of the Earth as much as their Mortal State could bear and applyed themselves intirely to the Contemplation and Prosecution of those of a more excellent Nature living an Abstracted and Angelick Life in Mortal Flesh in Holy Conversation and Favour with God and his blessed Ministring Spirits And some did actually and expressly consecrate themselves by Vow unto the special Service of God Of which Sort were those among the Jews called NAZARITES because they did so separate themselves from among Men to attend upon God The Sacred History Numb 6. is a Record not of the Original but of the Divine Approbation of Nazarites which though that be very ancient yet were much more ancient and more ancient than any Man can tell And God's Ordering of the Rites and Circumstances of their Consecration and Observations for that People is a manifest Indication of his Divine Approbation of the thing it self which had been in use long before All do agree that they were of Two sorts some only for certain time others perpetual for their whole Life and those may again be distinguished into Three sorts viz. Such as were call'd or appointed by God as Samson a Nazarite unto God from the Womb Judg. 13.5 7 16.17 and as St. John the Baptist consecrated effectually and filled with the Holy Spirit even from his Mother's Womb Luk. 1.15 Such as were dedicated by their Parents as Samuel by his Mother 1 Sam. 1.10 28. And such as did freely offer themselves And this Free-will Offering of themselves though but for a certain time God did accept no less than the Free-will Offerings of their Goods or any thing they had v. Lev. 22.18 21 23 27.2 and therefore ordered the Rites and Circumstances of their Consecration and Observations as was said before And on the contrary the Calamities of Nazarites is reckoned as a part of the Punishment of the People by Jeremiah the Prophet Lam. 4.7 But it is reckoned by God among his Divine Favours to that People that he raised up Nazarites amongst them and reckoned with his bringing them up from the Land of Egypt and raising them Prophets amongst them Amos 2.10 11. I raised up of your Sons for Prophets and of your Young Men for Nazarites Though they might freely offer themselves yet it was God that did secretly inspire and incline their Wills And therefore these were Holy as Origen hath well observed Hom. 11. in Levit. If any one devotes himself to God if any one intangles himself in no secular Business that he may please Him to whom he hath approved himself if any one is separate from the rest of Men who live Worldly Lives and are obliged in secular Business not seeking the things which are upon Earth but which are in Heaven he is deservedly called HOLY or SAINT And after much to this purpose he concludes in these Words From all which it is clear how every one of us who will be Holy ought to be consecrated to God and thenceforth be imployed in no Business or Acts which relate not to God So likewise the Colledges or Schools of the PROPHETS though we meet with no express mention of them till in 1 Sam. 10.5 yet certain it is that they were much more ancient who under the Name of Prophets lived very abstracted Lives The very change of the Denomination mentioned in the chap. next foregoing 1 Sam. 9.9 is an Evidence of that viz. That he who was then call'd a Prophet was afore-time call'd a SEER and therefore when one went to inquire of the Lord they said Come and let us go to the Seer And if to inquire of the Lord was to go to the Seer than that leads us back to the time of Rebecca Gen. 25.22 for Seers and how much farther back no Man knows for that certainly was no new thing then Nor doth it appear that the Schools of the Prophets were first instituted by Samuel But that they lived such abstracted Contemplative Lives is undeniable both from the Nature of their Profession and from the Particulars of the Matter of Fact of their Conversation mentioned in the Holy Scriptures Nor were there Men only but WOMEN also who did very anciently leaving the World apply themselves to Matters of Devotion though perhaps not with so solemn Consecration such as Anna a Prophetess who having lived seven years a Wife lived afterwards a Widow till eighty four years of Age and departed not from the Temple but served God with Fastings and Prayers Night and Day For of this sort of Religious Women were there many among the Israelites as anciently as the Tabernacle in the Wilderness as we are informed by the Jews and the most learned Criticks of this Age as Munster Fagius Vatablus and others upon Exodus 38.8 And this it is very probable was a great Aggravation of the Sins of the Sons of Eli 1 Sam. 2.22 that the Women whom they abused were such as these who assembled at the Door of the Tabarnacle as learned Criticks inform us And putting all these Notices together it seems that such Religious Devout Women there were among the Jews at least from the time of their first abode in the Wilderness while they had the Temple standing amongst them And if so Why not long before even while in Egypt Had they not received Religious Instructions from their Ancestours or Did they retain none of them or Did they see nothing of Religion practised among the Egyptians and Had they not the same Natural Propensation to Religion which is common to all Men We see how ready and expert all the Women were at the Red-Sea Exod. 15.1 20. with Miriam a Prophetess to answer Moses and the Men and Can we imagin that all Religion had been extinguished or lain dormant in their Abode in Egypt No certainly their hard Servitude though it might hinder their more Solemn Worship yet it could not hinder but did rather excite and provoke to more retired and secret Devotion And indeed that Servitude with Rigour and hard Bondage was not till a little before their Deliverance and even then do we find that generous Magnanimity even among the Hebrew Women the Midwives as to obey God rather than Man Exod. 1.17 The Companies of the PROPHETS mentioned 1 Sam. 10.10 and 19.20 such as else-where are call'd the Sons of the Prophets 1 King 18.4 20.35 2 King 2.3 5 7 15 4.38 6.1 2 9.1 were a sort of Religious Persons who lived Abstracted Contemplative Lives many of them plainly Coenobitical Lives and some Anachoretical or Hermete Lives as St. Antony and others among the Christians did as Elias 1 King 17.1 and Elisha 1 King 19.6 So that St. Hierom said very truly Every Order or Institution of Life hath its Principals or Leaders and then after divers Instances in others he adds Our Leaders are such as Paul as Antony as Julian as Hilarian as the Macerius 's And to return to the Authority of the Scriptures our Prince or Leader was Elias was Elisha our
to bring us unto Christ so is Observance of the Prescripts of the Gospel designed for our Tutourage to bring us to the Spirit To that we must come or we are none of his but that way we must come and in that way we must keep or else we shall be led by the Spirit of Error and mistake that for the Spirit of Truth If we do well consider the Holy Scriptures the Nature of the Holy Spirit and the Fruits of the Spirit we may learn what Qualifications are requisite to obtain that inestimable Treasure and by what Signs and Characters it may be known and distinguished And thereby we may discern that many who pretend highly to the Spirit are much out of the way of the true Spirit of God and many led by the subtile Spirit of Antichrist under the appearance of an Angel of Light to undermine the Gospel and Institutions of Christ to do despite to the Spirit of Grace and to raise Scandals and Prejudices against the Holy Doctrine which they pretend and it may be think to assert and to indispose Men for the Reception of those Graces which those envious and malicious Spirits may know to be ready to be communicated to them And this should make others the more cautious that they be not subservient to and be made the very Tools of these wicked Agents in their Opposition least at last they be involved with them in their Condemnation The True way to reduce the misled People is not to deny or dissemble the Holy Doctrine much less to villifie or reproach it but plainly to assert the Truth and shew them wherein and by what Means they are misled from it 1. That the Spirit of God is the most precious and desirable thing in the World and absolutely necessary but it is to be desired principally to transform us into its own Nature to lead us into all necessary Truth to endue us with Power to overcome all our Corruptions and all Temptations and to adorn us with all those Graces which ennoble Humane Nature and raise it above its self and so make us Christians indeed and to conduct us in all the important Occurrences of our Lives but to desire it for Matters of Ostentation to glory in Divine Communications or over-earnestly seek after the Consolations through impatience of bearing the Spiritual Cross are great Signs that such Souls are either quite out of the way or have made but little Progress 2. That Satan is often transformed into an Angel of Light and therefore we must be careful to try the Spirits 3. That whatever is contrary to Sound Doctrine 1 Tim. 1.10 2.1 to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness ibid. 6.3 the Doctrine taught by the Apostles Rom. 16.17 Gal. 1.8 to the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jud. 3. cannot be from the true Spirit the Spirit of Christ 4. That such Spirits as lead into Divisions Separations and Sects lead out of the way of the True Spirit of God and whatever lead into contempt or disrespect of the Sacred Scriptures or any of the Ordinances or Institutions of Christ are certainly Spirits of Antichrist how specious soever their Pretences may be for the Conscientious and Reverend Use of these are the very Means whereby Souls are prepared for the Communication of the Spirit of God and whereby it is ordinarily communicated to them Cui Veritas comperta sine Deo Cui Deus cognitus sine Christo Cui Christus exploratus sine Spiritu Sancto Cui Spiritus Sanctus accommodatus sine Fidei Sacramento saith an ancient and eminent Christian Tertul. de Anima c. 1. To whom is Truth discovered without God To whom is God known without Christ To whom is Christ manifest without the Holy Spirit To whom is the Holy Spirit granted without the Sacrament of Faith that is Baptism 5. And more particularly in respect to some amongst us That they who assert this Doctrine without Distinction or Caution are not much to be regarded and if they be Men of Learning and may be presumed not to be ignorant what Cautions and Rules are given by Learned and Experienced Christians to distinguish the Impostures of Evil Spirits from the Conduct or Motions of the Good are much to be suspected to serve another Interest then what they pretend to those they mislead and that they all expose People to the Delusions of Evil Spirits which readily embrace such Advantages 6. That there were special Reasons why God ordered Moses to smite the Waters and the Dust with the Rod and to take handfuls of Ashes from the Furnace and sprinkle it towards the Heaven and to erect the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness c. to produce the intended effects and why our Saviour made Clay with Spittle and anointed the Eyes of the Blind Man and then bad him wash and many other such things for which perhaps no Man did nor doth know the reason and yet undoubtedly if these Orders had not been observed the Effect had not follow'd 7. That it is but reasonable that God should give Orders without declaring the Reason for Tryal and Exercise of the Subjection of the Intellectual Faculties of his Creatures and that in such Case if the Orders be not observed it is not likely the Effect should follow and that if there were no more than this Exercise of humble Submission to the Wisdom of God in the Christian Sacraments it could not be imagined to be the Spirit of Christ that should lead People to despise or neglect these Orders and Institutions of Christ But in them there is more for Instance in that of Baptism it is the Solemnity and external Act of Declaration of our Engagement in Covenant with Christ and the Refusal of it is as much as to refuse to Seal and Deliver a Bond which whoever should refuse to do and yet pretend to give Bond might be looked upon as a Knave or a Cheat and in that of the Holy Communion there is a great and Solemn Duty of Recognition of the absolute Dominion of the Father by Right of Creation and of the Son by Right of Redemption over us and all we are and have a Symbolical Oblation of our selves and of all we have to God in a Commemorative Sacrifice and Representation of the Passion of Christ before the Father as the Great Propitiation for the Sins of the World of as full import to all intents and purposes to Christians as were all the Sacrifices of the Jews to them which were but Types of the same a Holy Rite of Address to God the Father by Christ the Mediator through the Merit and Satisfaction of his Passion by which alone our Prayers and Thanksgivings have acceptance with him and of Spiritual Communion with God in Christ whereby a Divine Power and Vertue is as really communicated to Souls duly disposed as Vertue went out of him and healed the People and the Woman who touched the Hem of his Garment And these have been the
all Men every where to Repent QUESTIONS PROPOSED To the People call'd QUAKERS First to their Ministers at their second days Meeting and now to them All for the better Examination and rectifying some Errors and Mistakes amongst them I. WHether there be not a great Party of fallen Angels and wicked Spirits which are Enemies to Mankind and with all the Power Activity and Subtilty they can do continually endeavour to hinder their Salvation and Communion and Union with the Father Son and Holy Spirit II. Whether the Word which in the beginning was with God and was God was not made Flesh and dwelt amongst Men being born of the Virgin Mary and called Jesus which signifies a Saviour and Christ the Messiah the anointed of God and Jesus Christ of Nazareth III. Whether his Appearance in Mortal Flesh was not to destroy the Works of the Devil the Prince of that Party of fallen Angels and wicked Spirits to be a Prince and a Saviour to Mankind and the Captain of their Salvation to all who receive him and subject themselves intirely to his Teachings by his Example and by his Doctrine and Precepts and Orders recorded in the Holy Scriptures and by the Motions of his Holy Spirit upon and in their Hearts and Minds IV. Whether he be not the Only Mediatour between God and Man so that Man can have no Communion with the Holy God or Participation of the Spirit of Holiness but by and through Him V. Whether that Party of fallen Angels and wicked Spirits knowing this do not above all things endeavour by all means to with-hold people from closing and uniting with that Holy Mediatour and to withdraw as many as they can as much as they can from Him VI. Whether their most dangerous and subtile Actings in this Opposition be not principally by Way of Deceit under the Appearance and Pretence of Good to Man and of Good Spirits VII Whether it hath not been fore-told that in the latter times especially there should be many false Teachers who with such specious Pretences and secret Energy should endeavour to draw away People from the Faith as to deceive if it was possible the very Elect and Warnings given to beware of them by Christ and by his Apostles VIII Whether the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ be not the same and a Holy and Pure Spirit a Spirit of Truth and Righteousness leading into all necessary Truth and from all Fraud Deceit and Falacy Cavils and shuffling Evasions IX Whether it be not reasonable that Christ Jesus who had done so much for Man should prescribe what Manner he pleased for his Peoples engaging with Him and for their recognizing Him and making their Solemn Address to the Father by Him and what Orders he pleased and would have observed and continued in his Church X. Whether to oppose such Appointments Prescriptions or Orders or to cavil at them seek Evasions or Pretences to neglect them and yet pretend to be Christians be not a great Evidence of Insincerity and of a subtile Antichristian Spirit of Satan transformed into an Angel of Light XI Whether Jesus Christ besides his General Command to his Apostles after his Resurrection to go to the Gentiles and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost c. did not for forty days shew himself to them speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God until the day in which he was taken up after that he through the Holy Ghost had given Commandments unto them and in or with those Commandments give them sufficient Instructions and Directions for the Constituting his Church which he purchased with his Blood XII Whether the Apostles did not in all things faithfully pursue his Commands and Directions XIII Whether besides his express Commands and Directions they did not also receive the Holy Spirit according to his Promise in an extraordinary manner and had the same residing in them and manifesting his Presence with them by extraordinary Operations to guide and assist them in their Work XIV Whether they having received the Command to make Disciples in all Nations whether Jews or Gentiles baptizing them as aforesaid and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever he commanded them did not in all places preach the Gospel exhort the People to believe and be baptized and baptized with Water those who did believe though baptized before with John's Baptism and though they had received the Holy Spirit whether Jews or Gentiles XV. Whether the Apostles and the People converted by them after they had received the Holy Ghost did not when they came together in one or assembled for the Solemn Worship of God break Bread and eat the Lord's Supper and do as their Lord did and commanded them to do and that so constantly that there is not known any Assembly of Christians in the time of the Apostles nor in many Ages after to have been held for the Solemn Worship of God without it XVI Whether the Apostles did not ordain Elders and appoint others by special Appointment to do the same in every City by such Authority that none did presume to take the Office of Elder unto himself but who was so ordained or the Office of Ordaining Elders but who was so appointed either in the times of the Apostles or afterward but who have been infamous ever since XVII Whether seeing that our Saviour himself though he needed not would notwithstanding be baptized with Water to fulfill all Righteousness and thereupon had sensible Approbation from Heaven did also by his Apostles baptize with Water and that it is plain by their Practice that his Apostles and the whole Church of Christ did understand his Command to baptize all Nations of Baptism by Water and as necessary for Forgiveness of Sins and that Baptism with the Holy Ghost was peculiar to himself whether I say this being so it be not a forced and strained Interpretation without any sound ground and contrary to the most authentick Means of explaining Words to restrain that Command to Baptism by the Holy Ghost only XVIII Whether if such Construction be by any Spirit more than humane it be not the Spirit of Antichrist or Satan transformed to with-hold Men under his own Dominion from solemnly ingaging with Christ and from Forgiveness of their Sins in his Name or If it be only by Opinion of Men such Opinion obstinately persisted in be not a Damnable Sin contrary to subjection of all Imaginations to the Obedience of Christ and subverting of Souls and such Teachers to be abominated and anathamatized by all sincere Christians as Seducers and the Ministers and Instruments of Satan though they appear in Sheeps cloathing XIX Whether it having been the constant belief of all Nations whether Jews or Gentiles that they had a real though Spiritual Communion with the Gods they worshipped in their Participation of their Sacrifices as St. Paul intimates 1 Cor. 10. and may be proved by
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 St. 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 LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Dan. Brown at the Black-Swan and Bible without Temple-Bar And Rich. Smith at the Angel without Lincolns-Inn-Gate near the Fields 1697. ADVERTISEMENT THE Liturgy of the Ancients represented in English Forms with a Preface concerning the Restitution of the most Solemn part of the Christian Worship And divers other Papers and Tracts by the same Author Sold by Dan. Brown and Rich. Smith ASCETICKS OR The Heroick Piety Virtue OF THE Ancient Christian ANCHORETS AND COENOBITES PART I. Exemplary Asceticks LONDON Printed for the Authour 1696. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER IT hath been a usual subtile and wicked Policy of the Devil and Evil Men first to render Names Odious and then by affixing them to Persons and Things thereby to render them so too with the vulgar whom by that means they impose upon and make their Tools By such means have not only the Christians of Old but also some of the chief Principles of Christianity been much injured and abused And few Parties there are who have not one time or other smarted by it That the well-meaning Reader therefore may not be so abused and imposed upon in his Judgment of the things here put together for the Benefit of all who can receive them by the Odious Names of Monkery and Popery it is to be observed that though POPERY taken properly for the Abuses and Corruptions of the Bishops and Church of Rome may deserve all the Odium cast upon it yet may most vile and wicked Abuses be committed by Pretence and Imputation of that Odious Name And in some things it is hard to say Whether the People have been more abused by Popery it self or by the Odium and Imputation of the Name And not only the People but the Gospel it self I may add and the Reformation too For while Christian Truths have been mis-represented and exposed to Contempt and Odium under the Name of Popery the Cause on the side of Popery is supported strengthened and made so much the more defensible by the intermixture of so much Truth and the Cause on the side of the Reformation so much the more weakened and disparaged by the intermixture of so much indefensible Error Whereas if they were only things inexcusable in them which were questioned as Charity doth require they must have sunk in the Cause long before this but an indiscreet Affectation of Reformation and uncharitable seeking Occasions have made a Reformation now as needful on the one side as the other Instances of this might be shewed in divers particulars but I need not step out of my way for that the other Name mentioned may serve for that purpose here MONKERY is not only rendered Odious as of it self but also as a part of Popery And indeed if we imagin all that is believed or practised by the Church of Rome to be Popery it may be so but then we shall leave little of true Christianity for the Reformation But if what is true Christianity be not Popery than neither is Monkery as some are pleased to call the Monastick Life And that it is not only true Christianity but the Practice of it in the greatest Perfection that Mortals are capable of I am apt to think will be very plain to any who will consider what here follows with an unprejudiced and competent Judgment And therefore I shall not need to say more here but only desire the Reader to suspend his Judgment till he hath perused and considered it well THE Beginning and Progress OF Contemplative Living AND Religious Societies THAT there are in the very Nature of Man some Principles of Inclination to Religion which if not corrupted by Evil Education or other unhappy Occurrences do insensibly grow and increase in Strength and Vigour and in due time exert themselves in Action though for some time they lie dormant as it were and do not appear even as some others which in all Animals are manifestly most Natural and yet appear not till after some growth toward Maturity hath been observed believed and asserted by Men of greatest Reputation for Learning and Wisdom both in Ancient times and to this Day These Principles have among Man-kind been in many much corrupted and stifled by Evil Education or Conversation with Evil Persons and by the Impressions Energy and Instigations of Evil Spirits but in others again much cherished and improved not only by Good Education and Conversation and by Consideration of the Works of Nature but moreover and especially by the kind Influences of the Divine Majesty and of his Good Ministring Spirits From hence in all Ages and in all Parts of the World have been produced and raised up Philosophers and Wise and Holy Men and Women who have been as Lights and Examples to the rest of several sorts according to their different Ways of Living some living a Life of Civil Conversation with others but strictly conscientious walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless as is said of Zacharias and Elizabeth Luk. 6. or to speak more comprehensively living in all Good Conscience before God as St. Paul saith of himself Act. 23.1 or according to the Character of Job Perfect and Vpright fearing God and eschewing Evil Job 1.1 Others living a more abstracted Life of Retirement and Contemplation abstracted not only from Business in the World but also from ordinary Conversation with Men that they might without Distraction converse with God and his blessed Ministring Spirits and others again living a kind of mixt or middle Life between these two avoiding unnecessary Business and Incumberances and exercising Recollections and Abstraction as much as their Occasions would permit and even in and amidst their Business Of those Three Ways of Living that more strict and Contemplative Life is believed by divers Learned Men to have been begun by ENOS or in his time and not without reason For as the Principles before-mentioned were apt to produce such an Effect so there seems to be something singular noted concerning Religion or some Religious Institution or Practice in that Sacred Record Gen. 4. ult But of the more ancient Times not only before the Flood but also for some Ages after the Flood we know but very little But in the Times of which we have some more Knowledge besides PRIESTS and professed PHILOSOPHERS there have always been both single Persons and compleat or formed Societies of People who discerning the Vanity and Emptiness of Earthly things and Solidity and Perminence of Heavenly things withdrew themselves from those
from his Superior 3. If he commit all to his Judgment and reserve nothing to his own Discretion 4. If in all things commanded he keep the Meekness of Obedience and Constancy of Patience 5. If he do Injury to none and also bear patiently those done to him 6. If he do nothing besides the Exemplar of his Rule 7. If to all things commanded him he judgeth himself as an ill and unworthy Workman 8. If he declare himself inferior to all 9. If he hold his Tongue and be not forward to speak 10. If he be not apt to Laughter By such Tokens is true Humility discerned And these things also be necessary for thee to be observed in the Congregation viz. That according to the Declaration of the Psalmist thou beest as one Deaf not Hearing and one Dumb not opening his Mouth questioning nothing judging nothing of these things which shall be commanded thee Wherefore thou oughtest not to hope to obtain thy Patience from the Virtue of others that is that thou then only possess it when thou art provoked by no Body The beginning of our Salvation as hath been said is the Fear of our Lord. Of the Fear of our Lord is sound Compunction begotten From Compunction of the Heart proceed Contempt and Nakedness of all Riches From that Nakedness Humility proceed Of Humility is begotten Mortification of our Wills And by Mortification of our Wills are all Vices extirpated By the expulsion of Vices do Virtues fructifie and grow up And by the growth of Virtues is Purity of Heart acquired And by Purity of Heart is the Perfection of Apostolical Charity possessed Cassian 4. Instit cap. 32. The Advice of Moses an Ancient Egyptian Abbot for the obtaining true Discretion TRUE Discretion is not acquired but by true Humility Of which Humility this is the first Proof if all things not only which are acted but even which are thought be referred to the Examination of the Elders so that the Person not trusting to his own Judgment do in all things acquiess in their Determinations and learn what he ought to judge Good or Evil by their Teaching Which Instruction will not only teach a Young Person to walk in the right path by the true Way of Discretion but will also preserve him unhurt from all the Frauds and Snares of the Enemy For he can by no means be deceived who-ever lives not after his own Judgment but after the Manner of the Ancients Nor will the Crafty Enemy be able to impose upon his Ignorance who doth not cover any of the Thoughts arising in his Heart with a pernicious Bashfulness but doth either reject or admit them upon mature examination of the Elders For immediately after a malignant Thought is discovered it withers and before the Judgment of Discretion be pronounced the filthy Serpent being as it were by the virtue of Confession drawn out of his dark subterraneous Den into the Light and in a manner exposed and detected withdraws himself For so long do his noxious Suggestions prevail in us as they are conceiled in the Heart and no longer Cassian Coll. 2. ca. 10. v. 4. Instit cap. 9 39. Basil Ascet Qu. 26. Const cap. 19. The Instruction of the Ancient Egyptian Abbot Nestero concerning Spiritual Knowledge Cass Coll. 14. THERE are many kinds of Sciences in this World For as great Variety there is of them as there is of Arts and Disciplines But though all of them are either altogether unprofitable or serviceable only for the Commodities of this Life yet is there none of them which hath not a proper Order and Method of its Teaching by which it may be attained by those who desire it If therefore those Arts are directed to be attained by certain and proper Methods how much rather doth the Discipline and Profession of our Religion which tends to the contemplating of the Secrets of Invisible Mysteries and seeks not the Retribution of a temporal Gain but of Eternal Reward consist in a certain Order and Method Of which the Science is two-fold the first Practical that is Actual which is performed in the Amendment of Manners and the Purgation of Vices the other is Theoretical that is which consists in the Contemplation of Divine things and the Knowledge of most Sacred Senses cap. 1. Who-ever therefore would attain to the Theoretick or Contemplative it is necessary that with all Study and Industry he acquire first the Actual Science For this Practical may be possessed without the Theoretick but the Theoretick without the Practick cannot be throughly apprehended For there are certain Steps so ordered and distinguished that the mean Estate of Man may ascend to the top If they succeed one another in the Order which we have said one may by them come to the top to which if the first be taken away he cannot fly up He doth therefore in vain endeavour to see God who doth not avoid the Infection of Vices For the Spirit of God flies that which is feigned nor will it dwell in a Body subject to Sins cap. 2. But this Actual Accomplishment consists of two Branches The first the Knowledge of the Nature and of the Cure of Vices The second the Knowledge of the Order of Virtues and the Accomplishment of the Mind with them so that it may not serve them by the Compulsion of a forcible Regiment but be as it were fed and delighted with them as with a Good natural to it and ascend that hard and narrow Way with Delight cap. 3. If your Concern be to attain to the Light of Spiritual Knowledge not out of vain Ostentation but from the Grace of Reformation you must first be affected with a Desire of that Beatitude of which it is said Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God that ye may also arrive to that concerning which the Angel said to Daniel But they who are instructed shall shine as the Splendor of the Firmament and they who instruct many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever Wherefore continuing that Diligence of Reading which I perceive you have make hast with all Industry as soon as may be to learn compleatly the Actual that is the Moral Discipline for without this cannot be understood that Contemplative Purity which I mentioned which they alone obtain as a Reward after the Expence of many Labours and Pains who become perfect not by the Words of other Teachers but by the Virtue of their own Actions If ye will prepare a Sacred Tabernacle in your Heart for Spiritual Knowledge purge your selves from the Contagion of all Vices and devest your selves of the Cares of this Life For it is impossible for a Soul which is busied but a little in Worldly Affairs to obtain the Gift of Knowledge or to be fruitful in Spiritual Senses or retentive of Sacred Lessons Observe therefore in the first place lest your Study in Reading and Labour of your Desire be frustrated by vain Elation that you impose Silence on your Tongue
encumbred with it any longer His Moveables he also Sold and gave the Money to the Poor 3. And having reserv'd some small matter for his Sister the next time he went to Church he heard our Lord say in the Gospel Matt. 6.34 Take no thought for the Morrow And therefore without any more delay he e'en went out immediately and distributed that too among the Poor And having given her in Charge to some experienc'd and trusty Virgins to be Educated in their Cloysters he betook himself to an Ascetick Life without doors keeping a very close eye upon himself and leading a very rigid and absteinous Life for at that time there scarcely were any settled Monasteries in Egypt neither did any Monk live in a remote Wilderness But whoever had a mind to order himself very severely exercis'd himself in some solitary Place not far from his own Town At this time there was an Old Man in a neighbouring Village that had obliged himself to a solitary Life from his Youth St. Antony having observ'd him was inflam'd with Emulation and at first continu'd alone in some place or other that was hard by the Village And where-ever he heard of any studious and zealous Courter of Vertue like a provident Bee he would be sure to go and find him out never returning to his own Abode till he had seen him and could bring something back with him which might serve for part of a Viaticum to bear up his Spirit in his Progress to Heaven After he had continu'd thus some time he squar'd his Mind with such exactness as to resolve never to return again to the Place where his Ancestors Seat was nor so much as to bear the secular Concerns of his Relations in his Memory any longer that he might intirely apply his Mind and Affections to a vigorous Assiduity in Asceticks And therefore he wrought with his own Hands because 't is written 2 Thess 3.10 Let not the Idle eat Part of what he got by his Labour he subsisted on himself and part of it he gave to the Poor He Prayed continually because he had learnt that we ought to pray incessantly in private He attended so diligently to the Scriptures when read that nothing fell to the ground from him but he held it so fast that his Mind was as good as a Library to him For the sake of his Demeanour he was belov'd by all He submitted with great readiness to all virtuous Persons whom he visited He would with great diligence by himself mark every virtuous Person 's Vertue for which he was peculiarly Eminent and stamp them upon himself In one he would observe an Obligingness of Carriage in another an unwearied Fervour in Prayer in a third Calmness of Spirit in a fourth great Condescention and Charity He would very affectionately eye this Person 's great Sprightliness Vigilance and moderate use of Sleep and another Man's Affability Delight in the Scriptures and Readiness in Conferences on Spiritual Subjects Here he admir'd one for his Fortitude Magnanimity Patience and Courage there another for his Fastings hard Lyings upon the Ground and other such like Arts of subduing the Body But principally and above all he would seal on his Heart and Soul that Piety and vehement Affection for Christ and stream of mutual Love which was very obvious and legible in them all Thus he us'd constantly to go back to his own Cell always fraught with such useful Observations as these making himself the Repository of all those Excellencies he could spy in others whence he was wont to elicit and display them in a bright and exemplary Conversation All the Contest he had with those of the same Age with himself was to be second to none of them in Christian Discipline In which sort of Victories he behaved himself so modestly that no body fretted at him for Envy but rather on the contrary took delight in taking Notice of him insomuch that the whole Neighbourhood that had any regard for Vertue and all with whom he convers'd observing his Goodness us'd to call him Theophiles or God's Friend The Elder calling him Son and the Younger Brother 4. But the Devil who is envious and hates every thing that is commendable could not endure to see such a noble Purpose in so young a Person but made it his Endeavour to thwart all his Designs to his Disadvantage At first he strove to bring him off of his Ascetick Course of Life by throwing into his Mind a Remembrance of his Estate of the Nearness of his Relations and a Solicitude for them a Love of Money and Desire of Glory great Varieties of Pleasure and other such Recommendations of the Methods of the World as also Thoughts of the Ruggedness of Vertue and how much Labour it costs a Man to obtain it and to mention no more of the Weakness of his Body and the long Remainder of his Life In short the Devil rais'd a great deal of dust in his Thoughts that by bemudding and disordering his Mind he might make St. Antony let go his Design But as soon as the Enemy saw himself too weak to foyl St. Antony's Resolution and quite contrariwise that he himself was emasculated by the Holy Man's Steddiness supplanted by a mighty Faith and fall'n by reason of his continual and earnest Prayers he assum'd a new Boldness and Confidence in those Weapons which he knows every Man carries about him in his own Flesh against himself for here he mostly lies in Ambush against the Souls of the Young Accordingly he renews his Assault against the Youth Night and Day attacking him with great Turbulence insomuch that standers by could easily discern a Combat between them for the Devil threw filthy Thoughts into his Mind and the Young Man routed them out as fast by Prayers the Adversary us'd his Policies to make his Body dissolute and rebellious on the other hand St. Antony fortify'd his Soul and us'd his Body hardly and kept it under by Faith and Fastings and Tears and earnest Addresses to God But still the Devil though worsted was very hardy and appeared to him in the Shape of a Woman represented Beautiful in all respects only to impose upon St. Antony But Antony by placing the noble Extract of his Spirit and intellectual Power in a clear view before himself quench'd this Firebrand of Deceit Nevertheless the Devil would yet be hinting the Softness and Affectingness of this Pleasure on the other hand Antony like an enraged and exasperated Person by revolving in his Mind God's Menaces of Fire and the Toyl of those Furrows which the never-dying Worm ploughs in the Consciences of the Damn'd escap'd free without being hurt or so much as sing'd by his Temptations All which dash'd the Enemy mightily out of countenance for he that once thought of being equal with God himself was now slighted and baulk'd by a Young Man and he that generally vaunts and vapours so insolently over Flesh and Blood was now over-thrown by a Man
even whilst he wore his frail Body of Flesh For our Lord who wore Flesh Himself for our sake and gave the Body a Conquest over the Devil wrought and wrestled together with this Holy Youth So that every one who strives in good earnest with the Devil may with good reason say Not I but the Grace of God with me 1 Cor. 15.57 At last the Devil perceiving that he could not overthrow and discourage Antony by this Device gnashing his Teeth and being like one beside himself to see himself drove out he who is really black in his Nature within appear'd in the form of a Black Boy to Antony and as it were lying at his Feet for the crafty Spirit being turn'd out of his Heart now no longer invaded his Thoughts assum'd an Humane Voice and said I have deceived many yea verily I have worsted and deceived very many But having now exerted my Strength against thee as against many others I have been weaken'd and overcome Who is this said Antony that talks thus to me The Devil answer'd in a wretched whining Tone To this Day I have ply'd soft fleshly Allurements in Young Persons and have been call'd The Spirit of Fornication How many when willing to be Sober have I deceiv'd How many have I by Hypocrisie and sense-affecting Motions drawn aside I am he of whom the Prophet speaks Hos 4.12 Ye have been deceiv'd by the Spirit of Fornication 'T was by me that they were tripp'd up I am he who have so often disturb'd thee and as often been humbled by thee Antony therefore having paid his Thanks to God and being become more valiant in Spirit said Hence 't is plain that thou art very contemptible for thy Soul is black and swarthy and thou art weak as a Child neither will I for the future give way to any Solicitude upon thy Account for the Lord is my Helper and I shall look down upon mine Enemies with scorn which he had no sooner said but the Black Monster fled away being afraid to speak or come near the Heroe 5. This was St. Antony's first Conflict with the Devil or rather to speak properly and as I ought this was our Lord's first defeat of the Devil in Antony who Rom. 8.3 4. Condemn'd Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the Flesh but the Spirit But for all this St. Antony did not neglect himself as if the Devil were intirely under his Feet Nor did the Enemy as though vanquish'd desist from forming Stratagems for he rang'd about like a roaring Lyon seeking out some pretence against him Antony had learnt from the Holy Scriptures that the Wiles of the Devil are many continually and therefore continually gave himself to exercise considering that since the Devil could not deceive his Heart by Pleasure he would try the more subtlely and diligently to do it by other Methods for the Devil is Sin 's sure Friend Wherefore Antony tam'd his Body more and more lest after he had conquer'd in some Combats he should be dragg'd a Captive by him in others Hence he resolves to accustom himself to severer Discipline still At which Resolution many were startled through surprize But however he went thorow with it very patiently for the bent of his Soul having lasted a long time wrought such a good habit in him that he seiz'd on every even the least Occasion of exerting his strenuous pursuit after Vertue 6. He watch'd so very much that oft-times he lay without Sleeping all Night long and this not once or so but very often to admiration He eat once a Day after Sun-set sometimes but once in two Days nay and sometimes but once in four Days His Diet was Bread and Salt His Drink only Water Instead of a Feather-Bed he lay on a Mat and sometimes on the bare Ground He never anointed himself because he said 't was more proper for the Younger to addict themselves to Ascetick Exercises than to seek out those things which effeminate the Body They should rather accustom themselves to labour and to bear the Apostle's saying in their Mind 2 Cor. 12.10 When I am weak then I am strong for then said he the Vigour of the Spirit is renew'd and becomes Athletick when the Pleasures of the Body languish and are impair'd This also was an admirable Thought of his viz. That he did not think it proper to measure our Progress in Vertue by the length of the Time we first set out or by our Retirement so much as by our Divine Desires and Longings and the Encrease of our Holy Purpose And therefore he would not remember the Time past but every Day as though it were the first he would express a more ardent Thirst and Endeavour after a further Advance Speaking by the way of Soliloquie that of the Apostle Phil. 2.14 Forgetting that which is behind and pressing forward And remembring the Voice of the Prophet Elias who saith 2 King 18.15 As the Lord of Hosts lives before whom I stand I will surely shew my self to day for he observes from the Prophet's saying To day he did not take a measure of the Time past but every day as if it were laying the first Foundation of his Vertue he studied to approve himself such an one as he ought to be before God pure in Heart and ready to obey his Will and no ones else Every Christian Ascetick said he ought to see and learn within himself his own Life from Elias as in a Glass 7. Antony having by this time and by these means recollected and simplify'd himself Travelled to the Tombs which were at a considerable distance from that Town having first acquainted one of his Acquaintance with it who supply'd him with Bread enough to subsist upon a good while When he was got thither he went into one of the Tombs and shut the door over his Head and tarried within there by himself Now the Devil not being able to away with this and afraid lest in a little time the whole Desart should be fill'd with Asceticks came one night with a great company of Devils and beat and bruis'd him at that fearful rate that he lay a long time Dumb because of the Extremity of his Torments for he protested his Pains were so great that 't was impossible Men should be the Instruments of the like But by the Providence of God for the Lord does not forget those who hope in Him the Day after an Acquaintance came with some Loaves to him who as soon as he had open'd the door seeing him lying along like a Dead Man upon the Ground took him up and carried him to the Town-Church and laid him upon the Pavement where many of his Relations and Towns-People sat by him as they there us'd to do about the Corps of the Dead Now about Midnight Antony came to himself and awoke and saw all asleep but himself and his Acquaintance that brought him from the Tombs
3. The Prayer here acknowledged to be the most effectual Instrument to procure Divine Light is a Pure Recollected Intime or most inward Prayer of the Spirit 4. Here are no new Speculative Verities or Revelations of Mysteries pretended no private new-found-out Interpretations of Scripture bragg'd of 5. Here the Established Order of God's Church and the Vnity essential thereto is not prejudiced Yea the Inspirations expected and obtained by Pure Internal Prayer do more firmly and unalterably fix Souls under this Obedience and to this Order and Vnity 6. Our Lights teach us to attend only to God and our own Souls and never to interess our selves in any Care or Imployment about others till evidently God's Inspirations force us and External Authority obliges us thereto 7. Our Lights make us to fear and avoid all Super-eminence and Judicature all sensual Pleasures Desires of Wealth Honor c. 8. And lastly Our Lights if they should chance sometimes to be mistaken by us no Harm at all would accrue to others and not any considerable prejudice to our selves because as hath been said the Matters in which they direct us are in their Nature indifferent and are ordered only toward a more perfect Loving of God and withdrawing us from Creatures § 33. The contrary or different Characters of phanatick false Lights I pass by for brevity sake Out of Father Baker himself he produceth these amongst others Such contemplative Souls are not of themselves much inclined to External Works except saith Father Baker which our Author leaves out when God calls them thereto by secret Inspirations or engageth them therein by Command of Superiors but they seek rather to purifie themselves and inflame their Hearts to the Love of God by Internal Quiet and Pure Actuations in Spirit by a total Abstraction from Creatures by Solitude both external and especially internal 〈◊〉 disposing themselves to receive the Influxes and Inspirations of God whose Guidance chiefly the endeavour to follow in all things * Tr. 1. S. 1. c. 2 §. 3. And The propeâ— End of a Contemplative Life is the attaining unto aâ— Habitual and almost uninterrupted perfect Vnion with God in the supream point of the Spirit and such an Vnion as gives the Soul a Fruitive Possession of him and a real Experimental Perception of the Divine Presence in the Depth and Centre 〈◊〉 the Spirit whith is fully possessed and filled with him alone not only all deliberate Affection saith Fa. Baker to Creatures being excluded but in a manner all Images of them also at leasâ— so far as they may be distractive to the Soul And he adds The Effects of this blessed Perceptabâ—â— Presence of God in Perfect Souls are unspeakabâ—â— and Divine For he is in them both as a Principal of all their Actions Internal and External being the Life of their Life and Spirit of their Spirits and also as the End of them directing both the Actions and Persons to himself only He is All iâ— all things unto them A Light to direct securely all their Steps and to order all their Workings even those also which seem the most Indifferent the which by the Guidance of God's Holy Spirit do cause a farther Advancement of them to a yet more immediate Vnion He is a Shield to protect them in all Tentations and Dangers an internal Force and Vigour within them to make them do and suffer all things whatsoever his pleasure is they should do or suffer They not only believe and know but even feel and tast him to be the Vniversal Infinite Good By means of a continual Conversation with him they are reduced to a blessed State of a Perfect Denudation of Spirit to an absolute Internal Solitude a Transcendency and Forgetfulness of all created things and especially of themselves to an Heavenly-mindedness and fixed Attention to God only and this even in the midst of Employments to others never so distractive and finally to a gustful Knowledge of his Infinite Perfections and a strict Application of their Spirits by Love above Knowledge joyned with a Fruition and Repose in Him with the whole extent of their Wills So that they become after an inexpressible manner Partarkers of the Divine Nature yea One Spirit One Will One Love with him being in a sort Deified and enjoying as much of Heaven here as Mortality is capable of The special Means for obtaining such spiritual and extraordinary Favours from God are doubtless very desirable to be known and these our Author sets down in the Words of O. N. who purposely writ in Answer to him upon this Subject viz. besides a watchful Guard saith he for keeping the Conscience clean as much as may be not only from Mortal but also Venial Sin Much frequent and continued Vocal or Mental Prayer much Solitude and Mortifications of our Flesh and Abstraction of our Thoughts and Affections from any Creature much Recollection and withdrawing from abroad into our selves much Meditation on such selected Subjects as may rather inflame our Affections than increase our Science and when once we find these enkindled the Endeavouring a Quiescence as much as we can from former Discourse those actions of the Brain and Intellect now hindering the Heart and Will and the bringing of our selves rather to a simple Contemplation to exercise Acts of Love adhere to sigh after and entertain the Divine Object thereof And here saith he if his Divine Majesty please to advance us any higher to such Unions with Him as are not in our power and wherein we receive rather than act and he operates in us rather than we our selves we embrace them with all Humility and Gratitude if otherwise we acquiesce in our best endeavours and longing after him with Patience though enabled also to these only by his Grace This our Spiritual and Mystical Masters teach us and thus after this way which these Men stile Fanaticism and Enthusiasm we endeavour to procure a more strict Acquaintance and Converse with God and herein to follow the Example of our Fore-Fathers Elsewhere saith our Author he Fa. Baker describes the Progress towards this State of Perfection thus That he who would come to it must practise the drawing of his External Senses inwardly to his internal there losing and as it were annihilating them then he must draw his Internal Senses into the Superior powers of the Soul and there annihilate them likewise And those Powers of the Intellectual Soul he must draw into that which is called the Vnity and to that Vnity which alone is capable of perfect Vnion with God must be applyed and firmly fixed on God wherein the perfect Divine Contemplation lyes It is true these words are in Father Baker but they are but what he saith we read in other Authors and besides he adds Now whether such Expressions as these will abide the strict Examination of Philosophy or no I will not take on me to determine Certain it is that by a frequent and constant Exercise of Internal Prayer of the Will
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 Sâ—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 iâ— 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 anâ— so ver 3. For ye are yet Carnal and Walk according to Man that is ye are Babes only in Christ and iâ— 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 Neâ— Man as the Old should grow by degrees and not bâ— 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
the Creature when God hath thus as it were dismissed and cast it off But resigning it self and loving its Misery for his Sake and because it is his Will that it should be so An Exercise wherein our Lord himself was pleased to be tried that he might become a merciful High Priest before God and experimentally that he might compassionate our Infirmities in the great Desolation he underwent in the Garden the Night before his Passion Heb. 4.15 2.17 Where caepit pavere taedere saith the Evangelist Matt. 26.37 38. And that sad Expression came from him Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem Tarry here and watch with me Mark 14.34 Yet these Desolations also in a Soul thus far advanced in Grace are not void of a mixture of Joy and Satisfaction that it hath always in God's Will being performed in them which Will of God now in whatever happens is a constant Consolation to it and the Apostles Precept 1 Thess 5.16 17. of Semper gaudete is thus accomplished in such a Soul as well as his orate sine intermissione and go together For there cannot want Content where the Mind hath its Desire nor doth such a Mind want this that is unanimous with the Divine Will the want of which Conformity is only from the loving of something that is against his Will Worldly Sorrows saith St. Gregory affligentes cruciant but these Spiritual reficiunt dum affligunt In the one is In afflictione maeror but in the other In merore laetitia Moral l. 23. c. 13. Nay more true Sweetness in these Sorrows than in the other Joys And the abstaining in such a sharp Tryal from all Sin against God or seeking Comfort from any thing besides Him or giving over her accustomed Exercises of Piety argues also then a close Vnion of the Soul with God though not so sensible and that when it thinks it self farthest from him it is in some sort nearest to him Lastly by and upon these Spiritual Desolations ordinarily it is that the Soul afterward receives higher sensible Visits and Caresses from God then any former were for which the Soul seems best prepared by this her extream Poverty and Lowness and then it is if ever the Soul receives them with more Gratitude and both highlier values them and villifies its self And it is God's ordinary way to exalt us in proportion to our Humility and to be Adjutor in tribulationibus as in opportunitatibus when also the Soul is more endeared unto him by her Sufferings All this I have said to shew that these Spiritual Desolations of which this Author Ironically saith Then when one would least expect them follow c. are a necessary part of the Way to Perfection and that the resistance of such Pressures when they come or a non-compliance with them in shewing much Irresignation and Impatience in seeking to relieve such Spiritual Desertions with some secular Contents in relaxing former Holy Practices and the like disappoints the Soul of those following Consolations which are the proper Reward of these Sufferings and disturbs God's Work in her and good Intentions toward her and hinders her Growth in Vertue by her retaining still those Imperfections and that Self-love which these rightly received would have purged and mortified This of the fourth Step to Perfection Desolation 5. The Fifth is a State more settled constant and tranquil where neither these Desolations are so fequent or necessary nor those Coelestial Visits so violent or so short § 65. To these I shall add two or three of his Answers to Objections and Cavils such as I think most pertinent for Common use and first whereas upon the first Step his Adversary descants thus A sad Case to end our days as Christ and his Apostles did who used this low dispensation of Praying to the last But alas they never understood these Vnions with God in the Fund of the Spirit they taught Men a plain and intelligible way of Serving God and bid them look for Perfection in another World To this he replies I ask Did our Lord and his Apostles end their days only or chiefly in the first Step here that of Meditation and Discursive or Vocal Prayer and never ascend to the second Step exercising more therein the Will and Affections in Aspirations and Elevations of the Soul to God What think we of the most exalted Disciple St. John every where discoursing so much of Love and of our dwelling by Love in God and God in us 1 John 4.16 What of those Precepts Pray without ceasing 1 Thess 5.17 Watch and pray always Luk. 21.36 And with all Perseverance therein Eph. 6.18 Are these to be understood only of Vocal and discursive Prayer the first Step or not rather of Effective Prayer the second according to that Qui semper desiderat semper orat which latter is also much easier to be continued Again What think we of our Lord 's spending so long time in Prayer often mentioned in the Gospels Rising up a great while before day for this purpose Mar. 1.35 Again retiring into the Wilderness for a great vacancy to it Luk. 5.16 Before the day of the Election of his twelve Apostles the twelve Foundations of his Church ascending into a solitary Mountain and there spending the whole Night in Prayer Luk. 6.13 His ascending again into another Mountain before he took his last Journey to Jerusalem for the accomplishing of his Passion taking three of his Disciples with him where all the Night again was spent in Prayer for it is said he descended not from the Hill till the next day and that there the three Disciples were surprised with Sleep Luk. 9.37 32. In which Prayer they saw his Countenance changed and an anticipated appearance of his Glory such as he shall have when he comes to Judgment 2 Pet. 1.16 and an Apparition also of Moses and Elias they by a supernatural Illumination knowing also who the Persons were Matt. 16.28 and his Disciple Peter in such an Extatick Joy as that he cryed out Bonum est esse hic c. Luk. 9.33 not knowing saith the Evangelist what he said So in our Lord 's being in Prayer presently after John's Baptizing him happened the Vision of the Heavens opened the Holy Ghost descending upon him in a Bodily shape like a Dove seen by the Baptist Luk. 3.21 22. and a Voice from Heaven speaking to him as here Thou art my beloved Son Luk. 9.35 And then a Rapt of the same Spirit that carried him into the Desart where also we may rationally imagin his time to have been wholly spent in Prayer and Devotion and this in such a degree as to suspend and supercede the ordinary Functions of Nature as to Eating and Drinking and in these his Prayers the Tempter to have assaulted him What think we again of our Lord's Infremuit Spiritu once and again in his Prayer to his Father for the Resurrection of Lazarus Joh. 11.33 38. of the ravishing Expressions of his Love
publick Meetings upon sufficient Notice and there to give a true Account of my Proceedings with them hitherto and to discourse the Great Question now depending between us What that Spirit is by which the Party hath been generally and principally acted and conducted Whether the Spirit of Christ or any Good Ministring Spirit or the Spirit of Antichrist or some Porphyrian or Apostate Spirit And in the mean time I only recommend this Advertisement to all That the Holy Scriptures and the best Spiritual Writers give great Caution to beware of false Spirits and Directions to Try the Spirits and if the Leaders of the Quakers do not so they are the more to be suspected also That it is commonly agreed by such Writers that there is often much Deceit and Delusions of Evil and Seducing Spirits in seeming Illuminations and Sensible Impressions and Inspirations See Sancta Sophia Tr. 3. § 4. ch 5. c. FINIS Enthusiasmus Divinus THE GUIDANCE OF THE Spirit of GOD The Doctrine of the Scriptures of the Catholick Church of the Church of England in particular upon a Discourse of Sir Matthew Hale's concerning it LONDON Printed for the Author for the Use and Benefit of a Religious Society 1697. OF THE GUIDANCE OF THE Spirit of GOD. The Judgment of Sir Matthew hale concerning it in his Contemplations on the Magnet c. 15. p. 132. THE Magnet hath not only its intrinsick active Principle its Form from which its Motions proceed but there is also a common Magnetism of the Earth and its Effluxes that greatly assist excite and direct its Motions Animals and Vegetables have not only their intrinsick specifical vital Principles of their specifical Motions and Operations but the Sun and its Heat and Influence is an universal adjuvant exciting Principle of all vital and sentient Operations And not only the ancient Philosophers as Aristotle and Plato and their several Commentators as Simplicius Themistius Alexander Aphrodiceus Avicen and Averroes but also the Jewish Doctors and the Christian Philosophers and Divines for some Ages after Christ did think that besides the individual intellectual Soul of every Man there was also a certain Common Intelligent Nature or Being substituted by Almighty God whose Office it was to illuminate the humane Soul to excite actual Intellection in it and to communicate unto it these common intellectual Principles which ordinarily and generally obtain in all Men and stood in relation to the humane Intellectual Soul as the Sun and its Light and Influence stands in relation to vital Natures in the Lower World And this they call Intellectus Agens which Averroes supposeth to be Vltima Intelligentiarum separatarum and deputed to the actuating and exciting of Intellection in Men. This Opinion hath been possibly upon Reasons probable enough laid aside for many Ages in the Christian Church the Use therefore that I make of it only is this That though this Opinion seems to be dark and obscure and not bottom'd upon a clear Evidence yet it carries with it and under it an Adumbration of a great and real Truth though they attained not a full clear distinct discovery of it Therefore as the Apostle elsewhere in another Case told the Athenians that that God whom they ignorantly worshipped Him declare I unto you Acts 17.23 so with some variation I may with humility say that secret unseen and spiritual Power which these ancient Philosophers did not distinctly understand but groped after it and celebrated by the Name of Intellectus Agens I am now endeavouring to declare Almighty GOD as he is every where by his Essential Presence so he is every where by his Powerful Influence and as he is the Universal Productive and Conserving Cause of all things in the World so he is more intimate unto and effective of every thing in the World by his Efficacious Influence than any second created Cause in the World for they are all but his Instruments and therefore their Causality is still but in and from the Virtue and Influence of the first Cause And this Influx of the First Cause the prime Efficient Almighty God is by him ordinarily communicated effused and proportioned according to the several Natures of Created Beings though according to his wise good Pleasure he sometimes is pleased to do it in a different manner for excellent Ends pro Imperio Voluntatis And therefore in Matters that are simply natural this ordinary Efflux of the Divine Influence is suited to that common Law of Nature that he hath settled in the World and governs such things according to those instituted regular natural Laws But unto an Intellectual Nature such as is that of Man endued with Understanding and Will this Divine Efflux is communicated in a kind proportionable to those Faculties of the humane Soul and therefore these Effluxes of the Divine Influence are communicated in two kinds 1. By way of Illumination in relation to the Understanding Faculty 2. By way of Persuasion Inclination and Incitation in relation to the Will and Affections although there are many other kind of Effluxes of the Divine Spirit and Influence as the Gift of bodily Strength as that of Samson Judges 16.20 the Gift of curious Workmanship as that of Aholiab and Besaliel Exod. 36.1 the Spirit of Majesty and Government as that of Saul 1 Sam. 10.9 the Gifts of Prophesying Tongues Miracles 1 Cor. 12.4 9. for these were extraordinary Effluxes given out upon special Occasions and for special Ends though even in most of them and other extraordinary Gifts of the like nature the Understanding and Will were much concerned and wrought upon 1. As to the Illumination of the Vnderstanding certainly what the Sun is to the sentient Eye that and much more is Almighty God to the Mind of Man Psal 36.9 In thy Light shall we see Light John 1.9 This is the true Light that enlightneth every Man that cometh into the World 2. As to the Inclination and Bending of the Will it is true the Will is naturally free but yet it is essentially subject unto the God that made it and the operation of the Divine Influence upon the Will ordinarily is but persuasive and therefore ordinarily resistible thus the old World resisted the merciful striving of the Divine Influence Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall not always strive with Man Acts 7.51 Ye always resist the Holy Ghost but the Powerful God hath so great an Efficacy and hath so intimate an access into the Minds of Men that he can when he pleaseth and doubtless sometimes doth irresistibly bend and incline the Will unto himself according to his good Pleasure Psal 110.3 Thy People shall be willing in the day of thy Power It is an excellent Expression Prov. 21.1 The Heart of the King is in the Hands of the Lord as the Rivers of Water he turneth it whithersoever he will A good Artist will guide a Stream of Water to what place and in what manner he pleaseth in the same Level and yet without any violence
Nazianzen Ambrose Hierom Austin and many others but it would be too long for this place and occasion And therefore to make short Work instead of that I will here represent their Sentiments in some short Notes of an Eminent and most Learned Annotator who was well acquainted with them and doth sometimes intersperse some of their Testimonies in his Writings It is the Famous Hugo Grotius These saith he upon Mat. 18.10 who dedicate themselves to God with a true Faith and thereupon are accounted his peculiar People God as he doth favour them with a peculiar Providence so he seems to give to each an Angel Guardian to guide and assist them either perpetually or certainly until they come to the full Possession of the Divine Spirit For so I see the Ancient Christians did believe And in his Pref. to his Annot. upon the Epistle to the Romans Into the Heart purified by Faith as into a clean Vessel God doth infuse his Spirit I mean the Spirit of Christ full of Love of God and of our Neighbour and of all Goodness Those who have this Spirit of God and carefully keep it God doth account as born of Him and like unto Him to them he gives a certain Right to Heavenly and Eternal Good Things Neither is the Heart purified but by Faith in Christ nor is the Spirit infused but into a Heart so purified nor doth he plainly own for his any but who are endowed with that Spirit Upon Luke 22.3 As they who religiously obey the Divine Admonitions at length receive the Indwelling Spirit so they who readily consent to the Suggestions of the Devil at length God deserting them become the Slaves of Satan Upon Jo. 5.45 Those to whom the Gospel is Preached become taught of God that is if they would if they be greedy of it if they do not reject the Benefits offered and even forc'd upon them They will have no need to have recourse to Learned Men that from them they may learn the Mysteries of the Old Testament Upon Eph. 1.17 The Spirit of God which is given to Believers doth among other things imprint also Wisdom in their Souls not that of the things of this World of which Philosophers did boast but of those things which conduce to a better Life The same Spirit doth reveal also to those who are his things future and secret which cannot be known by humane Means Upon 1 Jo. 2.20 The Spirit doth suggest to us in all Circumstances both the Precepts of Christ and such Hints or Notices as are meet for the Occasion v. 27. What we are to do in every Circumstance For there are certain Differences which Times Places and Persons require Therefore is there often need of Admonition to hit the way of our Duty See Jer. 31.34 Jo. 6.45 and if you please Seneca Epist 94. And upon 1 Thess 4.9 The Holy Ghost teacheth you concerning all things to be done By how much the more there is of the Spirit so much the less need is there of Prescripts This Place is not to be understood of the General Precept but of special Determinations as all Things Persons and Times do require And Gal. 5.18 Those who are led by the Spirit as now of Age have no need of the Law the Guardian of their Youth And Rom. 8.4 Those who walk after the Spirit he interprets those who having obtained the Holy Spirit do constantly obey its Motions and afterwards v. 5. They that are after the Spirit he interprets those who are possessed by the Spirit of God which doth not now come to pass but by Christ And v. 12. he notes God hath given his Spirit that we should use it and again So great a Guest will be treated with Care otherwise he will bid farewell to his Lodging And to conclude 1 Thess 5.23 Spirit here saith he is that Holy Spirit inhabiting in the Souls of Christians and if it be carefully kept adhering to Souls unto Death and after Death even to the Resurrection and then referrs to what he had said 1 Cor. 15.44 to Hierom upon Gal. 5. and recites to the same purpose the Words of Philo Irenaeus Tatianus Clem. Alexandrinus and Tertullian More might be added but this is enough to shew the Mind of this great Man concerning the Necessity of our having the Spirit of God dwelling in us the Effects of his Residence in Light and Conduct and our Duty how to treat it And that this is also the Belief of the Church of England however some of late have commonly presum'd to speak if not despitefully and reproachfully yet too slightly of so great and holy a Principle of our Religion may appear by the most Authentick Evidence that can be her most solemn Addresses to Almighty God in divers Collects for this very purpose As for all Persons to be Baptized before they be Baptized to give his Holy Spirit to them that they may be born again c. and after they be Baptized to give his Holy Spirit to them that they may continue his Servants and attain his Promises So likewise for all Persons Confirmed to strengthen them with the Holy Ghost and daily increase in them his manifold Gifts of Grace before Imposition of Hands and then again together with the Imposition of Hands that they may daily increase in his Holy Spirit and again afterward that his Holy Spirit may ever be with them and so lead them c. and lastly for all the Congregation upon several Occasions as upon the Nativity of our Lord that they may daily be renewed by his Holy Spirit Upon the 19th Sunday after Trinity that his Holy Spirit may in all things Direct and Rule our Hearts Upon the first Sunday in Lent that we may ever obey his Godly Motions Upon Easter-Day that as by thy special Grace preventing us thou dost put into our Minds good Desires so by thy continual Help we may bring the same to good Effect Upon the fifth Sunday after Easter that by his Holy Inspiration we may think those things that be good and by his merciful Guiding may perform the same and others to the like Effect as upon the Sunday after Ascension Whitsunday the 13th Sunday after Trinity the Collect at the beginning of the Communion Service And at every Morning and Evening Service all are admonished to beseech him to give us his Holy Spirit And in the Coll. for Grace we pray to God that all our doings may be ordered by his Governance and in the Litany to indue us with the Grace of his Holy Spirit to amend our Lives according to his Holy Word In the Ordering of Deacons this Question is first to be asked by the Bishop Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office and Ministration c In the Ordering of Priests the Bishop says Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God c. And in the Consecration of a Bishop the
Arch-Bishop says Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Bishop c. and at each is sung the Hymn Come Holy Ghost c. And in the Exhortation in the Commination this is mentioned as one of the Conditions of our Pardon viz. If we will be ordered by the Governance of his Holy Spirit And in the Articles of Religion Art 17. are mentioned together Godly Persons and such as feel in themselves the Working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying c. To this Authority of the Church I will subjoyn the Judgment of one of her Sons who though at first it seems he was carried away with the common Prejudice of the Age yet afterward upon better consideration extricated himself and recover'd a better Judgment and has in few words said what is much to the purpose That God himself affords his Intimacies and Converses to the better Souls which are prepar'd for it I confess the proud and phantastick Pretences of many of the conceited Melancholists in this Age to Divine Communion have prejudiced divers intelligent Persons against the Belief of any such happy Vouchsafement so that they conclude the Doctrine of Immediate Communion with the Deity in this Life to be but an high-flown Notion of warm Imagination and over-luscious Self-Flattery and I acknowledge I have my self had Thoughts of this nature supposing Communion with God to be nothing else but the Exercise of Vertue and that Peace and those Comforts which naturally result from it But I have considered since That God's more near and immediate imparting himself to the Soul that is prepar'd for that Happiness by Divine Love Humility and Resignation in the way of a Vital Touch and Sense is a thing possible in it self and will be a great part of our Heaven That Glory is begun in Grace and God is pleased to give some excellent Souls the happy Antepast That holy Men in ancient times have sought and gloried in this Enjoyment and never complain so sorely as when it was with-held and interrupted That the Expressions of Scripture run infinitely this way and the best of modern good Men do from their own Experience attest it That this spiritualizeth Religion and renders its Enjoyments more comfortable and delicious That it keeps the Soul under a vivid sense of God and is a grand Security against Temptation That it holds it steddy amidst the Flatteries of a prosperous State and gives it the most grounded Anchorage and Support amidst the Waves of an adverse Condition That 't is the noblest Encouragement to Vertue and the highest Assurance of an happy Immortality I say I considered these weighty Things and wonder'd at the Carelessness and Prejudice of Thoughts that occasion'd my suspecting the Reality of so glorious a Priviledge I saw how little Reason there is in denying Matters of inward Sense because our selves do not feel them or cannot form an Apprehension of them in our Minds I am convinc'd that things of gust and relish must be judged by the sentient and vital Faculties and not by the noetical Exercises of speculative Vnderstandings And upon the whole I believe infinitely that the Divine Spirit affords its sensible Presence and immediate Beatifick Touch to some Rare Souls who are divested of carnal Self and mundane Pleasures abstracted from the Body by Prayer and Holy Meditation spiritual in their Desires and calm in their Affections devout Lovers of God and Vertue and tenderly affectionate to all the World sincere in their Aims and circumspect in their Actions inlarged in their Souls and clear in their Minds These I think are the Dispositions that are requisite to fit us for Divine Communion And God transacts not in this near way but with prepared Spirits who are thus disposed for the Manifestation of his Presence and his Influence and such I believe he never fails to bless with these happy fore tasts of Glory But for those that are Passionate and Conceited Turbulent and Notional Confident and Immodest Imperious and Malicious that doat upon Trifles and run fiercely into the ways of a Sect that are lifted up in the Apprehension of the glorious Prerogatives of themselves and their Party and scorn all the World besides for such I say be their Pretensions what they will to Divine Communion Illapses and Discoveries I believe them not their Fancies abuse them or they would us For what Communion hath Light with Darkness or the Spirit of the Holy One with those whose Genius and Ways are so unlike Him But the other Excellent Souls I described will as certainly be visited by the Divine Presence and Converse as the Chrystalline Streams are with the Beams of Light or the fitly prepared Earth whose Seed is in it self will be actuated by the Spirit of Nature There is a late Writer of no mean Learning and Parts and Authority too among those of his own Party who reckons the Despising of the Holy Spirit and his Operations now to be a Sin of the same Nature with the Apostacy of the Jews by Idolatry of old and afterwards by rejecting of our Saviour at his coming and yet in detestation of Enthusiasm utterly abandons all Impulses and Motions to Things and Actions which are not acknowledged Duties in themselves evidenced by the Word of Truth c. under the Name of Irrational Impressions and violent Inclinations and what some Men intend by Impulses he says he knows not Indeed they who reject all such things reject they know not what And did they thereby only hurt themselves it might be thought a just Punishment but such confident Assertions in Print may not only be hurtful to Men but also injurious to the Wisdom and Goodness of God which is not to be limited by Mens Conceits The Jews heretofore had the Favour to inquire of God and receive Answers and Direction in their special Exigences and if the Christians are not allowed that Favour now it may be thought that the State of Christians is inferior to that of the Jews then in a Matter of great Importance or that the Christians now are as the latter Jews were fallen from the Integrity of the true Christian State Nor can I conceive any reason why Christians should not have some such Means for this purpose as the ancient Jews had but that every Christian ought to have a Divine Oracle in his own Breast by the Residence of the Spirit of God there if we were indeed such as our Profession doth require and oblige us to be that is truly Spiritual and Heavenly-minded It doth therefore concern us to inquire whether the Fault be not in our selves if God doth not answer us as it was with Saul when God was departed from him rather than to dishonour our Profession by arguing against the Truth to cover our Shame and since the Lord's Ear is not heavy that it cannot hear whether our Sins have not interposed between our God and us that he will not hear Certainly we often need a Wisdom more than