Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	believe_v	faith_n	heart_n	7,913	5	5.2011	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76384	A bright starre, leading to, & centering in, Christ our perfection. Or a manuell, entituled by the authour thereof, the third part of the Rule of perfection Wherein such profound mysteries are revealed, such mysterious imperfections discovered, with their perfect cures prescribed, as have not been by any before published in the English tongue: faithfully translated for the common good.; Règle de perfection. English. Part 3	Benoît, de Canfield, 1562-1610.	1646 (1646)	Wing B1867AC; ESTC R223949	72,498	265

things are nothing and though a Man have the knowledge of this nothing of their Annihilation yet may he want the practise Wherefore both these points are equally necessary in this matter as wee said before that God alone may be seen alwayes who is the end of this Annihilation But now to practise this thing duely First I admonish the Reader to pluck up his spirits here that they may worke more supernaturally and I say not further from sense then before but flat contrary thereto For where before he annihilated them when they were absent here he must also annihilate them present Which to doe and that this Annihilation may bee cleare and apparent we will here distinguish it into Active and Passive Passive is when the man himselfe and all other things are cast asleep vainly und be made nothing I call it passive because 't is onely suffered The Imperfections whereof wee have blowne away in the former Chapter The Active Annihilation is when the Man himselfe and all other things are annihilated not onely sufferingly as in the Passive but doingly I meane by Light in the Understanding as well naturall as supernaturall wherein he sees and most infallibly knowes that all those things are nothing and rests upon this knowledge in despight of feeling The one of these Annihilations lives when all Image and feeling of the Creatures is gone The other continues also firme and sure even whilst they remaine after sense and yet by means of this light are seene to bee nothing The one consists in Knowledge drawne from Experience when a man sees himselfe brought to nothing as 't is said I am brought to nothing The other consists in Knowledge true indeed yet not seeming so after sense but after understanding Of these two the Active is more perfect for two reasons Strength and Duration For strength because together with it selfe it nothings all other things Not onely when it sailes with the actuall blast and breath of this Will or Divine Being but even then also when the soule feels drought and barrennesse annihilating all things felt as well as those which be gone and vanisht The which point requires carefull Attention For thus it annihilates as well all things that remain after feeling as also that same which annihilates them i. the owne Understanding and Knowledge with all manner of working thereof Not enduring that any thing whatsoever Image nor feeling remaine but only God For strength also because neither a multitude of outward affaires nor abundance of inward or intellectuall workings can hinder this Annihilation or distract the man himself For strength againe Because 't is not onely farre distant from sense but flat contrary thereto So that it annihilates things not onely when the minde in abstractions rides above them but even then when 't is conversant among them looking on them as if it looked not whence necessarily arises Duration which is the second perfection of Active Annihilation And both these perfections are not so perfectly found in the Passive Annihilation which stayes alwayes the Actuall Lure of God There be many that both know and practise the Passive but few the Active And so they no sooner fasten on any worke bodily or spirituall but they easily sinke fall downe and become divided and so live alwayes in languishing and unsatisfiednesse of spirit These two Annihilations make to a two-fold Love fruitive and practick whereon stands the whole spirituall Life The Passive tends to the Fruitive Love the Active to the Practick For in as much as these two Loves are never perfect till in the Practick love wee can enjoy God even as in the Fruitive 'T is therefore expedient that this Active Annihilation mediate to annihilate the Acts of this Practick Love which otherwise might hinder that enjoying and raise so many middle walls between God and the soule As therefore the Passive Annihilation nothings all things by deading all our feeling of them and transchanging them into enjoying Love So the Active annihilates them also still remaining though in sense wee feele them transforming them into fruitive Love So that the Love which without this Active Annihilation were meerly Practick may thus become fruitive And so by this Active Annihilation we shall continually enjoy God whether we worke and produce Acts or no. But as the same falls not under sense but is onely spirituall and supernaturall So the enjoyance to which it leads us is not perceived in our feeling but in spirit and transcends nature CHAP. XII That this Active Annihilation consists in equalling the Passive The practise of it in Light and Remembrance THE Perfection of this Active Annihilation consists in equalling the Passive in a Death of all things and in a Passive Annihilation after the spirit though not after feeling And the signe shewing it to be absolutely perfect is when it annihilates the things which we perceive by sense as verily as if wee perceiv'd them not And even in the face of all these sensibles brings as Invincible faith peace and union with God as among those things which are already lost and nothing For thus a man seeing sees not when hee holds not the same Formes in Meditation and Debatement And so he lives in a perpetuall Death and dyes in an eternall Life buried in Triumph of Conquest like that valiant Champion Eleazar intomb'd in the glory of his victory when crusht with the fall of the Beast he ended his dayes For this Beast which hee slew is the whole sinsible world which when wee kill and bring to nothing we also slay and annihilate our selves and so are buried as it were thereunder and our Life is hid with Christ in God The summe of the practise of this Annihilation consists in two things Light and Remembrance The use of the Light is generall The use of Remembrance is to raise us again when we forget and grow distracted For the first This Light is no other but a pure simple naked and habituall Faith which Reason helps Experience ratifies and confirmes Nor falls it under sense nor hath any acquaintance therewith yea it resists the same But it resides in the Crowne of the soule and beholds God without any Meane I say 't is pure excluding all help of the senses so as all in vaine should any prop or assurance bee groped for from them which are utterly to bee renounc'd First because the helpe of that Devotion which is had from the senses endures not but this Faith is lasting Secondly because when sensible Devotion is had 't is not certaine but variable But this Faith is con●ant Nor is it sufficient to renounce the senses unlesse we also annihilate them because they be erroneous and lying perswading ●s to believe that things ar● Con●●ariwise this faith is lightsome and points us to walk in the spirit Secondly I call it simple to cut of all multiplicity of Reasoning as a thing repugnant to the purity of this Faith First because it makes it humane where it

confounded together Now that wee may see what place is meete for the one and what for the other these 2 Annihilations make to a two-fold Love The Passive to an enjoying Love i. to a naked beholding Union and enjoyance of God The Active to a practicke Love i. to our Outgoing Lively and faithful working whether bodily or spirituall So then the proper place of the Passive Annihilation is when wee lye prostrate to the Fruitive Love Because the Passive reduces all Motions and workings to nothing avants all forms and Images and so leads us to the fruition of God The Place for the active Annihil is when we are to follow the Practick Love For by this Annihil as by a certain transcendence of the Mind all our works acts operations as wel of the body as soul are nothing'd so going out without going out working without working Being without Being living and yet dead we transforme the practick Love into the fruitive change the Active Life into the Contemplative Enjoy God by Faith in working and Action as fully as in rest and ease which is the Top and spire of Perfection And these are the proper places of the two Annihilations They erre therefore that disorder them and alter their right courses using indeed a Passive Annihilatiō savoring Acts and Operations as some doe when they should faithfully worke in the Practicke Love And practising the Passive Annihilation producing Acts as many do when they should suppresse them and enjoy God by Fruitive Love The first run upon a false rest the other a hurtfull Activenesse Some thorow a too much Retirednesse hide their Talent Others through superfluousnesse of working fall short of God But that these two extreames may be combin'd and both the Mistakes amended it remaines that we now shew the times agreeing to these two Annihilations the not knowing whereof brings the two foresaid Errours There be three sorts of Active love or working Exteriour Interiour and Intimate Exteriour imployed in bodily labours Interiour in discourses and studies Intimate in renewing of workings and prayer For the first Though bodily works they be only yet are they not to be neglected when obedience engagement love or discretion ●alls and requires them In which thing we are to sticke close to the rule of the exterior Wil. And if that Rule require them not it shall be no wisedome to forsake the Fruitive Love to goe to doe them For though the Active Annihilation reduces all to Nothing yet such ● Liberty is not expedient as runs ●s wittingly upon Impertinencies He that loves danger shall perish therei● And hee that linkes hard tyes not ●rong Yea he that willingly sets himselfe aworke about needlesse things cannot duely practise this Annihilation But if on the other side hee refuse to doe such workes after the same Rule he incurres a dull rest the more to be feared because vailed with a false vizard of Contemplation concerning the Interiour working as Studies discourse or giving ones selfe to the Spirit The limits of necessity are not to be transgrest superfluities warily to be avoyded the which are never free from Passions Affections and Negligence wherein if we be not watchful no small Immortification vexation arises in the soul which encrease swel there the more the lesse we account them such being dawb'd over with a vain Tincture of perfection Whereout of necessity arises an inordinate dangerous liberty of Mind pouring it self forth into all kind of phantasticke thoughts and losing the bridle to fleshly Imaginations and ridiculous discourses whereout of necessity arises an inordinate and dangerous liberty of Mind pouring it selfe forth into all kind of phantasticke thoughts whereby all Passions have their free entry Pride Selfe-conceit Ambition Suspition Rash Judgment Contempt of our Neighbours the false Joy Sadnesse Feare Anger Envy and of Miseries what not which nathelesse a Dulnesse unsensiblenesse of the evill makes to be little troubled at all prick of Conscience being blunted wherto great heede is to bee taken But if it appeare by this Rule that the Wil of God requires his Industry in Studies Discourse c. and yet hee hangs backe therefrom 't is a sluggish faint-heartednesse though vail'd under pretext of of piety or addicting himselfe to the Spirit Touching the Intimate working as renewing of our practise in contemplation c. 'T is only then to bee produc't when by reason of Gods working withdrawn and our owne waxing faint or because of feeble and sluggish Nature the Minde is sunke as it were yawning and grows heavy and le ts fal from her memory this Blessed-making object Yet so long as by the Pul and Inworking of the Bridegroom or by strength or rowsing of the Minde or even by patient cleaving to God or by simple Remembrance she can persevere in Union with God in the Fruitive Love 'T is not best to forsake the Passive Annihilation and the Fruitive Love that depends thereon to take in hand by acts to practise the Active Annihilation provided that by simple Remembrance she stand to her part For there it is that the soule is so transported inlarg'd inlightned and united to God there she tasts the chaste embraces sweet entercourses and divine kisses there she sees her selfe sublim'd ennobled and glorified with Angels at the coelestiall Table There she relishes the fruits of her Mortification the treasures of her Repentance and the Comforts of all her Selfe-denyalls and of those weapons shee found out to make war upon her selfe for attaining the Kingdome of Heaven which is to be got by violence Let her not therefore I say forsake this Passive AnnihilatIon and the Fruitive Love descending therefrom No though she feel not those comforts but find this Fruitive Love so bare to her feeling that shee lose all her owne feeling and assurance of comfort which is the satisfaction of Nature And this is the true Rest wherein both her faithfulnesse is tryed and the soule is seated in a true poverty of Spirit patience and essentiall Resignation of her selfe There whatsoever of Man remaines in the soule is done away There the Death ended and the conquest atchieved There is the ghost given up betweene the hands of God and lastly there is the Man transformed whole into God For by this constancy and Death God lives and reignes in him and in him accomplishes all his workes By this Rest and ceasing from Acts is pure abstraction and Uncloathing of Spirit attained too wherein the Soule is spung'd of all errours and impurities and practises all vertues and perfections though essentially and without multiplicity For here is used a marvailous defence watchfulnes of heart which not only can endure no consent or delight but even not the least feeling or thought of Sinne they being open enemies to this Rest and Annihilation so that here all Passions are appeased Affections mortified and Motions restrained Here love is ordered Desire bridled Joy tempered Hate killed Sadnes mitigated Vain hope extinct