Church'es Faith or Peace and most of all of those Enthusiasmes and Fanatick frenzies which have bin so common among Protestants the chief vse that these persons make of pretending new divine inspirations being to take away the yoke of those former delivered in Scripture which being so point blank opposite to that party no less then new divine inspirations can serve their turne to confront and fight against them on an equall ground Lastly in all these pretensions where there is any greater difficulty of discerning the Good and Divine from the bad and Satanicall Spirit We have a Iudge to repair to the Governours of the Church The Spirits of the Prophets saith S. Paul are subiect to the Prophets And Quench not the Spirit Despise not prophecying But Prove all things and try the Spirits saith S. John whether they be of God Now the last Tryer of them in any controversy arising must be the Church according to our Lords stating of this matter Math. 18.17 Dic Ecclesiae And so the Catholick Church hath tried them in all ages for we do not deny but that as Fanaticks and Enthusiasts have more abounded among Sects perhaps because they find more liberty so such do appeare sometimes within the body of the Catholick Church the Devill being Gods Ape and every where ambitiously and perversly imitating his Works and the Church doth still try them from time to time as occasions offer themselves and by her Sentence some are justified as Saints and singular Favourits of God others censured condemned and suppressed as Impostors and Deceivers Now if any sober Protestant vpon this late writers bringing this subject on the stage hath the curiosity to inform himself both what Supernaturall favours and extraordinary celestiall communications are received by some persons of great devotion in the Catholick Church and what strictnes and caution the Church vseth in examining them I much recommend to him for both these the perusall of the life of S Teresa where he may 1. observe the great diligence that Was vsed for severall years in the Triall of the Spirit of that most Holy Virgin and as to this is desired to view in particular the 33. Observations made by a Confessor of her in Approbation thereof and 2. where he may see if Ecclesiasticall Authority have any Weight with him those sublime favours she received in prayer confirmed to be from God as it were by a generall attestation of them throughout the Christian World even those who suspected and questioned them at first afterwards magnifying them her works being approved by the most eminent persons for learning Sanctity that were in her Age and translated into all moderne languages for a more vniuersall Benefit And if in this contest about the truth of Visions and Revelations c. still continued in the Catholick Church This Author will be concluded by the Common Reason of Christians which he often appeals to how can he condemn all those as Fanaticks whom the Common Reason of the Church trying their Spirits by the generall grounds and Principles of Christiany hath for so many Ages approued and received for Saints or again how condemn those Divines who long before the birth of Protestancy have Written on Mysticall Theology as maintaining Enthusiasme Whose works the Common Reason of the Church hath approved and esteemed most vsefull for the advancing of Christian Perfection The Church then is the Iudge for discerning of Spirits to which we do and these persons in Common Reason ought to submitt but yet on such new Illuminations or Revelations can be grounded no Article of Faith because that by which she judgeth these is her former Rule of Faith and thus far she can only allow them as they appeare to contain nothing contrary to it which certainly they would if they should pretend any new Addition of Faith to it Neither is the Church secured that any though reputed Saints are infallible in all that which they say nor that all is Divine that they pretend to Nor is there now not only any contradictory but any additionall new Revelation of any part of the Catholick Faith to be expected or admitted after God the Fathers speaking and declaring all his will to the Church by his only son our Lord and by his Apostles Nor can we believe since Miracles are the only thing that can confirme such Revelations I mean of some Common Article to be added to the Christian's former Creed for Divine that these shall ever be wrought to such a purpose 5. THis of the Church's discerning Enthusiasmes and Satanicall Illusions from the Internall operations of the Holy Spirit guided herein by the light of the Scriptures But there are other influences and inspirations of the same Spirit directing vs also in actions in their owne nature indifferent or of counsel on either side lawfull and free from sin some of which inspirations cannot be tried or distinguished from Enthusiasme 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 1. We must know then as Sancta Sophia and others have discoursed more at large that there are two Spirits within vs that is all the Regenerate the Holy Spirit and that of Corrupt nature assisted with the Suggestions of the Devill who took a kind of possession of vs vpon Adams Fall That this last Spirit is never totally expell'd or silenc'd in vs during this life but tempts vs still and That it's suggestions may appear many times like the motions of Gods Spirit pretending good ends the performing some duty to ourselves 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 it's infusion ordinarily but as a small seed or spark capable of a dayly growth and increase and which with the cooperation of our free wil and further aids that are from time to time received from God works in vs at length a totall Reformation and Christian Perfection which so many among the regenerate as do attain are said in a more speciall manner to be Spirituall Persons and to have the Spirit of God And in this sense the Apostle writes to the Corinthians I Brethren could not speak vnto you as to Spiritual but as to Carnal and as to Babes in Christ. 1. Cor. 3.1 and so ver 3. For ye are yet Carnal and Walk according to Man that is ye are Babes only in Christ and so in some degree carnal and walking according to the naturall Man still and not as yet entirely Spirituall And frequent mention we find in the Scriptures of these severall degrees and growths in a regenerate condition It being Gods pleasure that the new Man
acceptable service he may do to God or his neighbour or secret reprehensions for some Faults or admonitions for the better ordering of his life Spiritu as our Lord Saith Io. 3.8 Spirante ubi vult and he not knowing whence such things come or how they passe away yet these things we are assured must be from Gods Spirit because no good thought is from ourselves And why may not we imagine the same a due preparation being supposed of the thoughts iniected in our doubtings and requests concerning actions left free and vndetermined by the Divine declared will what way in these we may rather take the better to serve and please him God forbid that the name of Enthusiasme should deterr Christians from such a practice or hearkning to this internall Language Or as M. Cressy expresses it in his Preface should render Prayer and by Prayer the obtaining of Divine Grace a suspicious exercise And I wish the Author would a little better weigh his words and the maligne influence they may have on others We say then Divine Inspirations are necessary for Grace as well furthers as prevents vs to distinguish the motions of the Good and Bad Spirit in our minds in matters purely indifferent which may be proposed to vs by either of these Spirits for a different end where we have no other extenal Rule to iudge these motions by as we have in all internal suggestions concerning such other matters as are either directly commanded or prohibited by Gods Law And it is by this latter way of discovery and not the former that M. Cressy shews the suggestions of Fanaticks to be Satanicall To try Illuminations by Inspirations and so Inspirations by Illuminations c. This Author since Lauds Labyrinth dreams much of Circles To me there appears no more of a Circle or Identicall proof here than in the proving of the Scripture by the Church and the Church by the Motives of credibility Or than in the Protestants proving their Church Authority from the Scriptures and Scriptures from Vniversall Tradition The discerning of the motions of the Spirit by other second motions of the same Spirit more manifest to vs is no circular proof or evidence no more then this when a friend vnknown doth me a favour and afterwards tells me he did it The things of the Spirit saith the Apostle are discerned Spiritually that is Surely by the Spirit and vers 12. we have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things that are given to vs of God that is by his Spirit And the Gift of Discerning of Spirits 1. Cor. 12.10 is a gift or operation of the Spirit and the Spirit in bearing witness to our Spirits that we are the children of God or born again of the Spirit bears witness of it self New Revelations and as great c. New Divine Revelations are pretended by Fanaticks As great or greater or frequenter are pretended by the Church By the one truly by the other falsly the Divine laws being Iudge But no new or strange Revelations are pretended by or in the Church that is such as deliver any new thing contrary to or dissonant from the Old of which M Cressy there speaks and the latter following words sufficiently explain the precedent which this Author after 2. pages discourse vpon new is pleased to take notice of p. 242. where he goes on Yet M. Cressy saith they are not seditious c. Reply to p. 340. To hearken to the Immediate impulses the Spirit of God c. Catholicks as well as Fanaticks affirm that men ought to hearken to the immediat Impulses I suppose he means inspirations of the Spirit of God within them And will not this Author say so too But no Catholick pretends that God acquaints him with his mind and will in a way peculiar to himself and not such as is or may be common to all others that are in the state of Grace Who did not boast of so many Raptures c. Rapts and Visions in the Catholick Church are not to be distinguished from Fanaticism by the degree or the number of them but the quality As though the case were the very same c. The Prophets and Apostles received truth by Revelation saith Blosius therefore others may But he saith there also Denique Sacrae Scripturae Diuinis Revelationibus sunt plenae Revelationibus made to others I hope besides Apostles and Prophets witness 1. Cor. 14.26.30 and so he concludes Dominus semper poâ—uie semperque poterie operari quod vult in mundis animabus that he may bestow such Revelations on others still New and strange Revelations made to four Women Saints c. New Revelations and Visions taken in any sense save as these oppose the Old ones I mean the Scriptures Blosius had no reason to disbelieue since it is a promise vnder the Gospel your sons your daughters shall prophesy your yongmen shall see visions and your old men shal dream dreams and that this Spirit should be powred out not only on our Lords men servants but also on his hand maidens ver 18. as on the four daughters of Phillip the Deacon Act. 21.9 And we find Anna having Revelations as well as Simeon And what means this Author in these words Melancholick women Hystericall vapours c Are women more remote from the Graces of the Holy Spirit then Men or are not these to be equally honoured when they appear in that Sexe As for the four women Saints the particular Persons here named the Sanctity of their Lives is recorded in Church History their Festivals were celebrated in the Publick Liturgy through all the Western world before the appearance of Luther their Revelations are pious and consonant to Scripture We have before shewed how much they were approved c. The more ample this Author hath shewn such testimonies to be the more methinks he condemns his own censure in his going against the Common Reason of the Church and so if this may argue any faulty presumption in him he hath no cause to be angry with Blosius for praying for this Pardon Reply to p. 341. What means that saying in the Spirituall exercises c. I have an Edition of the Spirituall Exercises printed at vienna 1563 that is after S. Ignatius his death and therfore nothing added to them since and before 1574. wherein I can find no such passage Nor is it as this Author confesseth to be found in the later Impressions Is he not then hard put to it to find fuell enough for enflaming the popular hate against Catholicks that runs to such old Editions for it and this only out of a report not knowledge that it is there when the newer do not supply it Nor yet will forgive nor forget their fault Suppose one when he finds they have amended it But now to consider the words so happily discovered The words are these It is the great perfection of a Christian
THE ROMAN-CHVRCH'S DEVOTIONS VINDICATED From Doctour Stillingfleet's mis-representation By O. N. a Catholick Io. 3.8 Spiritus vbi vult spirat vocem ejus audis Sed nescis vnde veniat aut quò vadat Sic omnis qui natus est de Spiritu 1. Thess. 5.19 Spiritum nolite extinguere Prophetias nolite spernere omnia autem probate M.DC.LXXII THere is nothing Pious Reader wherein a Christian can receiue a greater dammage in order to Saluation then to be any way misinformed or prejudiced concerning Prayer and too much pains cannot be taken in endeavouring to satisfy all doubts and scruples raised on this subject I have therfore thought fit to enlarge myself in this ensuing discourse not only in discussing punctually page by page that part of Doctour Stilling fleets late Book that handles this matter but also in premising for the Readers benefit a more Generall Account of the Church's Doctrine and Practice herein as being the most fundamentall part of a Christians Duty and wherein Man whil'st here on earth entertains a nearer conversation with Heaven as also the instrument by which he derives from thence all other Graces and Blessings Spirituall or Temporall And here I may first say this in my entrance vpon this task that there is no part of Religion wherein the Roman Catholick Church might think herself more secure from blame and censure and wherein her extraordinary care and prudence for the right Guidance of her children in this Holy exercise as appears by the great store of writings vpon this subject doth more deserue praise euen from her Adversaries all Sects borrowing from Her Rules and Patterns for Prayer and Meditation as the Catholick Books on this subject translated and rendred common among them do abundantly witness For from whom can they learn these so well as from those who most practise Prayer and who are they but those who also vse solitude and Retirement and a sequestration of themselues from all unnecessary secular affaires to attend altogether on this Holy exercice who renounce all worldly wealth and prevent the trouble of a conjugal life of children family and the like and so both the cares of this world and the necessary causes thereof that so they may calmely and quietly entertain a closer communication with God and have their conversation in Heaven whilst here on Earth Or to vse the Apostles language 1. Cor. 7. that so they may giue themselves to Fasting and Prayer ver 5. may be without solicitude ver 32. may take care only for the things of the Lord how they may please the Lord. Ib. and that they may attend upon him without distraction ver 35. Which they doing I hope it may seem no wonder if God also vse a greater familiarity towards them delight to be with them he and those of his Court and shew them greater Kindnes who love him more or nothing but him and whom also he loves more who is no mans debter in love and who also loveth first otherwise they could not love him at all magit amat ante To begin then first by the assistance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit without which we can do nothing with a more generall explication of this matter to render the following Animaduersions on the Doctours book more intelligible 1. HEre those supernatural and extraordinary Graces and Favours that are vrgd against this Church as meer Fanaticism Namely Visions Revelations Predictions of things to come Knowledge of things done in Absence Knowledge of other mens thoughts science infused Hearing interiour Words spoken in the Soul interiour apparitions of Saints and Angels and our Lord Such as happened to S. Paul in the Temple At Corinth when he suffered shipwrak to Ananias to Philip to Cornelius and others Extasies Rapts an extraordinary sense of the Divine presence in the most interiour part of the Soul or Spirit suspension of the senses and of the Discursive operations of the interiour Faculties called by the Fathers Contemplatio Transformatio unio Dei sensus gustus tactus Amplexus Osculum ingressus in Divinam Caliginem introductio in Dei cellaria in cubiculum raptus mentis excessus and the like These I say and much more that might be named and much more then can be very intelligibly expressed to the vnexperienced are willingly confessed not unfrequently to have hapned to Men of a more holy and innocent life and Persons especially much addicted to Solitude and Prayer within the Communion of the Catholick Church in all Ages The Ecclesiasticall Histories are full of them not only the Modern but those of the more ancient and Primitive times Whereof he who doubts may read the relation S Dionysius Areopage makes of S. Carpus The life of S. Antony written by S. Athanasius the reading of which was partly a cause of the conversion of S. Austin the life of S. Paul the Hermite Hilarion Malchus and others written by S Hierom to which may be added the strange relation he makes of what hapned to himself in his Epistle to Eustochium The lives of the Syrian and Egyptian Monks and Hermites living in perpetual retired solitude and Prayer related by Theodoret Cassian and Palladius The life of S. Gregory Thaumaturgus and in it the famous vision he had of the Blessed Virgin and S. Iohn the Evangelist The life of S. Theodorus and S. Ephrem written by S. Gregory Nyssen The life of S. Ambrose by Paulinus and what S. Austin saith of him in his Confessions l. 9. c. 7. and De Curâ pro mortuis cap. 17. as also of Iohn the Egyptian Monk Ibid. and de Civit. Dei l. 5. c. 26. The life of S. Martin by Severus Sulpitius who lived with him and of a noble Roman become a Monastick Of several Sts. and Martyrs by S. Gregory Turonensis of S. Benedict by S. Gregory of our English Saints by S. Bede not long after the generall conversion of England nor before his own times Of S. Malachias by S Bernard his intimate acquaintance and again of S. Bernard by some Abbots his familiar Friends of S. Francis by S. Bonaventure who lived immediatly after his time I descend no further to later times because possibly they may have with Protestants lesse credit These are the lives of such as were universally reputed Saints in the Church of God till the late Reformation Written also by Saints or Persons of an vnblemished credit many of them Contemporary or also acquaintance and so who might better know the truth of what they writt Now in these lives may be found frequent mention of Visions Revelations Rapts and the other forenamed extraordinary Divine Graces and Favours and all these stories very consonant one to another Such as the latter times relate and such as are now still pretended Such do the former and all much agreeing with those mentioned in the Holy Scripture and this uniforme Experience of the operations
favours done to reputed Saints from plain Fanaticisme Again we contend also that all obscure language in Divine matters and such things as are mysterious and difficult to be vnderstood ought not therfore to be exposed to sport and Scorn as savouring of Enthusiasm or madnes or as affronting and taking away the vse of Reason a thing these men much talk of but never reasonably do this against Church-authority For such things they may be as are above the ordinary comprehension of Reason or most men's Experience and the vnintelligibleness of them may lye in the sublimity of the matter not in the expression And it hath bin a long observation that the plea of Reason hath bin the common practice of Sects and is now of the Socinians as Faith is the thing especially called for by the Church If then the language of our Mysticall Divines savours of Fanaticism I see not how severall passages in the Scripture do not run the same risk and may not be also questioned for it if arraigned at the Barr of some men's Reason had they not had speciall protection from the sacred Persons that penned them Such are to name some of them S. Paul's not living but Christ living in him Not his acting but grace With him His being in travell with the Galatians till Christ was formed in them our inward and outward our old and our new Man We dead and our life hid in Christ Our being transformed in the renewing of our mind The new Man renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Our being borne of God Being borne of the Spirit walking in being led by the Spirit Our being changed into the same image with Christ. Our being made partakers of the Divine Nature A peace of God in the mind that passeth all vnderstanding Attaining a knowledge of the love of Christ that passeth knowledge by our being rooted in charity so as to be able to comprehend the breadth length depth and height thereof Filled with all the fulness of God according to the power that worketh in vs above all that we can desire or vnderstand He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit The Kingdome of God not comming with observation from abroad but within vs. If any man love me my Father and I wil come vnto him and make our habitation with him The Father in Christ and Christ in vs that we may be consummate in one That God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him and this more as the love is greater In the last dayes God's powring out his Spirit vpon all flesh so that their sons and daughters too shall Prophesy their young men see visions and their old men dream dreams The Apostles ordering 1. Cor. 14.30 That when a Prophet is speaking in the publick congregation if any thing happen to be revealed to another who standeth by that the first should hold his peace and â—biding them ver 26. for not ordering their Revelations discreetly His praying for the Ephesians That God Would giue them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation for enlightening the eyes of their vnderstanding 5. Phil. 13.15 presuming that God in good time would reveale also things to the imperfect surely by an illumination of their vnderstandings as before which the perfect already believed Davids Audiam quid in me loquatur Deus Praying with the Spirit whil'st the vnderstanding is vnfruitfull or vnedified so We not knowing what to pray for as we ought that is according to Gods will the Spirit that is Within vs helping our infirmities and requesting for vs with vnspeakable or vnexplicable groanes The gift of the Holy Ghost inexplicable Saint Paul reckoning Three parts of a Man Body Soule and Spirit His being present in Spirit when absent in Body The Word of Gods Word dividing Soul and spirit Sive mente excedimus Deo sive sobrij sumus vobis Benjamin adolescentulus in mentis excessu what language is found here as well as in the Mystick Divines for one of those men's humor to have made sport with had it not bin Scripture Mean while I do not deny but many of the expressions may be in some lower degree verified of every person that is regenerate and in the state of Grace all such having an Vnion with God less or more by his Spirit and his extraordinary Grace importing only an higher degree thereof yet much more properly and in their full sense they seem only applicable to those who have attained to some Measure of Christian Perfection and therfore Divines are not to be censured that vnderstand these chiefly described in them in whom they are most eminently fulfilled To conclude Enthusiasme or Fanaticisme is not the speaking things hard to be vnderstood S. Peter saith S. Paul did so nor yet the pretending high and mysterious effects visions Revelations c. for all these we believe may be and are often wrought in Gods Saints by the Holy Spirit and his speciall presence in their Souls and that we say in a much higher and more admirable way then any of Satans infatuations can imitate or ascend to But Fanaticisme is a false pretence of these or the like when having no just ground to be credited 4. FOr the discerning of such Illusions proceeding from Satan from the true inspirations of Gods Holy Spirit we affirme 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 hurtfull 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 Doctours 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 inclined 2. arrogant and proud or 3. curious 4. or much addicted to melancholy there are particularly cast off and marked out for Satanicall Illusions among others these All such pretended inspirations or revelations as doe inuite the person to say or do any thing contrary to the Catholick Faith Obedience Humility peace and Vnity Honesty Purity and any other Divine vertue but especially contrary to the Catholick Faith or Obedience for instaÌ„ce as the attempting to make any new and seditious reformations as likewise When the persons obstinately belieue these revelations to be of God after they have bin condemned by experienced Superiors and Directors All such I say are condemned for Satanicall Illusions which cuts all the nerves of all such pretended Revelations as can any Way disturbe the
any Ingenuous Reader for most of them it seems labour lost Passive Vnions are sufficiently explained before § 30.31 called Passive not that when herein a Soul contemplates God she may not be said in some sort Active but Because when God is pleased so graciously to communicate himself to the Soul the Soul is taken out of her own disposall and doth and must see and think only what God will have her and this no longer then his good pleasure is such Neither can any dispositions or preparations that the Soul can vse assuredly procure it Thus Sancta Sophia explains this word And the Expression is secured by such like Scripture language Qui Spiritu Dei aguntur Not I live but Christ in me Not I work but the Grace of God which is with me Not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you So the Spirit that is in vs said to intercede for vs with groanes vnutterable So the Naturall actions of S. Pauls Soul seem wholy suspended when it knew not so much as whether it was in or out of the Body Hierotheus saith S. Dionysius Areopag was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the Diuine influences admit degrees and the Soul is said to be more Passive as the Holy Spirit is more operative and so in it's strongest and most extraordinary workings the Soul is hindred at least from reflecting on it's own action seems to it self not to act at all as in a great intention of the Mind the actions of our senses what we then see or hear are not at all observed Divine Inaction is in plain English the acting of God or his Spirit in vs which in the perfect is more extraordinary sensible and manifest A Superessentiall life of the Soul Superessentiall is a composit as also many other words with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added to them vsed much by Dionysius Areopag or the Ancient Author of those works signifying no more then Superlative a life of the Soul much advanced by Gods Spirit above it's naturall operations and apprehensions Deiformity and Deification are words not of late only but Anciently vsed signifying an vnion with God not in Essence but by Grace and this vnion still more intimate as the Grace more extraordinary secured by like Scripture language For Deiforme Renewed to the Image of our Creator Changed into the Image of our Lord Transformed by the renewing of our Mind For Deification Partakers of the Divine Nature and of the Powers of the future World The Lord and we made one Spirit Filled with all the fulness of God c. And if any of these may be communicated to the lowest ranke of Gods Saints the less may the Mysticks be blamed for applying them to the highest and most perfect The reason of the Mysticks vsing sometimes the expression of the Depth Fund that is in plain English the Bottom or Apex the Supreme Point or top of the Soul or Spirit that is the innermost or the highest part of the Soul is mentioned before viz. a double motion observed by the experienced in the Soul in Gods communicating his more special Presence and more extraordinary Graces to it as it is in Extasies and Rapts or inferiour Transports somwhat partaking thereof either one Inward or one Vpward We find in Scripture Cor altum and Excessus mentis and Heights and Depths of Love answering those and this Author may find in the Common Prayer Book A sinner repenting from the bottom of his heart and that is of his Soul and what more vsuall then to say a Man in passion and this Holy Love is such is transported above beyond beside himself yet some Mystick's there are who vse Fund to express the lower and affective part of the Soul and Apex Spiritus to express the Superior and Intellective However the impropriety of a term may be excused where the explication of it prevents mistakes Superior Intellect and Will are School-terms called so from the Supernaturalness and sublimity of the object to which some actions of these Faculties are directed Nothingness of the Creature is an expression of it's extreme litlenes compared with God And if he be all in all and I am be a name that none but himself can claim this will carry it that in some sense they are nothing that they are not It is no hard matter to shew the Apostle saying that Man is nothing If a man think himself somthing when he is nothing Gal. 6.3 The planter and the waterer both nothing 1. Cor. 3.7 And Things that are not 1. Cor. 1.18 But the Mystick's nothing chiefly is when we think them as nothing so think nothing of them as the greater Saints still do less Again there is a nothingness that may be affirmed of God also in respect of his being nothing that the Creature or any thing that we know is and whose Being as yet is better apprehended by vs negatively and by what he is not removing all the natures and imperfections of Creatures from him then positively and by affirming what he is of whom nothing that man doth or can apprehend hath the least Similitude S. Dionysius is much in this and so since him the Mysticks And the summ is 1. to instruct vs That for obtaining such an vnion with God in a more special presence thereof to devout Souls in Prayer we need not frame to our selves any curious Ideas of him who is incomprehensible and that the less we labour with the Intellect to do this the better and the less hindrance to Devotion but rather we are to contemplate him by Faith as the most beatifying object of our Love and containing in him all Perfection and to be contented with such a generall confused obscure notion of him as this life affoords 2. and also to signify that the nearer any one in such high contemplation is admitted to a fuller sight of his Perfections and Beauty the more still they are dazled and darkned with his light and are less able to express what they see The more also a Creature becoms vile vnto them and as his greatness more appears to any one the more their Smalness or Nothingness As at the farther distance we are removed from any thing the less still it shews to vs at last quite vanisheth Divine Inspirations or Illuminations and Infusions of the Holy Spirit enlightening the vnderstanding with a right apprehension and judgment of things and inspiring into the will holy desires and such as are acceptable to God and conformable vnto his will surely this Author will not deny These are frequently petitioned for in the publick Prayers of the Church Catholick and Protestant I dare not spend long time in proving them least I should incurr the censure below p. 338. Only I wonder how they came to be put here amongst non-intelligibles Must nothing be ackowledged and allowed that Fanaticks pretend to
For new Revelations see what hath bin said before § 4. and let the Scriptures be considered that are cited § 24. If any thing be revealed to another let the first hold his peace And Every one of you hath a Revelation And the Apostle's praying for the Ephesians That God would give vnto them the Spirit of wisdome and Revelation for opening the eyes of their vnderstanding and to comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ c. To which Scriptures may be added the place of Saint Austin when going to write of the Trinity Si quid autem aliter sapio id quoque mihi ipsa revelabit sive per occultas inspirationes atque admonitiones sive per manifesta eloquia sua c. And so Confess lib. 11. c. 22. About the measuring of time Exarsit saith he animus meus nosse istud implicatissimum enigma Noli claudere Domine Deus noli claudere desiderio meo ista If it be asked what are or may be the Subjects of such new Revelations I answer All matters concerning either an Orthodox Faith or an holy life All the Precepts and Counsells of Perfection already delivered in the Gospell but these extended and applied to severall particulars wherin we cannot otherwise without such new light be so certainly guided such new illustrations and influences of the Holy Spirit often producing in vs a firmer assent and a greater affection to them Shewing Divine Mysteries more clearly and profoundly Pressing Christian Duties more efficaciously Instructing vs in particular cases and circumstances and with considering our present disposition or condition Directing vs of things indifferent or also good proposed which is to be performed as the more perfect more acceptable to God beneficial to vs Often acquainting and admonishing vs of our infirmities and temptations Discovering also Secrets Events and matters of Fact past present future as they may happen to concern the benefit of ourselves or others lastly new Revelations of former Revelations as some circumstantial application of them is necessary Mentall Prayer is praying with or in the mind with a liberty from set formes Abstraction of life is only sequestring ourselves as much as we can from wordly cares and busines especially at the time of our Devotions Introversion is nothing more then a Recollection of the mind from all external objects and acts which distract it into it self there to spend all it's thoughts and affections on God pious Meditations Convertimini ad cor Accedet homo ad cor altum is Scripture-language and Regnum Dei intra vos saith our Lord. And Ipse nomen contemplationis suscipit qui cor intùs habet Saith S. Gregory In Ezech. Hom. 17. A state of introversion is a strong and well-confirmed habit of it when we have gotten a power ouer ourselves to do it without difficulty Self annihilation is self deniall self mortification such was the Apostle's when he said I am nothing 2. Cor. 12.11 I wish there were not more deficient in the practice than ignorant in the meaning of these Vnknowing ourselves vnknowing God Removing the Images of the Creatures and of God 1. as much as we can forgetting our selves and other Creatures and defacing the hurtfull phantasme or Images we have of them in our minds though I would not be here vnderstood to include amongst them the Humanity of our ever Blessed Lord which is the Chief nourishment and support of all true Devotion Defacing them I say first and chiefly as they relate to our Affections in retaining no inordinate inclinations or adherence to them or any of them in neither solicitously seeking nor willingly admitting when offered consolations from them a sure way but after some patience to find consolations much greater in and from God Happiest he who ever thus most vnknows both them and himself and thus he becomes the better prepared for a more immediate and intimate vnion by Love to his Creator This our being wholy Mortified to the world and weaned from the Creature and so from ourselves as if it were not is one of the chief Lessons that is taught in the Catholick Schoole of Devotion And as God manifests to any Souls his Greatnes so there more appears to them the litleness or nothingness of the Creature 2. Removing them As they relate to our Meditations in laying aside as much as we can these workings of the Braine after the Soul perceiues herself sufficiently excited by them to Acts of Love for now Such Meditations become hindrances and distractions to Contemplation and then when our Will is fixed on that supremely amiable object the enioyment of which we seek by them Which the Affective part of the Soul more quietly possesseth as our imagination worketh and disturbeth it less and when the Soul in respect of these Images is at it were in the darke and sees least of them I mean such Images as the act of love and contemplation or affective meditation rather infused then acquired do not necessarily include Indeed the greatest disturbance we find in our prayers and therfore it needs to be no wonder if the Mysticks speak so much of them is from these Images of wordly things so lively drawn and imprinted in our Fancy by our much trafficking with them that the Soul at her devotions is frequently casting her eye aside vpon them And the greatest art of a christian is to deface these Images there as much as he can that he may keep his mind fixed on somthing much nobler and better and the way to obliterate them again is to sequester ourselves as much as necessity and duty permits from negotiating with these wordly affaires and cares that necessarily stay them there Of removing these Images S. Dionysius speaks much See the much noted place De Mystic Theolog. c. 1. Tu vero Timothee Charissime intentissima contuendis Spectaculis Mysticis exercitatione sensus linguae intellectuales operationes sensibilia intelligibilia omnia c. v◠illi jungaris qui super omnem substantiam omnem quae scientiam est Libero enim solutoque a Te ab omnibus discessu ad divinarum tenebrarum radium super-essentialem contendes And thus S. Gregory Qui adhuc exteriora immoderatiùs cogitant quae sint de aeterno lumine rimae contemplationis ignorant Neque enim cum corporearum rerum imaginibus illa se infusio incorporea lucis capit quia dum sola visibilia cogitantur lumen invisibile ad mentem non admittitur And elswhere Quia per illas imaginationes corporeas infra se lapsa est anima sine illis supra se ire conatur id est in contemplatione postquam per multa indecenter sparsa est in vnum se colligere nititur si magna vi amoris prevalet esse vnum atque incorporeum contempletur To the same purpose S. Austin of contemplation Si cui sileat tumultus carnis sileant phantasiae