I have rejected thee from the Priesthood I pass over other Arguments from scripture and reason because I am ordered to be short and as for what is said in this Article that the Learned cannot Iudge of Contemplation it shewes plainly that the Ignorance of those spiritualists carries them to this boldness of not being willing to submit to that Correction which they might expect from that Infallible mean of the Judgment of the Learned IV. ERROR There is no Contemplation that is perfect but that which regards God himself the Mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Life and Passion of our Saviour are not the Objects of Contemplation on the contrary they hinder it so that Contemplative persons must avoid them at a great distance and think of them only with Contempt REFUTATION If Contemplation is an affection that is raised in the understanding or the Will by its proper object by the help of the Grace of God and that consists in an Inward Recollection of the mind then the Life of Christ is a proper Object for it since a Christian can present this to his thoughts and raise upon it an Act of Faith and love Besides Christ came by a Commission from his Eternal Father to plant Paradise here on earth according to that of the Prophet Isaias Posui verbum meum in ore tuo ut plantes Coelos fundes terram I have put my word in thy mouth that thou may plant the Heavens and establish the earth or as the Chaldee Paraphrase hath it ut plantes Coelos in terra that thou may plant the Heavens in the Earth as if he had said as S. Ierome understood the words that thou may plant true joy in those minds that were debased by Original sin and how can it be imagined that Contemplative persons can rise above themselves in their Contemplations to tast of Divine Joy's if they must keep at such a distance from Jesus Christ who is the Immediat giver of them and despise him Christ is so far from hindring of Contemplation that he came into the world to distribute all those Perfections and spiritual Joys to which the Contemplative aspire V. ERROR Corporal Penitences and Austerities do not belong to Contemplative Persons on the Contrary it is better to begin ones Conversion by a state of Contemplation than by a State of Purgation or of Pennance and Contemplative Persons ought to avoid and despise all the effects of sensible Devotion such as Tenderness of Heart Tears and Spiritual Consolations all which are contrary to Contemplation REFUTATION Mortifications dispose the Spirit to rise above the motions of sense and therefore it is that all the Saints have begun their course towards Perfection with Fasting and Discipline And therefore if these Contemplatives design Perfection they must practice Pennance since nothing renders a man so fit for Contemplation as to rise above all the Disorders of Sense God in the Sciptures promises to forgive the mourning Sinner but this is not promised to the Contemplative in any place either of the Old or New Testament Therefore it is better to begin ones Conversion with purgative Exercises and Pennances than with Contemplation VI. ERROR True Contemplation must keep it self fixed only to the essence of God without reflecting either on his Persons or his Attributes And an Act of Faith thus conceived is more perfect and meritorious than that which considers God with the Divine Attributes or with the Persons of the Trinity in it REFUTATION The Persons of the Trinity and the Attributes of God are the proper Objects of Faith and love while we recollect all the Powers of our Souls and resign our selves to God for as these are divine Truths that are revealed to us so the Attributes of God are both good in themselves and good to us so that they are proper to raise in us a true Contemplation It is also false that an Act of Faith that has God for its Object without considering his Attributes or the Persons of the Trinity is more perfect than that which regards God in conjunction with them For if to believe that God is one and that he is Just is a perfect and a meritorious Act of Faith and to believe that God is true in his Nature is also a perfect and meritorious Act then the Act by which God is believed to be true just and Three in One is a more perfect and a more meritorious Act than that in which he was considered only as one in Essence Because a man merits more by two Acts of the same vertue than by a single one only for God has communicated supernatural helps to us not only for doing one Act of vertue but that we may make an advance in such Acts. Therefore one Act of Faith that is equivalent to two others is more meritorious and perfect than any one of these two Therefore we may justly conclude against the first branch of this Article that true and perfect Contemplation raised to its highest pitch must not only regard God in his Essence but likewise in his Persons and Attributes VII ERROR The Soul becomes immediatly united to God in Contemplation so that there is no need of Phantasms Images or any sort of Representation REFUTATION Tho it is true that the Soul in some sort unites her self immediately to God in Contemplation that is by a Union of Affections for the Understanding beholds God simply yet some Ideas are necessary for exciting the natural force of the Understanding and to carry it to look at God which Idea is a sort of Object that moves the Understanding VIII ERROR All contemplative persons suffer in the Act of Contemplation such grievous Torments they seem to surpass even the sufferings of the Martyrs themselves REFUTATION If Contemplation consists as the Quietists pretend it does in this that the Soul puts her self in the presence of God by an act of Faith full of Love and after that continues idle this is not the being formally tormented or the enduring more than the Martyrs suffered and tho it is true in some sort that Pains and Miseries come after Contemplation this flows either from the Devil to whom upon that occasion God gives leave to try those persons or from some weakness in Nature that oppresses the Body from Melancholy or an abundance of Blood that raises Headaches or from some other unknown Cause But many others have appeared to be in the very Act of Contemplation as it were environed with Light and have looked with a serene and sometimes with a smiling countenance which Lewis the XI of France observed in Francis a Paula and they have been as it were overflown with Joy when the Contemplation was over having been admitted in it to see their Bridegroom in that simple Act in which there passes as it were a Marriage between God and the Soul. IX ERROR During the Sacrifice of the Mass and on the Festivals of the Saints it is better to
à non esser sogetti alla raggione su là quale si fonde la Modestia e l' honestà della Vita XIX Li Contemplativi sono sogetti alle Violenze per le quali restano privi dell ' uso del libero arbitrio si che se anco bene gravissimamente peccano esteriormente nondimeno interiormente non fanno peccato alcuno onde ne anco devono Confessarsi di ció che hanno fatto Ciò si prova con l'esempio di Giob il quale con tutto che non solo ingiuriasse il Prossimo mà anco bestemmiasse empiamente Dio in ogni modo non peccava perche tutto questo faceva per violenza del Demonio E per dar giuditio di queste violenze non serve la Teologia Scolastica e morale mà è necessario Spirito sopranaturale il quale in pocchissimi si trova in questi s'hà dà giudicare non l'interno dall ' esterno mà l'esterno dall ' interno R. responso Che in questo Cap. 19. non solamente latet Anguis sub herha mà apertamente si vede che sotto nome di Contemplativi spirituali vogliono i Quietisti essere debacanti sensuali L'esempio che adducono di Giob ben dimostra che no' hanno intelligenza della Scrittura Mai Giob peccò esteriormente nè contro il Prossimo nè contro Dio quando parlò nel cap. 19. nel 6. vorso come ben dimonstra anco per mezzo del senso litterale Pineda tom 11. sopra Giob c. 35. nè peccò contro il Prossimo come nell ' istesso può vedersi sempre fondata su la Dottrina de' SS Padri che delle Scritture e insegnano il vero senso E per dirla in poche parole con altre raggioni la gratia con la quale Iddio sempre ci assiste unita con la nostra cooperatione può superare ogni assalto nemico E Christo lo disse à tâ—tti in persona di S. Paolo Sufficit tibi gratia mea Dunque il Contemplativo non e violentabile de venghi necessitato al peccato esteâ—iori c. THE PRINCIPAL ERRORS Of those who Practise The Prayer of Quietness Censured and Refuted I. ERROR COntemplation or the prayer of Inward quietness consists in this that a man puts â—imself in the presence of God by forming an â—bscure Act of Faith full of Love tho simple and stops there without going further and without suffering any Reasoning the Images of any things or any Object whatsoever to â—nter into his mind and so remains fixed and â—nmoveable in his Act of Faith it being a â—ant in that Reverence that is due to God â—o redouble this simple act of his which is a â—hing of so much Merit and of so great force â—hat it comprehends within it self and far exâ—eeds the merit of all other vertues joyned â—ogether and it lasts the whole course of a mans life if it is not discontinued by some other Act that is contrary to it therefore it is not necessary to repeat or redouble it The CENSURE and REFUTATION It is not an Act of Faith that puts us in the Presence of God for he is within us by a necessary effect of the Immensity of his nature therefore Elias Micaiah and the other Prophets said Vivit Deus in cujus conspecto sto The Lord lives in whose presence I stand and it is upon the same reason that the Divines have said after S. Austin In Deo vivimus movemur sumus In God we live we move and have our being so that an Act of Faith that presupposes that the Agent is in being supposes likewise that it is in the presence of God is indeed nothing else but a Resignation that the Creature makes of it self to God. Therefore Contemplation even during that first obscure Act of Faith that iâ— simple and full of love is carried on by the Soul while she looks at God and not at all while she continues in an unmoveable state It is then an Evident Falsehood to say that other good actions are not at all necessary any good act being of its nature finite may become alwayes better by being often reiterated and the multiplying the Acts of vertue cannot be contrary to the Reverence that is due to God who being exempt from all passion can never be troubled or wearied with Importunities as great men are apt to be who as Experience teaches are often changed disturbed and become uneasy when the same things are too often repeated to them But with relation to God when an act is in it self good the repeating it is a progress in good which is approved of God and becomes more meritorious in his sight Therefore the Soul in Contemplating continues her Acts and does not stick obstinatly to one single Act Contemplation being still an Operation of the Mind tho other things are likewise necessary II. ERROR One cannot make one step towards Perfection by meditation that being to be obtained entirely by Contemplation REFUTATION A Christian by meditating seriously on the Passion of Christ and teflecting on that Love that made a God suffer so much for Mankind may upon that resolve to love him again and to obey all his Commands and he may by the grace of God which is ever present to us put those good purposes in Execution so that the Soul may well advance towards Perfection by Meditation It may be also done without Meditation for every one that lives according to the Laws of God may work out his own Salvation by the help of God. Now since no man can be saved but he that is Perfect and a Friend of God's then this Article is most certainly false III. ERROR All Study and Learning even in sacred Matters and in Divinity is a Hindrance to Contemplation of which learned men are not able to make a true judgment that being only to be expected from those that are given to Meditation and Contemplation REFUTATION The Study of Divinity makes known to us the Object of Contemplation which as the Quietists say is the Divine Essence therfore it consists well with Contemplation and if the Study of Divinity were opposit to this then the ignorance of it is necessary to make a man Contemplative and thus since S. Austin and all the other holy Doctors and Lights of the Church were men Learned in this study they must be looked on as men that were Incapable of rising up to Contemplation which is false because God who has appointed the Priesthood as the highest degree of service done him cannot be supposed to have Intended that the Priests should not be Contemplative persons and it is plain that God will have his Priests to be knowing since in the Scriptures he threatens by Hosea the Prophet such as despised knowledg and yet were in the Priesthood Turepulisti scientiam egorcpellam te ne sacerdotio fungaris Thou hast rejected knowledg and therefore
Appennins about 25 miles from Rome called Norcia near which there is a considerable Abbey which belongs now to a Cardinal This Town tho it lies within the Popes Territory yet has such great Priviledges still reserved to it that it my pass in some sort for a free Common-wealth They make their Lawes and choose their own Magistrates but that which is the most extraordinary part of their Constitution and that is the most exactly observed is that they are so jealous of all Priests and of their having any share in their Government that no man that can either read or write is capable of bearing a share in their Government so that their Magistracy which consists of 4 Persons is alway's in the hands of Vnlettered Men who are called there Li quatri Illiterati for they think the least tendency to Letters would bring them under the ordinary Miseries that they see all their Neighbours are brought under by the credit in which both the Robes are among them And they are so shy of all Churchmen and so jealous of their Liberty that when the Cardinal comes during the Heats of the Summer sometimes to his Abbey they take no notice of him nor do they make any sort of Court to him One that has been oft there told me that by divers of their Customes they seem to be of the race of the old Latines and that their Situation and their Poverty had at all times preserved them yet they are not such Strangers to the manners of the rest of the Italians as not to take pleasure in severe revenges of which this Instance was given me The Abbot that was the Cardinals Predecessor had an Auditor who was much in his favour that made love to the Wife of one of the Magistrates of Norcia which she discovered to her Husband he ordered her to give the Auditor an Appointment but provided a good Surgeon and all other things that were necessary to put the Auditor out of all danger of breaking his Vow of Chastity for he was a Churchman and the Auditor not failing to observe his rendezvous was caught and the operation was performed with all possible care and he was treated very well till he was quite cured and then he was sent back to his Patron The Abbot was highly offended with this affront that was done him and it may be easily believed that the Auditor was not well pleased with this forced Chastity that was now Imposed on him so they sent an Information of the matter to the Rota and asked their opinion but the Court of the Rota was wiser than to suffer a matter of this nature to become publick To this I shall add a pleasant thing that was told me concerning Priests that fell under the misfortune of this Auditor It is known that according to the Canon Law the one Indelible Character defaces the other and that a Priest so treated can no more say Mass yet I was told that this distinction was used that if the Priest had all that was taken from him restored to him so that he could carry it in his Pocket he was still esteemed entire and might say Mass but unless he could have the consolation of carrying those things dead about him that had been perhaps too quick before the Character was lost or was at least under a totall suspension If all this is a little too pleasant and too natural a little good humour must be forgiven to a Traveller whose Spirits are too much in motion to be so setled and so grave as they ought to be FINIS Another would have thought that S. Paul should have been cited for this rather than S. Aust. since he had said this first Acts. 17. v. 28. but Rome is not the place of the World where the N. Testament is most read and this putting of ones self in the presence of God can only mean the considering ones self as before him This Article is falsly represented for the Quietists as all other Mysticks only except to that dry learning which is not accompanied with an inward sense of Divine matters Here is a new tribunal of Infallibility If we judge of this new Infallibility by this way of proving that Iesus Christ is the proper Object of Contemplation we will not much admire it but if this Article is true it looks liker Deism If this Article is true it confirms the suspition of Deism Here one sees what a thing school Divinity is by this way of reckoning but the value of acts rises from the Intention of the mind and not from the Extension of the object This is not meant of pure Ideas but of gross Phantasms This Article is also falsly represented for the Quietists only mean that Souls suffer many inward Agonies in a contemplative state of which all the Books of the Mysticks are full and which they call the great Desolation The Quietists only mean by this that if a man in an act of outward devotion is carried to Contemplate he is not to hold his mind to the outward devotion The Quietists only mean that no general Methods carry men to Contemplation and that it is the effect of a special Grace This of one Soul is ridiculous The Quietists only condemn a dry and Mechanical Meditation Here notwithstanding all our Representers in England you see the Adoration of Images is so received at Rome that it is a Crime to think that the most perfect may be above it This is only meant by the Quietists of returning to a Mechanical way of Meditation This is only so to be understood that according to the rules given by all the Mysticks when ill thoughts come into a mans mind the best may to overcome them is rather to neglect them than to struggle much against them This is indeed down-right Enthusiasm yet much of this strain will be found in all the Writings of the Mysticks This the Quietists deny as an Imputation cast upon them All the Mysticks and in particular Sr. Philip Nerius have often done things that seemed ridiculous absurd as the highest excercises of Mortification and Humility This the Quietists reject as a Calumny to render them justly odious to all the world But it is vèry poorly refuted certainly Job said many very hard things which God who knew the sincerity of his heart and the strength of his temtations did not lay to his charge ERRATA Page 6. line 16. dele of P. 9. l. 22. portion r. proportion P. 16. l. 18. after and r. upon P. 22. l. 4. dele that P. 27. l. 7. r. that was P. 34. l. 23. cited r. said P. 36. l. 19. is r. it P. 38. l. 18. dele a. 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