to these things lawful but not expedient when come to St. Paul's omnia mihi licent sed ego sub nullius redigar potestate 1 Cor. 6.12 and to his corpus in servitem redigo 1 Cor. 9.27 and to act more constantly according to the Spirit moving now more perceptibly in us and giving the Law to us when Grace is as to these non-expedients also predominant and sole Mistress ordering all things without our reluctance or also with our zeal to the greater Love Praise Honour of God and the doing of all things in order to his Will so far as it is made known to us by this his Spirit then are we arrived to a full growth to a compleat Man in Christ to a state of Perfection such as this Life attains but few Regenerate there are that do not by their own disorders die in their Spiritual Youth before they come to such a mature Age. As therefore in our Regeneration a Man is removed from the state of Sin into the state of Grace so the Church desires in that which is called from some high Mysteries it speaks of as to the supream Effects of this Grace Mystical Theology to advance those already in the state of Grace to that of Perfection and from the Spirit Dwelling to it more absolutely Reigning in us which finds so many great Rewards not only in the next but this present Life § 19. 2. We must know therefore That to such end this Holy Spirit received in our Regeneration assisteth and worketh in us not only as to affording generally to all good Christians that seriously endeavour to save their Souls such internal Illuminations and Motions as are sufficient to direct them for the resisting of any sinful Temptation or to perform any necessary act of Vertue in Circumstances wherein they are obliged to it but also in affording us Light and Ability in all indifferent Actions and Occurrences with which may be also joyned all the Acts of Christian Vertues when no necessity obligeth us to do any of them and so when it is lawful for us without Sin to do or omit them whereby we are guided to make such a Choice as is more conformable to God's Will and particular Circumstances considered may much more advance us in the Love of God and Christian Perfection and whereby we may avoid such other of them as may be suggested either by corrupt Nature or the evil Spirit under pretence also of some Good End but to defeat a Better For the Holy Spirit excites us and assists us not only in doing Duties of necessary obligation or in the avoiding what is prohibited and performing what is commanded by God under penalty of Sin but in all these Acts also that may any way tend more to God's Glory or to our greater Perfection though these be such as we may without sinning chuse or refuse For in this I may say that the Holy Spirit in us is like to Concupiscence in us the one continually exciting us unto that which is Better as the other to that which is Worse See the Apostles description of these two inmates Rom. 8.1 c. and Gal. 5.16 17 18. where he saith v. 7. that Spiritus concupiscit adversus Carnem Caro adversus Spiritum and that sibi invicem adversantur And ibid. v. 18. as also Rom. 8.14 That those who are God's Children or Regenerate aguntur Spiritu are acted by the Spirit It guides us into Truth Jo. 16.13 brings things forgotten to our Remembrance Jo. 14.26 gives Knowledge and Arguments to one Act. 6.10 Vtterance and Eloquence and the power to perswade to another Act. 2.4 To another Wisdom or a good Judgment 1 Cor. 1.5 12.8 9 28. Prudence in Governing in executing anothers Commands Rom. 12.6 7. To another Courage and Boldness Act. 4.29 31. It opens Mens Vnderstaendings and Hearts and renders them docile and apt to believe Luk. 24.8 Act. 16.14 Eph. 1.18 What is there that is not done in us by this Holy Spirit when we are employed about any thing that tends to the Glorifying of God the Father or the Son So is our regenerate Life wholly managed by this Spirit as the Natural is by the Soul and if not obstructed works in us a continual growth in Grace till we come to a perfect Man in Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 Eph. 4.13 Therefore the Apostle exhorts his Converts Gal. 5.25 that as they live their new Life in or by the Spirit so they would walk in it according to its directions And that they would mind or affect the things of the Spirit or the things it minds them of Because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within them is Death in the end but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within them is Life and Peace to them Exhorts them also Eph. 4.30 with no corrupt and fruitless Communication to contristate or grieve this Spirit Tim. 4.14 not to neglect it 1 Cor. 15.10 That it should not be void or idle in them 1 Thess 5.19 not to quench it Eph. 5.18 To replenish themselves with it And 2 Tim. 1.6 continually to revive it Rom. 12.11 to be fervent in it without which the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3.5 we cannot think a good Thought and our Lord Jo. 15 5. that we can do nothing § 20. 3. These Actions of the latter kind we are now speaking of that may be lawfully done or omitted the one or the other performed without any guilt of Sin are either such as by the Evangelical Counsels and the dictate of rectified Reason are clearly discerned by us the one to be better and more to lead to Christian Perfection than the other or such where we have some doubt of these two Actions good or lawful which is the better or more expedient In the former of these we may safely conclude that that which is manifest to us to be the better as to our Perfection is the motion in us of the Holy Spirit and that the doing it is the doing the Will of God in this matter and that so often as we reject or neglect this so often we contristate the Spirit that would thus conduct us to Perfection and refuse to do God's Will when this is known to us whose Will it ought always to be presumed to be that we should do that which is clear to us all things considered to be best for his Glory and our Good to be done though such omission or neglect amounts not to a Sin but to a Failing so much in Perfection And indeed the not vigilantly observing these Motions of the Spirit within us and the not hearkening to and obeying them when evident to be such or also the not preconsulting by Prayer what it adviseth but rather precipitating our Action to prevent it is the reason of so many their no greater Improvement in the Spirit and that they are such strangers to it and It to them is a check to the further and stronger operations of it in the Soul for Who would offer
others of them might receive some Lights Powerful Attractions and Sensible Consolations c. from some considerable Spirit yet was not that the Spirit of Christ or any Good Ministering Spirit not such as that of Socrates under the Gentile Dispensation for Porphyry ridiculed it v. Soc. Hist l. 3. c. 23. but a Spirit of Antichrist and of Satan transformed as appears most manifestly in Porphyry who was a Renagado and Apostate from Christianity and that not upon any Grounds of Reason but upon Passion for some Reproof as Valesius understands it or some more severe Discipline he received from some Christians possibly for some abuse by Scoffing to which he was much addicted and thereupon became not only an Apostate but a spiteful Adversary and the more impudent through the Countenance of the Emperor Julian who was also an Apostate and such another Scoffer This might be abundantly shewed if it was needful here and may be upon some other occasion but this is sufficient for this And this may serve for another purpose in respect of the Quakers viz. to undeceive them and let them fee plainly by what Spirit they have been deceived even this very Antichristian Porphyrian Spirit and no better The Spirit I doubt not is the very same or of the same kind only the Appearance is somewhat different more bare-faced then upon the Encouragement of an Apostate Emperor but more covert now in this being a Christian State But as that soon ceased so will this I am well satisfied to the Shame and Confusion of those who obstinately persist in their Errors but especially those who not only are deceived but presume to take upon them to be Ministers of Christ and deceive others when it shall appear that they are only Ministers of this Porphyrian Antichristian Spirit that is of Satan transformed as I nothing doubt but it will in due time and that ere long by undeniable Moral Evidence if not also by manifest Divine Vengeance upon some of the Obstinate which I have sincerely endeavoured to prevent and should still be glad to help them out if they would humble themselves and give Glory to God as their Case doth require otherwise they will certainly be called to account for neglected Divine Favours As for the Gentile Dispensation there is plainly a Fallacy concerning it put upon them by the Subtilty and Fraud of that Spirit which acts so sensibly amongst them For as the Israelites were chosen to be as it were of God's own Regiment and are therefore call'd his Peculiar people yet were they for their Sin delivered over to the Conduct of an Angel Exod. 33. so were other Nations committed to the Conduct of certain Angels probably of inferior Orders And as the Israelites after they were settled in the Promised Land under the immediate Government of God v. Sam. 8.7 were often notwithstanding for their Backslidings and Transgressions delivered into the hands of their Enemies which was plainly a Representation of Spiritual matters so the other Nations though they were committed at first to the Regiment of Good Angels though of an inferior order yet when they came to yield to the Inspirations of Apostate Spirits which was a real though Spiritual Fornication and Defilement were left in their Power to be abused and ridden and led Captive by them at their pleasure And those who continued under their Conduct to the last without Repentance are like to have their part with them hereafter And this is the Mystery of Iniquity whereby these People are imposed upon by the Subtilty of this Porphyrian Spirit For There is a twofold Gentile Dispensation or two parts of the Gentile Dispensation the one of Grace under the Good Angel which is God's Deputy the other of Judgment under the Apostate Spirit which is God's Executioner of Vengeance And this is it which St. Paul tells us concerning the Seduced by the Spirit of Antichrist that God should send them strong Delusions to believe a Lye because they received not the Love of the Truth that they all might be damned who believe not the Truth Now whatever become of the rest who have not the Favour of the Gospel communicated to them but yet desert not the Conduct of the Spirit by God set over them yet those who have the Gospel in all Simplicity offered to them and either through Pride and Conceitedness or through the Inspiration of any Spirit are drawn from it their Case is very dangerous for no Good Spirit would dare or would offer any such thing and then it must needs be some wicked Spirit in disguise how specious soever his appearance be which for some Spiritual Sin at least if not Carnal or Worldly in them or their Parents hath gotten Advantage of them And such are very officious to offer themselves and very subtile to deceive And their Neglect of the Offers of Grace is like to prove fatal to them But none are in greater danger than they who are so unhappy as to become the Agents and Ministers of such a Spirit whatever they may think of themselves at present This I hope may serve for this Occasion but having for divers Months past been endeavouring by private Conferences with and Letters to the Chief of their Ministers to set this People right in what they are out of the way I intend ere long if no less will serve by the Grace of God to discourse these matters more fully at some 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
when he afterward appeals to the Experience of others I have also observed as well from what he hath said upon several Occasions as from divers Passages in his Writings that he had from his younger time in all his Life not only a great respect to this secret Guidance of the Spirit of God but also so great a Sense of the Malice Subtlety and Energy of the Evil Spirits as made him very vigilant against them And I doubt not but his constant and reverend Attendance to that Holy Conduct and his Vigilance against the Wiles and Devices of those invisible Enemies were a principal Means whereby he became so Great and Good a Man as he was This is genuine Christianity and therefore it cannot but move Indignation in the Hearts of True Christians to see so Great and Noble a Principle of their Religion to be so unworthily expos'd contemned and reproached as this hath been in our Times partly by sensual Bruits partly by conceited animal Pretenders to Reason and partly by inconsiderate Opposers of Enthusiasm Nay it is a Principle not peculiar to the times of the Incarnation of the Eternal Logos and succeeding Ages but made manifest by that Light which enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World unto all pious and virtuous Souls from the beginning and it is a dangerous sign of an empty bewidowed deserted Soul for any Man to speak slightly or irreverently of so Holy a Principle That Excellent Philosopher and Emperor Antoninus besides divers other Passages to the purpose hath expressed himself in one place in the very words before used by our Author Seneca affirms it Bonus Vir sine Deo nemo est besides many Passages to this purpose And Cicero besides what more largely elsewhere Nemo vir Magnus sine aliquo Afflatu Divino unquam fuit Socrates is notorious and Plato and his Followers Plotinus Porphyrius Jamblicus Proclus c. are known and confess'd to have been of the same Judgment as also the Chaldaick and Egyptian Philosophers The same is observ'd of Democritus That he thought that there were no Men Wise besides those who were inspir'd with a Divine Influence And Theophrastus and indeed all the better Philosophers are noted to have had the same Sentiments And even Aristotle himself as great a Rationalist as he was hath plainly expressed himself to have been of the same Judgment in several places In one among the rest to this effect They who are moved by a Divine Instinct ought not to consult Humane Reason but follow the Interior Instinct because they are moved by a better Principle than Humane Reason And that the same Sentiments were among the Gentiles in very ancient times we may observe in the Sacred Scriptures Dan. 4.8 and 5.11 and long before Job 32.8 33.14 15 16. and Gen. 41.38 and 39.3 and before 26.28 and before that 21 22. And for the Jews it is very plain that in those Excellent Books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus by the Name of Wisdom this Divine Influence and Conduct is intended And for the Christians the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles is so express to this purpose that they who would evade the genuine Sense of their Words are forced to strain their Wits to the utmost and their Consciences too I doubt if they be not stupified before hand I need not recite the places which every one may have recourse to at pleasure and therefore it may be sufficient to note them under several Heads as I. The Predictions of the Prophets Isa 44.3 54.13 recited by our Saviour Jo. 6.45 Jer. 31.33 34. Ezek. 11.19 36.26 27. Joel 2.28 recited by St. Peter and applyed not only to the Christians then but to those also who should come after Act. 2.17 33.39 Zech. 12.10 Mat. 3.11 II. Promises of our Saviour Luk. 11.13 Jo. 7.39 14 16 17 23 26 15.26 16.7 Lu. 24.49 Act. 1.4 8 2.38 III. The Accomplishment of these Predictions and Promises 1. In the Original visible Effusion on the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles and Primitive Christians Act. 2.2 3 4 33. 2. By a Ministerial Communication Act. 8.15 17 10.44 19.6 Gal. 3.2 5 14. 2 Tim. 1.6 2 Cor. 3.6 8. 3. By internal Residence and Operation Illumination and Sanctification Rom. 8.9 11. 1 Cor. 3.16 6.19 Eph. 2.22 2 Tim. 1.14 1 Jo. 2.24 Gal. 4.6 1 Thess 4.8 2 Cor. 13. 〈…〉 2.13 4. By special and particular Manifestation and Conduct variously exhibited as 1. By Visions and Revelations Act. 9.10 12 10.10 11.28 16.9 18.9 22.17 1 Cor. 11.23 12.4 6 10 14.6 24 29 30 31. 2 Cor. 12.1 2 7. v. Lu. 2.26 Gal. 1.12 2.2 2. By Allocutions Act. 8.29 10.19 13.2 4 23.9 3. By Impulses and Excitations v. Lu. 2.27 Act. 4.8 13 31 5.20 4. By Prohibitions Act. 16.6 20.23 21.4 11. and Restraints Act. 16.7 IV. Admonitions 1. How to obtain it Jo. 14.15 16 17 23. Act. 5.32 Lu. 11.12 Ja. 1.5 Rev. 3.20 1 Pet. 4.13 2. To follow and obey it Rom. 8.1 4 5 9 13 14. Gal. 5.16 18 25. Eph. 4.30 3. To try the Spirits 1 Jo. 4.1 1 Cor. 14.29 More might be added but these are more than enough And to these it would not be hard to add a true Catholick Interpretation and Comment that is The Sentiments of the most ancient Christian Writers and others of the most Eminent of after Ages such as Hermas Justine Tatian Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Novatian Hilary 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 purisied 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
a great Indisposition for it by any undue Opposition of Fanaticism without sufficient Distinction and Caution than it is Impudence and Inconsiderateness in others to expose themselves and their Followers to the Delusions of Evil Spirits by high Pretences to such Divine and extraordinary Favours without any Regard to or Notice of those special Qualifications and Cautions for Tryal of Spirits which are necessary to capacitate them for such Favour and to secure them against such Delusions It requires therefore no small Caution to use this Author's Expression that under an invidious Name they reject not such Favours or calumniate such an Holy Conduct and that they especially who reproach others with limiting the Holy Spirit do not themselves in this what in other things they condemn in others with less Reason And certainly great Caution is likewise to be used on the other side that we presume not to attribute to the Holy Spirit of God what is meerly the Imaginations or Effusions of our own Spirit what is meerly Humane Invention or Artifice and even the Inspirations and Delusions of Satan transformed into an Angel of Light By this means is great Indignity commonly done to the Holy and Pure Spirit and great Sin contracted by Mens arrogating to themselves those Gifts and Graces which they have little of and recommending themselves and their Performances upon such high Pretences and great Scandal given to People to think meanly of so great a Principle of our Religion There are three Great Means which God hath provided for us to lead us into all necessary Truth Natural Reason Supernatural Revelation communicated by Persons authorized by Divine Commission so to do and Special Illumination and Direction of the Holy Spirit And they who carefully use all these in their due Order cannot err But they who set up these one against another do usually run themselves and lead others into great Errors And hence it is that so great Disorders and Mischiefs have through the Subtilty and Energy of Satan been brought into the Church by Persons pretending to some one of these in a kind of Opposition to some other of them either of Right Reason or of the Pure Word of God or of the Spirit and Spiritual Worship I do not doubt but they who pretend most to Right Reason in opposition to Inspiration are even therein very strongly inspired but by the subtile Spirit of Opposition and are in effect as great and pernicious Fanaticks as any though they least suspect it But not only those unhappy Atheistical Pretenders to Reason who despise all Revelation and Revealed Religion but such as profess themselves Christians and not only that insolent and presumptuous Sect who assert the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and yet make no scruple to strain and wrest them to comply with their pre-conceived Notions but more Moderate Men and such as pretend highest to the Pure Word of God and to the most pure Spiritual Worship and cry out against Man-made Divinity and against Fanaticism too by indulging too much to their own Conceits have brought such Disorders and Mischiefs into the Church as are not much to be doubted were the Fruits of the Influences and Impressions of the Spirit of Delusion upon their Mind Hence are many run from Superstition into Prophaneness from Idolatry into Sacrilege from Formality into Contempt or Neglect of the most Solemn Christian Worship from beggarly Rudiments and Carnal Ordinances to make light of the Institutions of Christ from Monkish Austerity as they call it into common Indulgence and Gratifications to Sense from Popish Merit into Carlessness Worldly-mindedness Selfishness and little Concern for the Honour of God or Salvation of Souls from the Traditions of Men and Popish Pretences to deny all even of the Apostles the Authority of the Catholick Church and the Catholick Sense and Interpretation of divers of the Evangelical and Apostolical Precepts and Directions and at last to limit our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount to the times of Persecution til at last by those means we are grown ripe for a Persecution or some other severe awakening and purging Judgment All this and more that might be noted we cannot impute meerly to the Weakness and Corruption of Men unless we can imagin that all the Powers of Darkness have been all the while meer idle Spectators But if they have been so subtle and active thus to deceive the Gentiles in these latter times and the best of Men have not been exempt from their Assaults it concerns all to beware that they be not deceived by a Spirit of Delusion under any of these Appearances either of the Good Spirit or of the Scripture or of Reason that they embrace not false Conclusions instead of Right Reason their own Conceits or the Novel Opinions of some Sect instead of the Genuine Sense of the Scriptures or Satan transformed for the Spirit of God least by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his Subtilty their Minds should be corrupted from the Simplicity that is in Christ And there is no way possible to escape this but by the Aid Illumination and Conduct of the Holy Spirit of God Nor are any to be believed to be led by that Spirit when they go out of the way prescribed by Christ and by his Apostles who were Commissioned by Him for it is the Spirit of Christ and of his Fulness we all receive As the Law was our Schoolmaster 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
and Sectaries in general it is matter of great Caution that the Scriptures are so full of Admonitions and Prohibitions against Schisms and Divisions and of Predictions both by our Saviour himself and by his Apostles both of the Variety of them and of the Danger in that some of them have that specious Appearance as to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. And if we look into the History of the Church in former times we shall find little or nothing of the true Spirit among any of any Party of Separatists but much of the Spirit of Error or Delusion And therefore when we find a Manifestation of the Presence or Energy of some Spirit and a Concurrence of divers of these Indications or Signs we may be assured and confident that it is an Antichristian Spirit be its appearance never so specious in other respects And in these two things especially have such as have been partakers of the true Spirit found themselves to be sometimes strangely assaulted and tempted by the subtile Adversary viz. to Spiritual Pride and undervaluation of other Persons and to neglect of the Ordinances of Christ as needless to them The Way whereby the ancient Religious Christians were generally preserved from these and such like Snares was that they were trained up as the Sons of the Prophets of old under ancient experienced Christians in all kind of Exercises of Humility Subjection both of Mind and Will and constant discovery of the Dispositions and Motions of their Hearts to their Superiors and of all Grace and Vertue But where both Doctrine and Practice hath been neglected it is not strange that amongst many Appearances and Pretences there should be found little of Solidity especially where those noble Heroick Virtues of Abstraction and Contempt of the World Heavenly-mindedness and continual Attendance to God c. are rejected as Monkery and Superstition but all their goodly Appearances and Pretences end at last in Emptiness and Scandal And therefore it concerns all who have any Care of their Souls to beware of all such as are out of the Way and Method of the Ancients But on the other side to take such Offence at the Miscarriages of such as have been led into Error by any seducing Spirit as therefore to oppose the Conduct of the Spirit of Truth or any of its Operations and elude the Holy Scriptures and undermine the Doctrine thereof is as certainly the Effect of the Operation of the Spirit of Antichrist and in truth as much Fanaticism as the other in the contrary Extream For the Good Spirit is as absolutely necessary to be had as all others to be avoided for without it we cannot be genuine living Christians but meer empty formal Professors of which sort it is much to be feared are the greatest part both of Conformists and Non-Conformists amongst us if Judgment be made according to our Saviour's Rule of their Fruits and Fruitfulness But lest any well-minded Soul should be troubled with any doubts in this respect we must distinguish between Having the Spirit and the Manifestation of the Spirit and between the Operations of the Spirit the Gifts of the Spirit and the Graces of the Spirit and know that as there may be the Operations of the Spirit where there are not the Gifts of the Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit where there are not the Graces of the Spirit so on the other side there may be the Residence of the Spirit where there is no sensible distinguishable Manifestation of the Spirit For the Operations and Communications of the Spirit are often so subtile and secret in the manner both in Illumination and Power and Inclination of the Will as are not manifest by Sense but by Faith only and we know not how they are wrought in us But as the most desirable Graces of the Spirit are Regeneration and Effectual Sanctification so the Fruits and Effects thereof are the most infallible Notes of the Presence of the Good Spirit which always leads to Mortification of all Carnal and Earthly Affections and to the Perfection of all Coelestial Angelick and Divine Dispositions in the Soul But to Souls duly prepared purged and disposed for it that Blessed Guide doth often manifest his Presence by Sensible Attractions and Restraints upon the Heart and plain Suggestions to the Mind and to such as once find that I can give no better Advice then what we have Ecclesiasticus 4. and 6. which I believe was part of the Mystick Theology of the Ancients FINIS
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 so disposing themselves to receive the Influxes and Inspirations of God whose Guidance chiefly they endeavour to follow in all things * Tr. 1. S. 1. c. 2. §. 3. And The proper End of a Contemplative Life is the attaining unto an 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 of the Spirit whith is fully possessed and filled with him alone not only all deliberate Affections saith Fa. Baker to Creatures being excluded but in a manner all Images of them also at least so far as they may be distractive to the Soul And he adds The Effects of this blessed Perceptable Presence of God in Perfect Souls are unspeakable and Divine For he is in them both as a Principle 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 in 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 joyned with Mortification the Soul comes to operate more and more abstracted from Sense and more celebrated above the Corporeal Organs and Faculties so drawing near to the resemblance of the Operations of an Angel or Separated Spirit By this we may perceive that it is not difficult as our Author saith to put together some of their Words and Phrases as an Account of their Divinity p. 285. and what Account that is But besides these there are some other passages which he recites and in them some which he construes as he doth these and other things and some Expressions which may seem hard Sayings to one who is not willing to understand them or consider them as terms of Art and allow them a candid Construction and may afford Matter for Exercise of Wit to such as are disposed to sport themselves with Matters of Religion The wicked Spirit does easily insinuate himself into and impose upon Persons ingaged in Controversy they are ordinarily like Souldiers ingaged in War act as if all was Lawful whereby they can incommode an Adversary without due regard to Charity Truth and that fair Dealing and Kindness which Christianity enjoyns to Enemies and too often behave themselves like such Souldiers as are loath to have an End of a War lest they should want Employment trifling and skirmishing at a distance with vain Words and Shews and the consequence in each is frequently the baffling and disparaging of the Cause they are ingaged in and giving advantages to their Adversaries And I wish this Author by
his management hath not given too much Advantage or at least Occasion to the common Adversaries Infidels and Deists But as to this cause O. N. hath so fully answered all Cavils at the Terms of Art that it seems he left little to be replyed to and therefore for Answer our Author is reduced to these two shifts 1. To inculcate the Unintelligibleness of Mystick Theology from the cessation of the discursive Faculty at the time of Contemplation which is all that the Mystick Writers intend as if all Men in the very act of intent listening to Sounds or beholding something extraordinary did not the like in a great measure 2. To make a great Bravado as if he had the Authority of the whole Church of Christ against all Visions immediate Revelations Extasies c. in the case of Montanus Whereas what was condemned in Montanus and his Companions was not the pretending to Visions and Revelations but pretending such to be Divine which were not but Diabolical as appeared both by the Manner and by the Matter being Heresie as is very plain in the ancient Writer in Eusebius l. 5. c. 16. When the Faithful throughout Asia had met often and in many places of Asia upon this account and had inquired into this New Doctrine and determined it to be prophane and rejected this Heresie they were expelled out of the Church And before he relates how Montanus his Ambition gave the Enemy an Entrance into himself and he was filled with the Devil and of a sudden possest with a furious and frantick Temper of Mind c. So he saith of Theodotus that he was possest with a false Extasie which plainly implies true ones believed then contrary to what our Author doth pretend To say that it hath no Foundation in the Christian Doctrine and yet to pass by so many Testimonies of Scripture produced for it with no better answer than what amounts to a Concession deserves no other reply than only to note it To mistake and mis-represent Mens Words through Ignorance is a Fault but more especially in Men pretending to Learning and Knowledge yet hath that some excuse by reason of the Humane Infirmity incident to all But to do it wilfully deliberately and seeking Occasions is not only different from but contrary to the Spirit of Christianity But what is it then if it be in despight of that which is really true and the Operations of the Spirit of Grace To say that the Case of Montanus was the very Case of Mystical Vnions and that the Spirit of Montanus was rejected in the Christian Church as a Fanatick Enthusiastical Spirit as if the Case of Mystical Unions was the Case of that Spirit so rejected with other expressions to like purpose are fit to be considered afterward if they were not well considered before-hand There is a passage which he recites out of the Spiritual Exercises of the Jesuites p. 31 32. edit 1574. viz. It is the great Perfection of a Christian to keep himself indifferent to do what God shall reveal to him and not to determine himself to do what he hath already revealed and taught in the Gospel which is very gross indeed if the meaning be what he would have us to believe and indeed so gross that it is not to be believed to be their meaning if it be to be found there and fairly translated but since it is capable of another construction viz. not to confine ones self to what is revealed in general but to be indifferent as to things not determined but lest indifferent to do as God shall direct I know not what can be said of any weight against it Such a Construction had been but according to their own Rule Christianum unumquemque pium debere promptiore animo Sententiam seu Propositionem obscuram alterius in bonam trahere partem quam damnare c. Exercit. Spirit p. 65. edit Ant. 1676. 8o. which had been more worthy of our Author's Observation Nor do I see any reason to alledge as an Instance or Proof of their Fanaticism that Custom of Ignatius and his Companions related by Orlandinus lib. 1. n. 111. viz. In any matter of Debate they were to joyn together in Prayer and after seeking God what Opinion the most were of that they resolve upon Where was the Fault in this in joyning in Prayer or in agreeing with the Majority If the Odium of the Name will excuse any thing with the vulgar yet it becomes neither Christianity nor Ingenuity nor is it consistent with true Prudence to condescend to such mean Objections Over-doing doth often spoil a good Work and disparage and discredit the Author The Errors and Miscarriages of Devout People ought to be pitied mentioned with Grief and not exposed beyond Truth or Necessity For that makes sport for the Devils and wicked Men gives Scandal to weak Men promotes Uncharitableness and Irreligion and discomposeth and disordereth the Spirit of him that doth it He who judgeth others ought to take care that they rise not up in Judgment hereafter against himself How will that Fanaticism which carries Men to the farthest part of the World for the Conversion of Infidels to Christianity rise up in Judgment against them who suffer their own Parishes and Diocesses of professed Christians at home to sink into Insidelity for want of due Care and sufficient Instruction And how will the Excess of Devotion if it be so in some Spiritual Writers rise 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 Parity 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 Seed 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 in this sense the Apostle writes to the Corinthians I Brethren could not speak unto 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 natural Man still and not as yet entirely Spiritual And frequent mention we find in the Scriptures of these several Degrees and Growths in a Regenerate Condition It being God's Pleasure that the New Man as the Old should grow by degrees and not be 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. 2.2 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. 4.16 Of arriving to a perfect Man unto the measure of the Stature or Age of the Fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 Of the Apostles labouring to present every one 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 Dominion yet hath not this Spirit as yet attained such a soveraign Empire and Mastery over the importunate Solicitations of Concupiscence and the natural Inclinations of our Will and Affections as that we do not still fall frequently into many lesser and those call'd Venial Sins or at least as to Actions that are not sinful but in their nature indifferent or lawful that we do not for the most part still prosecute those that are more grateful or advantageous to our present Carnal desires and our Sensual or secular designs Though such Actions are no way expedient for us nor acceptable to the Holy Spirit in which now we live nor do conduce to our growth in Grace but are great hinderances thereof and though these Acts contained indeed within the compass of lawful yet often expose us to Occasions of Sin Now so long as we stay here and advance no further we appear but as Infants and Babes in Grace it having not as yet obtained its perfect Reign in us either over our Concupiscence which carries us still into frequent venial Sins or over our Nature and Will which carries us in other matters lawful to those satisfying our natural Condition But when we are come to have potestatem voluntatis nostrae as St. Paul expresseth it 1 Cor. 7.37 come once to act seldom according to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concupiscence to fall seldom into Venial Sin especially with advertency and unsurprised and the Holy Spirit to have a more absolute power over Sense Reason our own Will Propriety and Self-love as
Counsel seldom or never accepted or asked abates the Fervour and Solace that there would be in prosecuting its Suggestions and leaves us guilty of much Unkindness and Ingratitude For as St. Bernard Cum hae Sancti Spiritus circa nos dispensatoriae quidem vicissitudines vigilantissime non observantur fit ut nec absentem desideres nec presentem glorifices in Cant. Serm. 17. When these condescending vicissitness concerning us are not most watchfully heeded it comes to pass that thou dost neither desire him when absent nor glorifie him when present But in the latter Actions wherein we have some cause of doubt which is best and yet wherein the making a good choice may be exceedingly beneficial to us according to the variety of our Temper and Condition to the better ordering of our Life and Service of God such Illumination and Direction of the Holy Spirit or also a clear discerning thereof is obtained especially by much Purity of Conversation and Abstraction from Worldly things by frequent Recollection and Introversion and attendance on God in the perfectest Practice of Prayer we can attain to For God hath graciously declared to us in the Scriptures That the effectual Prayer of a Righteous man as that of Elias availeth much Jam. 5.17 That he heareth not Sinners but if any one be a Worshipper of him and doth his Will him he heareth Jo. 9.31 That all things whatsoever we shall ask in Prayer that is such Persons not doubting but believing we shall receive them Mat. 21.22 Mar. 11.23 That if we abide in Christ and he in us ask what we will and it shall be done unto us Jo. 15.7 because indeed such ask by the Spirit of Christ who liveth in them and so ask according to God's Will That if we keep his Commandments and do what is pleasing in God's sight what-ever we ask we receive of him 1 Jo. 3.22 That if we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us and grants our requests 1 Jo. 5.14 that though we know not what we should desire or pray for as we ought Rom. 8.26 27. that is as to temporal Prosperity or Afflictions or such like things of which St. Paul there speaks what therein is best for God's Glory or our own Proficiency yet the Holy Spirit within us with unutterable Groans and great Ardour interceedeth for us according to God's Will and that God knoweth its Mind though not expressed in Words and granteth its requests that the same Spirit searcheth the profound things of God and what is his Will and revealeth them to us that natural Reason is not able to understand them but they many times seem Foolishness to it but the things of the Spirit are discerned only by the Spirit 1 Cor. 2.10 c. Most of which Texts seem to be spoken not only of our petitioning God concerning the necessary means of our or others Salvation but more universally of all sorts of Requests concerning the things of this Life and any things that are in their nature indifferent and lawful and of his Spirit directing us to ask and do in them what is his Will and of his granting those to us which may be best for us wherein God heareth and granteth the Petitions of his Saints much sooner than of others § 21. I say then since God in the Scriptures hath declared these things and made these Promises that he will not deny what we ask according to his Will we may rationally presume and be piously confident that he will grant our Request when this is only to know his Will that we may do that which is according to it and we may safely take that for his Will to which after such Addresses and other due Preparations made we shall find our selves more strongly inclined and also take such Inclination to proceed from the Operation of God's Spirit either illuminating sometimes our Understanding in discovering to it some Reasons not so well discerned or else disesteemed and thought inconsiderable before Or sometimes more confirming to us the Judgment our own Reason made of the thing before Or sometimes effecting a strong and suddenly injected Inclination in the Will so swayed without any preceeding Reasons or discourse of the Intellect presented to it Or sometimes causing an extraordinary Tranquility Consolation and Satisfaction to accompany such our Election According to the Rule of Abbot Isaac in Cassian Collat. 9. c. 32. Cum orantes nos nulla interpellaverit haesitatio si obtinuisse nos in ipsa orationis effusione quod poscimus senserimus non ambigamus preces nostras ad Deum efficaciter penetrasse where note that the Devil or any Creature cannot work so immediately and intimately on our Understanding and Will as God's Spirit doth but by the use of Phantasms or Images of the Spirits Humours c. Or where no such preponderation to any side is perceived in the Soul then we may presume this to be his Will that making use of our best Reason or others Advice without any Solicitude we take either side § 22. Now in the discerning of these Divine Illuminations and Inspirations from Enthusiasms or the Motions of the Good from those of our own or a Bad Spirit in these matters as any one hath attained to a greater Perfection in Prayer and Mortification and Purity of Life they attain hereby a greater measure of God's Spirit and hence its Illuminations and Inspirings in them are also much greater and stronger and more intimately effective on the Soul than any other Motions from whencesoever they come can be and so also these become more evident to such and many times are so clearly discerned by them from the Supernatural impression they make upon the Soul as that it cannot resist disbelieve or any way doubt of them that they are Supernatural and Divine So St. Austin relates of his Mother Monica that she clearly knew such Supernatural actings in her from her own Imaginations Dicebat enim discernere se nescio quo sapore quem verbis explicare non poterat quid interesset inter revelantem Te animam suam somniantem Confess l. 6. c. 13. For she said she did discern by I know not what Savour which she could not explain in words what difference there is between Thee revealing and her own Soul dreaming And indeed if such interior Divine Operations were not sometimes certainly discernable how could St. Paul be assured when he intended to Preach the Word in Asia and again in Bithynia a most Charitable design that the Spirit forbad it and not rather the Enemy of the publishing of the Gospel Act. 16.6 7. or That it was by Revelation and not a Fancy of his that he ascended to Jerusalem Gal. 2.2 or That it was the Holy Spirit that testified and not Mens Fears that much Affliction should happen to him there Act. 20.23 How the Corinthians knew when they had a Revelation that it was not a work of their own Imagination since all these things were transacted
only interiourly in the Soul and it was the Holy Spirit only that in all these gave the Evidence to it self A certain Assurance then it cannot be denyed that some at sometimes may have of Divine Operations in them But yet it is not affirmed here that all Persons less advanced in Prayer and Purity of Life or also the greatest Saints at all times discern the Operations of the Holy Spirit within them so clearly in this sort of Actions as not to be sometimes mistaken and it is sufficient that Persons piously disposed and frequent in Prayer may have a rational presumption of it as hath been said Neither is any more communicated unto them perhaps for the better preserving of their Humility And that no absolute Certitude is herein to be expected is a thing often confessed by Sanctae Sophia See 1 Vol. p. 139. and p. 137. § 23. 4. But in case such Divine Inspirations be sometimes mistaken yet can no damage come thereby I mean as to committing any Sin 1. The Subject of them we speak of here being Matters in themselves indifferent and on any side lawful See Sancta Sophia 1 Vol. p. 143. 2. No Command of Superiors in these any way neglected 3. No Neglect besides using Prayer in practising any other means of making a secure Choice either in weighing Reasons on all sides or taking Advice from others Only the devout Soul in using these endeavours yet relies not on them but on the Directions of God's Holy Spirit working continually in the Regenerate both by prevenient and subsequent Grace makes no sudden Resolutions nor rushes hastily upon any Action but diligently hearkens first to this internal Guide what it may tell her is best desiring faithfully all natural Passions and Self-love laid aside to correspond with all its Motions the careful Observers of which with a pure Intention of Mind may be justly presumed seldom to want them though they do not so certainly know them and mean while such Persons if not free always from Mistakes yet are secure in this sort of Actions we speak of from entertaining any sinful Enthusiasm or such as any other Person except by Divine Inspiration can either censure or discover § 24. Here the Author proceeds to another Discourse which being no less necessary for this purpose than pertinent to the Subject of Mystick Divinity it may be both proper for this place and also useful and grateful to many devout People to add part of it It is of Directions given by Spiritual Writers concerning Prayer and Devotion FIRST for Preparation for Prayer they are advised 1. to a serious Endeavour at all times to keep their Conscience clear from all Sin even the least as much as Humane Frailty permits and to a Care of avoiding the Occasions thereof without which Endeavours our Devotions cannot be acceptable to God as to the receiving from him any great plenty of his Grace And 2. at times of Prayer to Abstraction from all Secular Business Recollection of the Mind and Thoughts from all Creatures and all Objects of the Exterior Senses And then to begin at first with Forms for all Occasions of Vocal Prayer where Novices saith he begin and which the most perfect also frequently return to § 25. From these they are led on to Mental Prayer in which the Cessation from External Action renders the Inward more attent and affective more free from Distraction of the Senses and from the Wandring of the Thoughts For this many useful Subjects of Meditation are recommended chiefly touching our own Misery the Mysteries of our Salvation and the Divine Perfections 1. Of their Natural Condition the Heinousness of Sin the Divine Justice the bitter Passion of our Lord in Satisfaction for Sin the Terrors of Death Judgment and Hell to plant in them the Due Fear of God and advance in them all sorts of Mortification and Purification from all Habits of Sin 2. Of the Life of our Lord and the Lives of his Saints for Imitation and Growth in Vertue And 3. of the Divine Perfections and Benefits both received and promised of the Graces and Operations of the Holy Ghost in us and the Abilities for doing Good and pleasing God restored to Man by it if attentively observed and obeyed to advance them in all Spiritual Grace and Christian Perfection and to enkindle in them an ardent Love of God the Acquisition of which Love and not of Knowledge being chiefly designed in them § 26. When by the Practice of these Meditations they are well prepared they are directed by laying more aside their former Reasonings and Discoursings of the Brain with the frequent stroaks of which they have already kindled this Fire in the Heart how to exercise these Affections now in that Lesson of Loving God with all the Heart and all the Soul and all the Mind and all the Strength Luke 10.27 in a more simple and quiet Intuition and Contemplation Advertency and Admiration of the Divine Beauty and Perfections and in more fervent and amorous Colloquies with God in Praising Thanking Solacing her self with him whilst she casts her eye upon his infinite Mercies past and promised in many Resolutions for the future to serve him better and no more so to grieve and offend him in offering all she hath she can do or suffer to his Service and in putting her self in a posture of Silence and Attention to hear what he may be pleased to speak to and in her speak to her not only in Guiding and Admonishing in all necessary Duty but also in things indifferent or also good but not necessary when several of them happen to fall under deliberation in which she also desires to be instructed by him that she may still chuse and do that which may better please him and wherein his Holy Will may be more perfectly accomplished § 27. Which Acts of Love when once to a competent degree facilitated in us as they fill the Soul with great Consolations so they exceedingly help to advance it in all Christian Duties and Vertues For Love will not be idle and works in us now with much more Fidelity and Alacrity as doing all things not out of Fear but Affection and not to obey but please her Beloved and gain from him also a reciprocal Love And when a Soul is arrived so far through the constant Exercise and Custom of Prayer and other Mortifications necessary to it that these Acts of Love and of the Will of which there are many several Degrees surpassing one another are rendered easie and frequent and upon every Occasion speedily resumed without any or much preceedent meditation which Acts before were difficult and rare And when the Soul by reason of the greater Sweetness she finds in this latter affective Meditation as I may call it returns not to the former inventive Meditation without some reluctance this is the first Entrance into that which is stiled a State of Perfection such as Humane Industry attains namely wherein the Will assisted
Prayer that is using the Discourse of the Understanding and Meditations as also Vocal Prayer then which Step Sancta Sophia observes many go no further but end their days in it that is in such Meditations is taken up the most part of their Devotions 2. The second Step is the Exercise of the Will and Affections which after long practice breaks forth into continual Aspirations and Elevations thereof 3. The Third is Divine Inaction or the extraordinary and supernatural and more sensible Operations of God's Spirit in the Soul wherein God acteth more than she and which are not in her power at all to procure sooner or retain longer then God pleaseth of which much hath been said before 4. After which usually in the Intervals of those Coelestial Visits do follow great Desolations of Spirit as the Experienced have described them partly arising from the sense of her Loss and an impatient longing after these Favours once tasted and partly out of a great nauseating and disrelish that she hath now of those entertainments of the Creature from which she formerly received some Content Such we may imagin was that of the Prophet David when he said Heu mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est And Concupiscit deficit anima mea in atria Domini And after a Non movebor in aeternum Psal 29. an Avertisti faciem tuam factus sum conturbatus § 63. But not only this but God also sometimes withdraws even from his greatest Saints and that for some long duration of time any sensible assistance at all of his Grace leaving the Soul as it were in its pure Naturals and as if he were quite departed from it in great Aridity Obscurity Solitude Pressure and Heaviness disgusted with all things she knows not why performing still her Devotions and accustomed Duties of Piety and the Service of God as formerly but without any sensible comfort in such Performance Meditation Aspiration Reading very difficult sterile insipid and seeming without Fruit only forbearing her Consent to any Sin Vanity or Sensuality and not seeking any secular Consolations Much discouraged also at such times many are in imagining that God hath so deserted them for Failings in their Duty or for something wherein they have offended his Divine Majesty which doubles this Anguish Or if not this at least they imagin it to be caused by some great Indisposition of Body as it is granted sometimes partly it may so as some begin therefore to dispense for a time with the former Exercises of their Devotion and other pious Employments But notwithstanding many times in these the poor Soul is mistaken and this strange dejection of Spirit comes without any such respects meerly from the sole Will of God and is the ordinary course of his proceeding with those also who are by his former Graces well grounded and arrived to some degree of Perfection and is sent only for their much greater Advancement therein and the rendring them more capable of higher Favours and therefore ought as such to be entertained with all Equanimity Patience Resignation and Conformity to his Will These Consolations and Desolations take as it were their certain turns in them as they do in a lesser degree in all the Regenerate they have by course a Day and a Night an Ascent towards God and a Descent and decadence into themselves a Vivification by and in him and a Mortification in themselves a Summer wherein the Branches shoot forth and Fruit comes to Maturity and a Winter when the Root spreads more and the Tree becomes more surely fixed To all God's Children do these Vicissitudes happen but these in a higher degree to the further advanced in Perfection and the greatest Favours are preceeded with greater Desolations and these ordinarily proportioned one to the other And always necessary less or more are such Purgations and Refinings of the Soul by these interior Crosses because always something in them is amiss and as yet imperfect Our natural Corruption is still producing something in us to be amended and some Self-will and Self-love to be parted away by this sharp Remedy whilst we are in this Life And the Benefit of these Desolations if rightly complied with as well as of Divine Consolations is very great in many respects § 64. For herein it is that the Soul comes most perfectly to know it self and all other Creatures to see its own Nothingness and to be most perfectly purged and cleansed from all Self-love and Propriety and herein it is most especially taught non quiescere in donis Dei sed in Deo and Adorare Deum in Spiritu Veritate not in Devotione and Exercere se ad Deum in adversis sicut in prosperis the seeking Gust and Suavity and Consolations even in Spiritual things being one of its Imperfections since these are not God himself Herein it is that the Soul is preserved amidst such Divine Favours which are apt to inflate it in a due and necessary Humility Angelus Satanae colaphisans ne magnitudo Revelationum extollat me saith the Apostle after his Rapt Herein its true Love and Adherence to God Qui veniendo adjuvat and then derelinquendo probat Donis firmat and then Tribulationibus tentat saith St. Gregory Moral l. 20. c. 19. its Perseverance and Loyalty are especially discerned in keeping constant in the Service of him when deprived of all Consolation in it avoiding any application to the Comforts of 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
perfect shall be as his Master that is in Sufferings like him The Author may do well to review this passage of his § 66. The repairing to Prayer in the best manner we can make it is a proper natural and most efficacious way to obtain a supernatural Light from God's Spirit to discern his Will in all our Actions speaking of such as are indifferent and such wherein neither we nor any others have any external certain Rule all Circumstances considered whereby we may be guided as we have in all such other Actions the Lawfulness of which is doubted of which yet is not said as if Prayer were the only means of our direction in these so as to exclude the making use of either our own Reason or other Mens Advice as is said before § 76. This is not making Enthusiasm but Prayer a means to obtain the Illuminations of God's Spirit to shew us in two things suggested to us which of them comes from It or which is more conformable to God's Will that so we may follow and obey it and What a Christian is he that being doubtful especially in two affairs of much concernment which to make choice of doth not retire to his Prayers desiring God to direct him in such a particular and promising to do that which he shall be pleased by any way to signifie to him to be more conformable to his Will and more conducing to Christian Perfection as certainly the one may be much more than the other although both contained within the general bounds of Good or indifferent And then what Illumination he Prays for why may not he also expect Again Who is there much frequenting Prayer that doth not perceive in them some Illustrations and Influences entring and injected as it were into his Mind without his own procurement touching a more perfect knowledge of himself or the immense Love of God to Mankind or some 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 Jo. 3.8 Spirante ubi vult and he not knowing whence such things come or how they pass away yet these things we are assured must be from God's Spirit because no good Thought is from our selves And why may not we imagin the same a due Preparation being supposed of the Thoughts injected in our Doubtings and Requests concerning Actions left free and undetermined 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 Enthusiasm should deterr Christians from such a Practice or hearkening to this internal Language or as Mr. 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 malign Influence they may have on others We say then Divine Inspirations are necessary for Grace as well furthers as prevents us to distinguish the Motions of the Good and Bad Spirit in our Minds in matters purely indifferent which may be proposed to us by either of these Spirits for a different end where we have no other external Rule to judge these Motions by as we have in all internal Suggestions concerning such other matters as are either directly commanded or prohibited by God's Law I shall conclude my Collections out of this Author with the Explications of some of the Terms of Art which are quarrelled with as followeth Divine Inaction is in plain English the acting of God or his Spirit in us which in the Perfect is more extraordinary sensible and manifest § 48. Passive Vnions are 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 Disposal 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 use assuredly procure it Thus Sancta Sophia explains this Word And the Expression is secured by such like Scripture Language Qui Spiritu Dei aguntur Rom. 8.14 Not I live but Christ in me Gal. 2.20 Not I work but the Grace of God which is with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you Matt. 10.20 So the Spirit that is in us is said to interceed for us with Groans unutterable Rom. 8.26 c. § 48. Deiformity and Deification are words not of late only but anciently used signifying an Vnion with God not in Essence but by Grace and this Union still more intimate as the Grace more extraordinary secured by like Scripture Language For Deiform Renewed to the Image of our Greator Col. 3.10 Changed into the Image of our Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Transformed by the renewing of our Mind Rom. 12.2 For Deification Partakers of the Divine Nature and of the Powers of the future World Heb. 6.4 5. The Lord and we made one Spirit 2. Pet. 1.4 Filled with all the Fulness of God 1 Cor. 6.17 I have no more but to acquaint the Reader who this O. N. was out of whose Book I have collected those things his Name was ABRAHAM WOODHEAD a good Man who with great Modesty and Solidity hath vindicated Mystical Divinity against the Quarrel of one who charged it to be Fanaticism His Character may be seen more at large in Mr. Wood 's Oxford Antiquities FINIS POSTSCRIPT WHEREAS it is feared by some that what is in the fore-going Discourse related concerning Plotinus and Porphyrius who lived in Gospel-times and yet were not Christians but the latter a grand Adversary of the Christians and of Christianity may too much gratifie some call'd Quakers to their hurt who are great Magnifyers of the Gentile Dispensation I do declare that I should be glad to gratifie any People for their Good but not any to their Hurt And therefore to prevent any such misuse of what I have written for a good purpose which I have mentioned in the end of the Preface they must know 1. That as the Actions of Witches and their Familiars if the matter of fact be evident and undeniable are good Evidence against Atheists and Sadduceans and the Real Inspiration of any Spirit if proved is good Evidence against all such Anti-enthusiasts as deny the Reality of Inspiration and that there is any thing more in it than meerly the actings of Peoples Imaginations so the plain apert Declarations by these Men of the Mystick Divinity which was more occultly delivered by the Ancients is good Evidence of the Tradition and Succession of these Mysteries though they should be found to have erred in the Use and Application of it And for this purpose was that Collection made 2. That though Porphyry and Plotinus and some
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 Touth 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 Humane in many Cases wherein the General Prescripts are not sufficient For as many things are lawful which may not be expedient so many things may be expedient or necessary which may not be acknowledged Duties in themselves evidenced by the Word of Truth the written Word and to the successful Performance of acknowledged Duties certain Circumstances may be and often are so necessary that unless duly observed all Endeavours would be frustrate and all these Expediences and Circumstances may be and frequently are such as are not discernable by us Mortals without some Notice from more Intelligent Beings If therefore the All-seeing Wise and Gracious God be pleased either immediately by his own Spirit or mediately by any of the Invisible Ministers of his Providence to afford any such Divine Favours to such Mortals as are duly disposed for the same if taking notice of the Sincerity of his Servant he be pleased by any secret Impression upon his Heart or Mind or other Notices to conduct him in these things or in any thing of his Will and Pleasure though without manifesting the Reasons of it to exercise his Reasonable Creature to the Subjection of his Intellect to the Divine Wisdom as well as his Will to Obedience to his Pleasure as he who after competent Experience of this should be disobedient to any such Notice would certainly incurr Sin more or less and justly deserve Correction so it would be no less Impiety against that Holy Majesty and Mischief to Men to raise amongst them any Scandal or Prejudice against it and thereupon