and the rest In fine speake to her touching attentions Actuall habituall vertuall of distractions of want of guste of lightes visiōs with a number of other tearmes Doe you not plainely discouer that in steede of giuing her the wings of a doue to fly you lay a loade vpon her vnder which she is not able to sturre while she knowes not at what end to begin a worke so confused So that hauing at once more to doe then she is able she doth lesse then she ought But if omitting all this you would moue her to beleeue in simplicitie of hart that IESVS CHRIST was borne of the virgine MARIE * as we haue in our Creede hauing as she hath the habit of Faith this simple Act is easie vnto her Wish her to loue him who by this his birth gaue himselfe vnto her * and in himselfe whom he gaue without reserue all things * you will find her moued with this excesse of Charitie * freely to offer vp her selfe to him and perceaue her to be as it were in the verie same disposition which caused the Diuine Apostle to say I liue in the Faith of IESVS CHRIST who hath loued me euen vnto death and the death of the Crosse * Now in your aduise is not this simple and louing aspect a kind of Cōtemplation since it is made without discourse and without that multiplicitie of Actes or rather agitations of the vnderstāding and will Hence it is that simple persōs are sometymes more capable of deuotion then curious actiue reslecting and penetrating witts who make a great deale more brute but yeald lesse fruit Endeuour far more yet performe lesse Who thinke you hath more fruition of the Sunne the Rustike who hath a cleare sight to behold and cōsider its beames and brightnes or the Philosopher who is short sighted yet is able to discourse of the motions influences and effectes of that great light What man in his right witts will not preferre the Rustike before the Philosopher in that consideration Say the like of him who discourseth verie much in Meditation and yet hath far lesse taste and light in heauenly things though he towle a number of Idea's about his imagination his memorie his vnderstanding he falls far short notwithstanding of the sweet and delightfull knowledge which springs from the simple and amiable attention of Contemplation Yet doe I ingeniously confesse that this kind of simple contemplation in simple soules which forerunns meditation is but vnpolished rude and accompayned with much imperfection And that that which followes a long exercise and practise of Meditation is far more compleate and high because the soule being persuaded to heauenly Loue by force of so many considerations ratiocinations affections aspirations resolutions and other actes of Meditatiō doth with much more facilitie light and heate fall into simple actes of Contemplation hauing so frequently and so attentiuely beholden tasted and acknowledged a good Truth or a true Good and thervpon is inclyned to that loue which doth vnite the hart to God and thence is called the band of perfection * Yet this doth in no sort preiudice the proposition which I made to witt that it was easier to contemplate then to meditate whether we vnderstand that rude and vnpolished Cōtemplation which forerun's or that subtile and accomplished which followes the long vse of Meditation An Act of simple Contemplation a soueraigne remedie against temptation CHAP. X. BVT what am I to inferre out of all this THEOPISTE Marrie that if by many Actes of Faith taken out of the Store-house of Meditatiō you cannot driue away the thoughtes of infidelitie which doe trouble and disturbe you you should haue recourse to the Act of Contemplatiō which is more efficacious and lesse forced more powerfull against your aduersarie more cōfortable to your soule and fitter to fortifie her in the vertue which temptation striues to shake It is a simple and pure acte deuoyd of all composition of discourse Idea's or if it haue any mixture of any they are so subtile and delicate that they can hardly be perceaued at all For it happens often by the industrie of that wicked man who ouersowes cockle amongst the good corne * that the same actes which one would make vse of to repulse the darts of temptation do more incumber then comfort the mynd and do rather inueigle then illustrate it Be they faire and easie be they violent and rough they do often tymes equally hurt while the Diuell doth change cures into poyson and wounds vs with our owne weapons Vineger and honie though contrarie in taste yet agree in this effect that they both inflame the wound into which they are powred Euen touching and rubing of a sore doth venime it To dispute against a temptation is to irritate it To endeuour to driue it away by force of armes is to stope its departure To striue to put it out of the memorie is to engraue it therin Belzebub Prince of Flies neuer coming so thicke vpon vs as when we often strike him off If you will beleeue me therfore you shall not wearie your mynd by producing incessantly Actes of Faith to repelle those assaults but you shall practise the counsell of our Blessed Father in the 7. Cap. of the 4. Part. of this Philothee you shall vse diuersious and faire and softely taking and turning the ey of your mind off the dreadfull face of the temptation you shall simply and louingly place it vpon the truth and assurance of the diuine Goodnes and this louing aspect being an act of liuely Faith quickened and informed by charitie and with all produced in contemplation with great facilitie and simplicitie will serue you for an impenitrable buckler against all the darts which temptation shall send out against your fidelitie O who is able to expresse vnto you how efficacious this simple aspect is when it is accompaigned by Loue and how dreadfull it is to the Diuells since it makes the soule as terrible vnto them as an Armie rancked and put in battell array because her powers and faculties being vnited in this contemplatiue acte are far more strong then when they vse their actiuitie in Meditation distinctly and separately The old Chāpions in wrastling whē they would exercise themselues therin came naked vpō the Theater and anoynted their bodyes with oyle that their antagonists might catch no hold of them And wheras temptation wherof we now speake is a spirituall wrastling against the Angell of darknes by how much more naked the soule shall be stript of all representations and actes and recollected in her selfe drawing all her forces into the vnitie of her Spirit more vigorous shall she be and lesse hold shall she afford to her enemy DAVID when he was to goe out to meete GOLIATH put off SAVLES armour which did loade and hinder him more then it was seruicable vnto him and with a poore sling and a stone slew that