nothing of some I know now Living whose number I pray God increase and make them perfect and compleat in all Graces and Vertue to his Honour and Glory and the Happiness of this Church and Nation OF THE Antiquity Tradition and Succession of Mystical Divinity Among the GENTILES FROM THE Testimony Confession OF AN Eminent Adversary AS Adam was the common Parent of all Man-kind from the Creation so was Noah the common Parent of all Man-kind who have lived since the Flood And of Noah it is recorded that he was a just Man and perfect in his Generations and that he walked with God Gen. 6.9 And that he was 600 years Old when the Flood of Waters was upon the Earth Gen. 7.6 From whence we may reasonably believe that he could not but be well acquainted with all the Knowledge of his Ancestors And what this Walking with God doth imply we may understand from the rest of the History and the Apostles Observation Heb. 11.7 viz. not only a careful Observance of all the General Rules of Righteousness transmitted from Adam to his Posterity but a ready Obedience and Conformity to all special Declarations and Manifestations of the Will of God to him Instances of which are those Commands of God and his Obedience thereunto in Building the Ark which undoubtedly exposed him to much trouble by Questions concerning it and to various Censures Gen. 6.14 22. He did notwithstanding according to all that God commanded him so did he and in going into it with the several sorts of Creatures Gen. 7.1 5 7 9. and in going out again at the Command of God Gen. 8.16 18. In his Walking with God in this manner he could not but besides all the Knowledge which he had received from his Ancestors learn much more by the immediate Teachings of God And it is not to be questioned but as he was instructed by his Ancestors so he was careful to instruct his Family Posterity in all necessary Knowledge amongst which that of Walking with God was some of the chief And this being so I see no reason Why other Nations should not have derived their Knowledge with their Descent directly from Noah or Why we should suppose the other Branches of his Posterity to have all received their Knowledge of Divine and Sacred things especially collaterally from that of Abraham rather than directly and lineally from their common Ancestor Noah As Noah offered Sacrifice Gen. 8.20 and Abraham offered Sacrifice so we find Priests and Sacrifices among other Nations Such was MELCHIZEDECK a Priest of the most High God Gen. 14.18 And certainly it was by Revelation from God or some Divine Means that PHARAOH understood that it was because of Sarah Abraham's Wife that the Lord plagued him and his House Gen. 12.17 as we find it expressed afterward in the like Case of ABIMELECH Gen. 20.3 6. God came to Abimelech in a Dream by Night and said to him Behold thou art but a dead Man for the Woman which thou hast taken for she is a Man's Wife And another PHARAOH acknowledged Joseph to be a Man in whom was the Spirit of God Gen. 41.38 and when he raised him to the greatest Preferment in the Kingdom gave him for a Wife the Daughter of an Egyptian Priest ibid. v. 45. And Moses Married the Daughter of a Priest of Midian JETHRO Ex. 2.16 21. who was a good Man and a Worshipper of the true God as appears Ex. 18.9 10 12. And the Means then to Inquire of the Lord were common to them and to other Nations As REBEKAH Gen. 25.22 So BALAAM Numb 22.8 9 18 19 20 23.4 went to inquire of the Lord and received Answers from Him And about this time JOB is believed to have lived who was a Holy Man and offered Sacrifices and had Visions By these Instances and others that might be noted we may understand that in those ancient times it was believed in all Nations that there were Means whereby Men and Women might come to have some Acquaintance and Communication with God and what these Means were is well worth our Inquiry That the JEWS had anciently their Schools or Colleges of Prophets we may observe in the Sacred Scriptures And though what were their Institutions and their Instructions and Orders there prescribed is not in the Scripture particularly related yet in the Particulars mentioned they seem to have been much the same with what was practised by the Ancient Christian Anchorets and Coenobites If we inquire amongst other Nations of most ancient Note and Fame for Knowledge in Divine matters the Egyptians and Chaldeans are the most considerable And the Means recommended by them do so well agree with the Mystical Divinity delivered by divers Christians that some Opposers of this Divinity think they have sufficient ground to derive it from them and supposing that a Prejudice to it have taken the pains to do it If the CHALDAICK ORACLES saith one of considerable Learning Name and Place were still extant which were frequently quoted by Plotinus Jamblicus Porphyrius and Proclus who did wholly approve the Chaldaick Theology and from them in a great measure the Fragments were preserved we might more fully manifest these things yet as they are they give us sufficient ground to draw the Fundamentals of this Mystical Divinity from thence For they speak of God's being united to the Soul by the Soul 's clasping God to herself and that not by any act of the Vnderstanding but by the Flower of the Mind the very Phrase used by Proclus and the same which the Mysticks call the Fund of the Spirit of the Soul 's being inebriated from God which Plotinus calls being drunk with the Divine Nectar and Psellus explains of Divine Illuminations and Extasies of Abstraction from the Body and extending the Mind upwards and hastening to the Divine Light and the Beams of the Father with several other passages to the same purpose And for the EGYPTIANS the same Author tells us That Jamblicus in his Book of the Egyptian Mysteries which he writ in answer to an Epistle of Porphyry to an Egyptian Priest and wherein Proclus saith that he writ like a Man inspir'd discourses at large concerning Divine Extasies and Visions and Inspirations in which he describes the Persons just after the Mystical way as no longer leading a humane Life or having any Operations of their Senses or Vnderstanding but their Mind and Soul is only in the Divine Power and not in their own being acted and possessed wholly by it Afterward he sets down the several Degrees and Kinds of those in some they have only Participation in others near Communion and in the highest of all Vnion In some of these he saith the Body wholly rests and sometimes breaks out into Singing and all expressions of Joy sometimes the Body is raised up from the Ground as M. Teresa thought hers sometimes it swells into a greater bulk and sometimes the contrary Then he lays down Rules to know Divine Inspirations by viz.
Theologia Mystica TWO DISCOURSES CONCERNING DIVINE COMMUNICATIONS To Souls duly disposed I. The Antiquity Tradition and Succession of Mystical Divinity among the Gentiles with Notes and Observations to distinguish Illusions and Directions of Spiritual Writers concerning Prayer II. Of the Guidance of the Spirit of GOD The Doctrine of the H. Scriptures of the Catholick Church and of the Church of England in particular upon a Discourse of Sr. Matthew Hale concerning it LONDON Printed for the Author for the Use and Benefit of a Religious Society 1697. ADVERTISEMENT ASCETICKS or The Heroick Piety and Virtue of the Ancient Christian Anchorets and Coenobites wherein the Beginning and Progress of Contemplative Living and Religious Societies is briefly discoursed and a true Account of the Esseans Therapeuts and ancient Egyptian and other Monks collected out of the most Authentick Records Also the LIFE of the Famous Saint ANTONY written in Greek by St. Athanasius faithfully Translated into English All Printed for the Author for the Use and Benefit of the Society afore-said THE PREFACE THE latter of these Discourses was Printed as part of a Preface to that Book of Sr. Matthew Hale's from whence the beginning of the Discourse is now taken but why it was not Published with it I know no reason unless that which is the Vniversal primary Obstacle to all Good that Satan hindered it And that I make no question was the principal moving Cause which set the others on work That wicked envious Spirit who had raised up all the Evil he could both against him and against me in our several Families in his Life-time hath not ceased to do so still since his Death By what he got such Advantage against my self I know very well and intend to declare it But by what he got such Advantage against that good Man is a Secret I know nothing of But this I know that he hath been Vnhappy in his Family both in his Life-time and since his Death and particularly in what I am now saying I long looked upon him as a Man raised up by the Special Providence of God to be an Illustrious Example of Vertue and Piety in this degenerate Age And therefore that People might not be deprived of the Benefit of such an Example by their Ignorance of his Principles as I found by Experience many were I did in his Life-time publish a Volume of his Contemplations even after I had earnestly pressed him to consent to it and he refused Indeed I knew him and he knew me so well that I did not fear any misconstruction from him and after his Death I desired to have done Honour to his Memory for the same purpose by the Publication of such of his Writings as were most necessary and seasonable that the Benefit of his Labours as well as of his Example while yet fresh in Memory might be communicated as much as might be to all and they might mutually recommend each other for the greater Benefit of all But alas that wicked Spirit which had so prevailed in his Family in his Life-time as made him tell some of them That Satan or the Devil did ride them as an Ape would do a Mastiff-Dog hath likewise prevailed hitherto upon such as vainly gloried in their Relation to him to obstruct that good Design for Twenty years together without due regard either to that Service of God those Benefits to Men the true Honour of his Memory in which they vainly gloried or the Performance of his Will according to his Mind For though he had not expressly ordered the Publication of one or other in particular yet had he made this Provision in a Codicil concerning the Publication of any of them that he had nominated the Bookseller who should have the Printing of them paying as much as another would in reason for them and of the Profits appointed one part to one for his Care and Pains in overseeing and ordering the Publication another part to another for Writing and Correcting and the rest among his Servants and told them what he had done for them so that besides the Injury done to their Country they have done a double Injury to his Memory not only by hindering the Honour due to it but by Dishonouring it and giving occasion to a Blemish and Reproach to it provoking some not only to think but to speak hardly of him as if he had abused them in some of the last Acts of his Life and all this out of a sordid Humour to get or keep what he had otherwise disposed of And though thus they exercised their Malice and Spight against the Memory of the Good Man yet was not this the chief part of their Work and Triumph that they had raised this Injury against his Memory and besides had deprived his Country of the Benefit of much of his Labours in his own Profession But there is a greater matter in the bottom and of greater concern to them which these Wicked Subtile Agents had a principal regard to The Good Man had taken great Pains in examining and considering the Grounds and Evidences of Religion both Natural and Revealed And he was excellently well qualified for it both by Natural Sagacity by Exercise of his Parts in his own Profession which affords as much and good Exercise for such a purpose as any and by Freedom from Prejudice either of Education or of Temporal Interest For though he had a Religious Education yet it is certain that after he came to maturity of Thinking and Judging he became as he found reason in many things of a different Judgment from the Notions and Sentiments he had first received by which it appeared that his Religion was the Religion of his Judgment and not of his Education And being no Ecclesiastick but a Man of a Civil Employment he stood fair to be looked upon as an Indifferent Judge and not as an Advocate or Party as Clergy-men generally are reputed by some and by consequence his Writings upon such Subjects besides the weight of his Reason would have a double Weight of Authority if we take in his Example too above others to make them successful upon such as have received prejudice from the Scandalous Practices of too many Professors and Preachers of the Christian Religion which hath been a principal Cause of Atheism heretofore and of Deism at present and of the Contempt of the Clergy and more effectual and prevalent than any of those which have been assigned in Print though by Scandalous I intend here nothing but Zeal for Preferments and a cold Indifferency in Matters of Religion For as it hath been rightly observed When Vertue fails in the Priests Faith will fail in the People be their Preaching what it will Now by how much greater was the Advantage that the Writings of this Man had above others to have done Service in this Cause so much the greater was the Gratification which these Wicked Spirits received in the Suppression of them I know nothing so sordid that
ever appeared in his Life But that this hath been ordered by the Malice and Subtilty of those Wicked Spirits who had gotten Advantage against Him or his Family however some particular Dispositions in Persons might make it more feasible as I verily believe so I am well satisfied he would not at all have doubted had he been living and to have spoken his Judgment in a like Case He and I both before he died had had Experience enough to satisfie us concerning such matters And I wish his and all other Families who are fallen into any such Snare may consider well of it and be well advised how to recover themselves out of it if it may be Many such have I known and though the Burden be sealed upon some and the Decree fixed yet in others there seemed to be a Door open if Opportunity was not neglected Mens Belief or Disbelief will not alter the Truth of things But Disbelief of things that are true is often the Cause of great Vnhappiness and they who disbelieve such things as these are not the less obnoxious to their Malice but more secure in their Power So much as this is not impertinent to be said concerning the Malice and Subtlety of the Evil Spirits before a Discourse of the Gracious Conduct of the Good And I think my self specially obliged to declare my Sentiments of both upon any just Occasion And indeed I confess the Preface was not written so much for the sake of the Book as the Book Published for the sake of the Preface as an Occasion to write on that Subject which I thought my self obliged to do as an Act of Penitence for an Vnhappy Miscarriage whereby my Enemy got that Advantage against me which I mentioned before and shall here repeat in the Words then Printed as followeth I must not here forbear upon this Occasion to add not my Opinion but my own certain Knowledge upon great and long and in some respects in a great measure woful Experience in an Humble Confession of my Fault to give Glory to God Testimony to his Truth and Warning to Men. I have had Experience of this Divine Conduct and of the Blessings and Curses attending Obedience and Disobedience to it so that I have plainly perceived that the Conduct of the Children of Israel out of Egypt through the Wilderness into the Promised Land was a visible Manifestation or Representation of the Secret Spiritual Conduct of Souls out of Slavery under the Powers of Darkness through the Wilderness of this World into the Land of Rest and the very same thing in Action and Representation which is delivered by way of Doctrine and Admonition in the Book of Ecclesiasticus iv 11 20. and vi 18 31. The Crosses Disappointments and Afflictions which I have gone through have been very grievous and many of them known to the World though nothing hath appeared in my Life to which they could be imputed by others as a Cause in any respect I must therefore declare that while I did act in a ready Compliance with that Conduct I not only had great Peace and Serenity of Mind but all things went strangely prosperous and successful with me and I had extraordinary Answers to my Prayers not only for my self but for others also But whenever I have done contrary I always had trouble in my Mind and what I did was either blasted or unsuccessful and often of such evil Consequence as I did not foresee This I have found so by great and long Experience and in some of the great Businesses of my Life wherein I acted not only upon my own Reason and Judgment but also upon the Advice and Persuasions of very considerable Persons And after considerable Experience of this I was once so unhappy in my Disobedience to this Conduct upon a special Occasion having none to advise with and yielding too much to the Sentiments of our Anti-enthusiasts which was a Temptation to me that as I have special reason to believe it was like the Sin of Adam to me an Inlet unto all the Vnhappiness that hath since befallen me and my Family And I have been as it were turned back into the Wilderness ever since The Things wherein I had this Conduct were not matter of Duty in themselves or not in the particular Circumstances but either were such as were in Humane appearance so indifferent that I might have used my Liberty or the Conduct was much different from the Wisdom of the World And though I cannot say whether the Afflictions I have suffer'd were so ordered as a Punishment for my Miscarriage yet I am assur'd they were a Consequence thereof at least such as we often fall into when we neglect the Good Counsel of our Friends And they have been such as I am persuaded it is my Duty upon this Occasion to make this publick Penitential Confession whatever Prejudice I may suffer thereby from Men If I can but thereby obtain the Favour of God and benefit Men I shall accept that as part of my Punishment For the Certainty of this I can truly affirm That I had immediately upon my Miscarriage as sensible Notice of the Evils which have since befallen me as I can have of any thing by any sense I have as plain as if a Sentence had been pronounced against me And what I have suffered hath had Two several Marks as exactly agreeable to my Miscarriage as the print of a Seal upon the Wax to the Seal it self I cannot say but other Sins or Miscarriages might be Ingredients in this case but I know full well that this was the Inlet unto all those Evils which I am satisfy'd had been prevented had I continued at that time in the way I was in And it often recalls to my mind part of the Eighty first Psalm and other Passages of the Old Testament which have been fulfilled in my Case and therefore I have great reason upon such an Occasion to confess my Fault that I may have other more comfortable Passages made good to me hereafter And here I cannot but remember that I scarce knew the Man at that time to consult with in these things who was not more likely to have put me out of the way than to have directed me aright how to proceed in it And this I note for the sake of such Spiritual Guides as are consulted in such Cases If they be not very careful and considerate to avoid the Common Errors on both sides and neither incourage nor discourage the Attendance to such Impulses and Impressions c. in general but carefully endeavour to distinguish and to direct aright they may bring great Trouble upon those who consult them as I have known some do and perhaps greater upon themselves when they are call'd to give Account of their Stewardship either here or hereafter Thus far was printed before to which I must now add Whether these things as perhaps some others were not permitted to befall me for Admonition to others I