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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B10083	Tracts theological. I. Asceticks, or, the heroick piety and vertue of the ancient Christian anchorets and coenobites. II. The life of St. Antony out of the Greek of Sr. Athanasius. III. The antiquity and tradition of mystical divinity among the Gentiles. IV. Of the guidance of the spirit of God, upon a discourse of Sir Matthew Hale's concerning it. V. An invitation to the Quakers, to rectifie some errors, which through the scandals given they have fallen into.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Asceticks, or, the heroick piety and virtue of the ancient Christian anchorets and coenobites.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Life of St. Antony.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Antiquity, tradition, and succession of mystical divinity among the Gentiles.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Enthusiasmus divinus: the guidance of the spirit of God.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Apology for, and an invitation to, the people call'd Quakers, to rectifie some errors, which through the scandals given they have fallen into.	1697 (1697)	Wing S5444E; Wing S5444E; ESTC R184630	221,170	486

those things which fill the Lives of Mortals nor by any Necessity neither is it provoked with Contumelies nor being injured doth it revenge it self nor doth it sink being pressed either with Sickness or with Penury of Necessaries but doth rather triumph over those in which she exerciseth Patience and Meekness and Contentation of Mind all the Life long and as far as is possible to Humane Nature becomes near to God using this present Life as in a Passage is neither anxious for the acquest of Earthly things nor doth so much as think of things present even in urging Necessity but perpetually prizing a Life frugal and discharged of temporal Furniture respects the Felicity which it hath from thence and is always disposed for a Blessed End But incessantly breathing out Piety towards God it abhors the Defilement of filthy Speaking not so much as enduring in Speech those things which in Fact it hath banished from its Course of Life and by degrees contracting the Necessities of Nature and compelling the Body to be content with mean things it doth with Temperance overcome Prodigality Injustice with Justice and corrects Lying with Truth and in right order keeps Moderation in all things and orders its Method of Life in keeping Concord and Communion with Neighbours It provides for Friends and Strangers communicates its Good to those who want confers upon every one what are commodious for them not being troublesome to those who rejoyce but administring Comfort to those who are sad But in all studiously reaching after the True Good discoursing with sound Speeches and wise Thoughts void of Elegance and Rudeness as with certain Medicines doth cure its Auditors with Decency and Respect without Contention Scorn or Anger For since it is furnished with reason it refuseth every unreasonable Motion and compleatly rules the Affections both of the Body and the Mind This most Excellent Philosophy was begun as some say by Elias the Prophet and John the Baptist but PHILO the Pythagorean writes That the most Excellent of his Nation the Hebrews being assembled from all Parts in a certain place at the Lake Maria did Philosophize in a little Hill thereunto adjacent but describes their Habitation Living and Conversation such as we also now see amongst the Monks now living in Egypt For he writes that they who began to Philosophize forsook their Estates and renounced both Things and Persons belonging to them and lived without the Walls in solitary Fields and Orchards then that their Houses were Sacred which they called Monasteries that they did devoutly worship God with Psalms and Hymns nor did touch any Food till Sun-set that some among them abstained for three days together or more and lay certain days upon the Ground but Wine and Things that have Blood they never at all used but their Meat was Bread and Salt and Hyssop and their Drink Water That ancient Women and Virgins dwelt among them and for the Love of Philosophy or Wisdom of their own choice abstained from Marriage And Philo writing to this purpose seems to intend the Jews who in his time imbracing Christianity lived a little too much after the Jewish Manner and observed the Rites of their Nation For among no others is that kind of Life to be found from whence I conjecture that this Philosophy hath from that time flourished in Egypt But others think that the Persecutions of those times gave Occasion to this Religion For because those who escaped by Flight lived in Mountains and Desarts and Woods they contracted a Habit of this kind of Living This of St. HIEROM being omitted in its proper place pag. 46. it was thought fit to insert it here MARK the Disciple and Interpreter of Peter intreated by the Brethren at Rome wrote a short Gospel according to what he had heard Peter relate Which when Peter had read he approved it and by his Authority gave it to the Church to be read as writeth Clemens in sexto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 libro and Papias Bishop of Hierapolis Of this Mark doth Peter also make mention under the Name of Babylon figuratively signifying Rome The Church which is in Babylon salutes you and so doth Mark my Son Wherefore taking the Gospel which he had composed he went to Egypt and first Preaching Christ at Alexandria he founded the Church there with such Doctrin and Continence of Life that it enforced all Followers of Christ to their Example At length Philo the most Eloquent of the Jews seeing that first Church at Alexandria yet Judaizing wrote a Book concerning their Manner of Living as in Praise of his own Nation And as Luke relates that the Believers at Hierusalem had all things Common so doth also he what he did see done at Alexandria under Mark commit to Memory He Died in the Eighth Year of Nero and was Buried at Alexandria Anianus succeeding him Of the Ancient MONKS of Egypt And their Original A Relation of Piammon an Ancient Egyptian Abbot and a Presbyter or Priest of great Grace and Virtue even to the doing of Miracles Cassian Coll. 18. cap. 4. THERE are in Egypt Three sorts of Monks whereof Two are excellent but the Third tepid and sloathful and by all means to be avoided The first is of the Coenobites who living together in a Religious Society are governed by the Judgment and Order of One Elder or Superior of which sort a very great number of Monks are resident throughout all Egypt The second is of the Anchoretes or Hermites who being first instructed in the Monasteries and become already perfect in their Conversation have chosen the Secrets of the Desart of whose Perfection we also wish to be Partakers The third the reprehensible one of the Sarabaits Of all which we shall discourse severally more fully in order The Discipline of the Coenobites took its beginning from the time of the Preaching of the Apostles For such was that whole Multitude of Believers at Jerusalem which in the Acts of the Apostles is thus describ'd The Multitude of them who believed were of one Heart and of one Soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed were his own but they had all things Common Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were Possessors of Land or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the things which were sold and laid them down at the Feet of the Apostles and Distribution was made unto every Man according as he had need Such I say was then the whole Church as it is now difficult to find a very few in the Monasteries But when after the Apostles decease the Multitude of the Believers began to grow Tepid and that most of all which came into the Faith of Christ of Foreigners and divers Nations of whom the Apostles according to their Rudiments of Faith and inveterate Custom of Gentisism did require no more but that they should abstain from Fornication and from things strangled and from Blood and that

up in Judgment against such as will be found to have given occasion to Tepidity Carelessness and Neglect of the most Spiritual Exercises of Religion NOTES and OBSERVATIONS to discern Illusions from Divine Inspirations THERE is another part of the Quarrel which our Author hath to this Mystical Divinity besides that that it is unintelligible as he says viz. That it leads Persons into strange Illusions of Fancy which he takes to be a great Injury not only to those Melancholy Souls that are led through this Valley of Shades and Darkness but to the Christian Religion it self Which if true is a just Cause of Quarrel indeed But if well consider'd no greater Cause than others have against the Holy Scriptures because some wrest them to their own Destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 It is true many Persons have been impos'd upon by their own Fancies and many more by Satan transformed into an Angel of Light but must we therefore deny that there are any true Divine Illuminations Inspirations Motions or Communications It is therefore very necessary to be well considered How they may be distinguished And because O. N. in the Book which our Author answers hath a Discourse on that Subject which hath passed his Examination without any hard censure which is an implicit Approbation that may not improperly here be added FOR the discerning of such Illusions proceeding from Satan from the true Inspirations of God's Holy Spirit we affirm That many Notes and Observations there be whereby they may be known if not certainly whether Divine as to their Original where no Spirit of Prophecy or Miracles yet whether containing Truth and advancing Vertue as to the Matter and whether any way noxious and hurtful either to the Person that receives them or others And this is abundantly sufficient Now for these Notes of discerning them I need referr the Reader to no other Book then to the Doctor 's Martyr Sancta Sophia though he was pleased to take no notice of them there in the Preface from § 29. to § 35. Again in the third Treatise p. 268. from § 9. to § 22. where after directing a strict Observation to be made concerning the Person whether 1. viciously inclin'd 2. arrogant and proud or 3. curious 4. or much addicted to melancholy there are particularly cast off and marked out for Satanical Illusions among others these All such pretended Inspirations or Revelations as do invite the Person to say or do any thing contrary to the Catholick Faith Obedience Humility Peace and Unity Honesty Purity and any other Divine Vertue but especially contrary to the Catholick Faith or Obedience for instance as the attempting to make any new and seditious Reformations as likewise when the Persons obstinately believe these Revelations to be of God after they have been condemned by experienced Superiors and Directors All such I say are condemned for Satanical Illusions which cuts all the nerves of all such pretended Revelations as can any way disturb the Church's Faith or Peace and most of all of those Enthusiasms and Fanatick Frenzies which have been so common among Protestants § 14. Lastly in all these Pretensions where there is any greater difficulty of discerning the Good and Divine from the Bad and Satanical Spirit we have a judge to repair to the Governours of the Church The Spirits of the Prophets saith St. Paul are subject to the Prophets § 15. But there are other Influences and Inspirations of the same Spirit directing us also in Actions in their own nature Indifferent or of Counsel and on either side lawful and free from Sin some of which Inspirations cannot be tried or distinguished from Enthusiasm by any such way as the former which because they are much spoken of by the Mysticks and are very necessary for advancing Christians in the way of Perfection it seems requisite for the freeing these also from Mistakes to give the Reader here some account of them § 18. 1. We must know then as Sancta Sophia Tr. 1. p. 57. and others have discoursed more at large that there are two Spirits within us that is all the Regenerate the Holy Spirit and that of Corrupt Nature assisted with the Suggestions of the Devil who took a kind of Possession of us upon Adam's Fall Eph. 2.2 That this last Spirit is never totally expell'd or silenc'd in us during this Life but tempts us still Gal. 5.17 And that its Suggestions may appear many times like the Motions of God's Spirit pretending Good Ends the performing some Duty to our selves or our Neighbour our advancement in Vertue and the like That the Effect of the first of these Spirits Sanctifying Grace received in our Regeneration or justification is in its infusion ordinarily but as a small S●ed 1 John 3.9 1 Pet. 1.23 Mat. 13.31 33. or spark capable of a daily growth and increase and which with the co-operation of our Free will and further Aids that are from time to time received from God works in us at length a total Reformation and Christian Perfection which so many among the Regenerate as do attain are said in a more special mannner to be Spiritual Persons and to have the Spirit of God And i● this sense the Apostle writes to the Corinthians 〈◊〉 Brethren could not speak unto you as to Spiritual but as 〈◊〉 Carnal and as to Babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3.1 an● so ver 3. For ye are yet Carnal and Walk according to Man that is ye are Babes only in Christ and i● in some degree Carnal and walking according to the natural Man still and not as yet entirely Spiritual And frequent mention we find in the Scriptures 〈◊〉 these several Degrees and Growths in a Regeneral Condition It being God's Pleasure that the Ne● Man as the Old should grow by degrees and not b● made compleat in us all at once Mention I say of some Babes and little ones and to be fed as yet only with Milk Of strong Meat and Wisdom and higher Mysteries only to be delivered to and spoken amongst the Perfect See Heb. 5.12 13. 1 Pet. 2. 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 3.1 1.2 6. Of growing in Grace and receiving Increase from God 2 Pet. 3.18 Col. 2.19 Of the new Man being renewed day by day 2 Cor. 〈◊〉 .16 Of arriving to a perfect Man unto the measure 〈◊〉 the Stature or Age of the Fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 Of the Apostles labouring to present every 〈◊〉 perfect in Christ Jesus and that they might stand perfect and full in all the Will of God Col. 1.28 4.12 and of this Perfection still containing in it higher and higher degrees Not as if I had already attained saith the Apostle Phil. 3.12 Though therefore by this Principle of a New Life and the infusion of the habitual Grace of Charity we are already translated from the former being of corrupt Nature to a Divine being of Supernatural Grace freed at the first from the former state of Mortal Sin and from the Slavery and Captivity we suffered under its