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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

principally to be considered and they are to take care of the Dissenters If we consider the Great things belonging to the Charge of the Governours of this Church both severally in their particular Diocesses the State of the Clergy and People there and joyntly to them all as one Body viz. The Court and the Nobility The Vniversities The Parliament so far as Religion is concerned there The Prisons which might be made Schools of Virtue but are now Nourseries of all Vice and Wickedness and Condemned Persons there for whose Assistance they of the Roman Communion imploy the ablest and best qualified of their Clergy and we the most ordinary though they are not a few who are every Year Executed in this City and throughout the Nation The Foreign Plantations and the Propagation of the Christian Religion by that Means abroad for our Neglect of which the Monks and Jesuits and Quakers and such as we call Phanaticks will rise up in Judgment against them and the Dissenters at home for they also belong to their Care to remove all just Occasions give all reasonable Satisfaction and to use all truly Christian Means to reduce them If all these besides divers others which cannot presently be thought on be considered What Account can be given that may reasonably pass with a considerate Mortal Man of any of these and What Account then can be given of all to the Immortal All-seeing Righteous God These are Generals of each of which a particular and clear Account must be given by every one of that Order what sense he hath had of his Duty in that respect and what Care and Endeavours he hath used in discharge thereof To these I will add but one or two Particulars of Occurrences in this Reign One of a Bill for Suppression of Vice and Debauchery drawn indeed at their Request but after it had been perused and perfected not only by able Counsel but by all the Judges then in Town particularly the Lord Chief Justice Polexsin the Lord Chief Baron Atkyns Mr. Justice Dolbin Baron Letchmare and I think one or two more and fair written out put into their hands and a Motion made by the Bishop of Chester to bring it into the House and granted by the Lords and yet stifled and suppressed in their hands Another a Needful and Hopeful Reformation begun by the Authority and Encouragement of the QUEEN and not only vigorously prosecuted here in Middlesex but in a hopeful way in many other Cities and Counties all over the Nation and this stopped first by a Combination of Middlesex Justices I need say no more but at last more effectually in a Judicature of Equity in the Presence of no less than seven of our Reverend Prelates by two wicked Men the one Speaker and the other a Member of Parliament the * Mr. Ralph Hartley who is still a Sufferer between a Succession of City Magistrates and a Combination of Surry Justices and some other persons and shamefully oppressed by them Justice of the Peace who had been most diligent and other persons concerned in the Promotion of that Good Work checked vilified and abused without any just cause to the discouragement of the Execution of the Laws and Contempt of Her Majesty's Authority and all in the Presence of those Bishops who came on purpose to countenance the Cause of Reformation were satisfied of the Iniquity of the Proceedings against it and yet not one of them ever appeared after in it to any purpose more than in one little printed Discourse in Vindication of the Gentleman so abused as aforesaid And what Account can be given of these things It is a great Truth That neither King nor Parliament nor Bishops of themselves and their own Motion have done any one Act that I know of worthy of the Name of Christian And where lyeth the Fault of all this but at their door who instead of Admonishing and Exciting and Animating to due Returns of true Gratitude in Fact to God for his admirable Providence have by their Neglect and the consequences of it provoked the Favours of Providence to withdraw and to leave us to our selves and to eat the Fruit of our own doings And whence comes this Neglect of so many so obliged but from a common Defect of Good Education at the Universities and the Enchantment of their Preferments But is not this Great Uncharitableness may our Grave Prudential Gentlemen say thus to lay open to the World the Nakedness of our Governours and of the Church Doubtless as great as for a Physician to prescribe a bitter Potion to a tender Patient or a Chirurgeon to cut or burn after tryal of more gentle means what is found otherwise incurable It is that they at whose door lyeth the Root of all our Evil may give Glory to God by taking Shame to themselves and giving Good Example of Humiliation and Reformation to others But if they will not I hope the despised Quakers will be so wise as to accept the Honour of beginning the Example For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God But Who call'd You to this Office may our Prudentialists say By what Authority dost Thou this and Who gave Thee this Authority He who gave me Eyes to see and a Heart to be sensible of it and a Mind to be Faithful to Him who call'd me and led me by his Hand to his Holy Service not for filthy Lucre's sake not to make a Trade of it not to seek the World in the Church but to serve Him in the Service of all Men in the best manner I can FINIS

of them in the Gospel nor have we of the ESSEANS who yet are known to have been a Religious Sect among the Jews of great Antiquity though not once mentioned in all the Scriptures a People who lived a Religious Abstracted Life But of them I shall say no more in this place because I intend the full Relations both of Josephus and of Philo concerning them hereafter Nor shall I here say any thing of the THERAPEUTS another Religious Society of the Jews as Philo saith not only for that reason because I intend Philo's Relation of them hereafter but because I conceive this no proper place for it For I am well satisfied that they were some of those who were first converted to Christianity probably of the Jews and possibly of the Esseans notwithstanding all the Cavils which some disingenious and prejudiced Persons have in these last Ages strained their Wits to raise against it though they might retain some Sentiments and Practices peculiar to themselves for some time as did they at Jerusalem as may be understood from Act. 15.1 5. Gal. 2.4 12. c. For it is certain they were never heard of before that time nor any such since but Christians who from that time inhabited the same places and from thence after the Persecution ceased were the Ascetick Communities propagated to Palestin and those parts first and afterward into Europe The Precursor to our Saviour St. JOHN BAPTIST according to the Prediction of the Angel Luk. 1.15 was filled with the Holy Ghost even from his Mother's Womb and drank neither Wine nor strong Drink had his Rayment of Camels Hair and a Leathern Girdle about his Loins and his Meat was Locusts and wild Honey Mat. 3.4 and was in the Desert till the day of his Shewing unto Israel Luk. 1.80 but in the Fifteenth Year of the Reign of Tiberius Coesar Annas and Cajaphas being the High Priests the Word of God came unto him in the Wilderness Luk. 3.1 2. and being sent of God Joh. 1.6 he preached and baptized in the Wilderness Mat. 3.1 Mar. 1.3 and the People from Jerusalem and all Judea went out to him and were baptized of him Mat. 3.5 6. This was a Life not only of Retirement and Abstraction from the World such as was also that of the Coenobites who lived in Religious Communities but plainly an Eremetick or Hermetick Life And this being by one fill'd with the Holy Ghost from his Mother's Womb and therefore by one raised up by Him who had raised up the Nazarites before with good cause do the ancient Christian Writers repute Him a Prince of the Monks and Hermites raised up among the Christians and so good cause that they who oppose it may seem to oppose not only the Sentiments and Opinions of Men but out of Prejudice and misguided Zeal the very Acts of God very disingeniously and inconsiderately to serve a Party And for our SAVIOVR Himself though we have no particular Account of his Life till about the Thirtieth Year of his Age yet we cannot question but he did practice Himself what he did recommend to others and that it was a Life of the Highest Perfection The only particular of his Life before that is left upon Record is That when he was Twelve Years Old he tarried behind at Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover and Joseph and his Mother knew not of it and after Three Days was found in the Temple sitting in the midst of the Doctors both hearing them and asking them Questions and that all who heard him were astonished at his Understanding and Answers and when his Mother asked him why he had thus dealt with them and told him that they had sought him sorrowing he reply'd How is it that ye sought me Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's Business and that he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them At his Baptism we see how careful he was to fulfill all Righteousness Afterwards he declared to the Jews That he sought not his own Will but the Will of the Father who sent him and to his Disciples That it was his Food to do the Will of him who sent him and to finish his Work Joh. 5.30 4.34 That he lived a Life of Poverty from his Birth is very plain in the Evangelical History and that by his own choice certainly no ingenuous Person will deny and therefore of voluntary Poverty And that he lived also a Life of Chastity is not to be questioned Much less that it was a Life of Abstraction Recollection and continual Adherence to and Communion with the Father And all this being put together and well considered what was it other than a most perfect Ascetick Life the Great Exemplar so generously and heroickly Exemplified by those many and numerous Choires of Holy Christian Nazarites of whom the World especially this Lazy Tepid Unprofitable Sensual Generation which despiseth the Memory and reproacheth the Common Name heretofore with them and others venerable is not worthy And this Life which he lived Himself he did recommend to others as by his own Illustrious Example so also by his Doctrin though he injoyned it to none especially in that high degree For Chastity and Celebacie he doth not barely approve it but speaks of it as a special Gift of God Mat. 19.11 which all cannot receive save they to whom it is given And when he had said There be Eunuchs who have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heavens sake he adds He that is able to receive it let him receive it in both speaking of something more excellent than ordinary and besides in these Words There be Eunuchs who have made themselves Eunuchs c. he plainly affirms that it was a thing in Use and Practice at that time as it had been long before which he so approved and recommended to all who could receive it And concerning voluntary Poverty to the Young Man who desired to know what he should do that he might have Eternal Life and had kept the Commandments from his Youth up he replyed one thing thou lackest if thou wilt be Perfect go and sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the Poor and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven and come take up the Cross and follow me Mat. 19.21 Mar. 10.21 Luk. 18.22 And Forsaking all he maketh an indispensible requisite to the being his Disciple Whosoever he be of you who forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my Disciple Luk. 14.33 As to Religious Obedience and voluntary Subjection to the Order and Determination of another well experienced in the Ways of God for an Exercise of an intire Subjection of the Creature to the Creator What else is it but a very proper and useful Mean and Expedient for the acquiring the Habit and a continual Exercise of that great Doctrin of our Saviour of Self-denyal and taking up the Cross Mat. 16.24 Mar. 8.34 warranted and approved by God in the Recabites and by

his Learning by Books nor external Wisdom nor any Art But Antony was renown'd purely for his Devotion to God No one can deny that this was the Gift of God How came he who was hid and sat in a Mountain to be heard of in Spain France Rome and Africa unless God had made his Name known every where who promis'd this to Antony at first for although such Heroes act secretly and are willing to lye conceal'd yet the Lord shews them as Lamps to all that they may know that his Commands which he has given to reform us are practicable and thence may derive a Zeal for the ways of Vertue 62. Read ye this to others that they may know what sort of Life the Life of Monks should be and may be perswaded that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will glorifie those who glorifie Him and serve Him unto the End not only bringing them to the Kingdom of Heaven but making them notwithstanding they hide and retire celebrated here for their Vertue to the Benefit of others And if there be a Necessity read it to the Heathens that they may know not only that our Lord Jesus Christ is God and the Son of God but that those Christians who serve Him truly and believe in Him piously reprove those Spirits whom they account Gods and tread upon them and chase them as those who are the Deceivers and Corrupters of Men and this they do by the Grace and Strength of Christ Jesus our Lord to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS 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

their being cast out of the Synagogues as part of the Persecution they were to suffer It is also certain that our Saviour did foretell that many false Prophets that is false Teachers should come in his Name and deceive many and gave great Caution not to go out or believe them and that his Apostles did the like and did with great earnestness exhort all to beware of Divisions Schisms and Separations in the Church And accordingly in all Ages for Men to take upon them the Office of Elders or Ministers of the Gospel without a Regular Ordination derived by Succession from the Apostles or to draw away people after them and engage them in Separate Parties hath been looked upon as a heinous Sin and whoever have done so have been Infamous in the Church ever since And therefore if our Dissenters did continue daily with one accord at our Temples as the primitive Christians did and did continue their Assemblies at their own Meeting-places for Instruction and Edification without any Separation from the Church provided there was nothing but true Christian Doctrine taught amongst them I do not see but they might be of very good Use and deserve not only an Indulgence but Encouragement from the Publick Authority But they who make a Trade of it to engage Separate Parties I do verily believe have much to answer for before God and those who desire to be Christians indeed had need to beware of them And this I must in justice say after all I have said concerning what is amiss amongst us that thanks be to God we have those amongst us who for good Learning for profitable Preaching and for sincere Piety Devotion and all Virtue are no way inferior to any of the Dissenters if to be equalled by any of them and yet I cannot say they are so many but there may be reason enough to receive those Labourers also into our Lord's Harvest And I heartily wish it was well considered How they may be made more serviceable in so important and needful a Work without any thing of a Separation and that they would consider Who They are who sit in Moses or rather the Apostles Seat and What our Lord doth require in that respect And now to come more particularly to the PEOPLE of that Party call'd Quakers I must first acquaint them that I have not only had several Conferences with the Principal Persons of their Party whom they call Ministers but have also sent them several Letters and Papers to their Second Days Meetings And as our Conferences have hitherto been managed in a very friendly manner so I do desire to proceed in the same manner with them also and therefore what is directed at first only to the second days Meeting I shall desire them now to receive as intended from the first for them all though I thought it most fair and decent to proceed in that order And it is as followeth To William Penn and the rest of the Friends with him at their second days Meeting in Grace-Church-Street William and the rest of the Friends with thee MY Hearts desire and Prayer to God for you all is that ye may be saved for I am perswaded that you have a Zeal of God at least many of you though not according to Knowledge in some things Nevertheless whereto ye have attained in that I desire ye may be established and that God will be graciously pleased to reveal the rest to you that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing For which purpose I come I trust by the Grace of God with a Message of Grace and Peace to you I am well satisfied that it is no meer Humane Project or Artifice that at first raised you up and hath conducted you hitherto but a Supernatural Power and that it is of the Lord some way or other as was the Separation of the Ten Tribes from Rehoboam 1 King 12. for Correction and Reformation of something amiss in this Church And therefore I dare not presume either upon my own head or by my own Ability to intermeddle in it But my Heart is inlarged towards you upon these Considerations 1. That ye do assert one of the Great and Chief Principles of the Christian Religion which I have observed to be very unworthily and even despitefully treated by too many who have gotten into or seek Preferments and Imployment in the Church without Check or Reproof and so unworthily deserted by most for fear of reproach or disgrace or hindrance in their Preferment that I have not known it generously asserted by above two or three in the Pulpit but those great Men indeed though it be plainly a Doctrine most authentickly and solemnly professed and declared in the Church of England 2. That ye do bear a good Testimony against other Abuses connived at or tolerated amongst us 3. I am moved with Pity towards you that you should have so great Causes of Offence or Scandal given you against the Holy and Established Institutions and Ordinances of Christ for the Ministerial Office for the Admission of Proselytes and for the great Solemnity of the Christian Worship which hath been so long abused with Controversies that I know very few Persons now amongst us who do rightly and compleatly understand it and even against the Person Satisfaction and Merits of Christ himself But when I consider your Notions and Sentiments concerning these things though I am well satisfied that you are under the Conduct and Energy of some Spiritual Power yet What that Spirit is and Whether One or Divers in my Judgment doth deserve very good Consideration Ye know what Spirit it was which God sent between Abimelech and the Shechemites Jud. 9.23 and what that was that was sent from the Lord to Saul 1 Sam. 6.14 and what that was that was commissioned by God in the case of Ahab 1 King 22.22 23. and what that was in the midst of the Princes of Noph Isa 19.14 which was from the Lord too And that such a Spirit hath been among some call'd Quakers is manifest both by their Actions Speeches and Writings nay the very Spirit of the Devil and of Antichrist is apparent and undeniable from the Indignities offered both in word and deed to Holy things But that is not the thing now to be considered what Spirits may have appeared among them For even among the Apostles Satan had power to enter into Judas and it is not improbable but those whom our Saviour told Ye know not what Spirit ye are of and even Peter himself when our Saviour said to him Get thee behind me Satan might not at the time be free from some Impressions of Evil Spirits That 't is likely was a Peculiarity of our Saviour's for the Prince of this World to have nothing in him But the thing to be considered is What Spirit that is which at first excited and hath now the Conduct of the whole Body of this People And not whether it be sent or commissioned from God but