may be illustrated by the Contemplation of God is required a Pure and Sound Mind For as in a Looking-Glass sordid and impure the Form of a Face cannot be represented so neither in a foul and unclean Mind the Splendor of God Ni. Whoever knowing that they are only Mind have passed the bulk and grossness of the Body and have purged their Mind from the Stain of Vices and rendered it fit and meet for the Reception of the First or chief Mind and Creator of all things God is united to them For when the Mind is Pure and Incorrupt he doth converse with the Mind without any thing intervening and by it hath Communion with the Soul as again by this he is joyned to the Body But he is united not as He is but as We are capable of that Union And hence at last he becomes known Nor can any one otherwise know God unless he open his Soul to Him and receive him in it Psellus God doth so much become known to Men as he is familiarly joyned to them who by Vertue are joyned to Him For according as is their Ascent he doth descend And how much Man doth approach to God so much also doth God become known to Man imparting the Knowledge of himself according to the proportion of Purity that is in every one See whether the Spiritual and Divine Gradation will raise us For from the Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature as from the first step of a Ladder we are raised to Admiration of him as to the second step again from Admiration we ascend to more earnest Desire then from Desire are we raised up to Purgation and from hence further to Likeness with God and lastly we arrive to converse familiarly with God and know Him more perfectly by Vnion Then when we are made Deiform doth the true and natural God converse familiarly with those who by Grace are call'd Gods infusing the Divine Fulgers of his Knowledge in us as every one is purified Nicetas To be made God is to be partaker of Divine Illumination but not to pass into the Divine Essence Since we are set in the Confines between God and Matter if we decline to Matter we are Gross and Material if we tend toward God we are call'd Divine and thereupon Gods Nicetas St. Austin concerning the same THE Life of the Body is the Soul the Life of the Soul is God The Spirit of God dwells in the Soul and by the Soul in the Body that our Bodies also may be the Temple of the Holy Spirit whom we have from God Ser. 18. de verb. Apost c. 6. It is not unreasonable to say That the Incorporeal Soul is so illuminated with the Incorporeal Light of the Simple or pure Wisdom of God as the Body of the Air is illuminated with the Corporeal Light and as the Air grows dark upon the departure of that Light 11 de Civ Dei c. 10. Minds are to Souls as their Senses but of Sciences whatever things are most certain they are such as are those things which are illustrated or shined upon by the Sun that they may be seen as the Earth and all Earthly things But God is he who doth illustrate but I Reason am so in Mind as the Aspect is in the Eyes The Eye of the Soul is the Mind pure from all stain of the Body that is remote and purged from all desires of Mortal things c. 1 Soliloq c. 6. It is a great and very rare thing with the Intenseness of the Mind to transcend all Creature corporeal or incorporeal being considered and found mutable and to approach to that unchangeable Substance of God and there learn from Him that none but he made all Nature which is not Himself For so God speaks with Man not by any corporal Creature sounding in corporal Ears c. but he speaks by the very Truth it self if one be fit to hear with the Mind not with the Body 11 de C. D. 2. v. ibid. Coq When the Soul sees that singular and true Beauty it will the more love it But unless it fix on it its Eye with a mighty Love and decline not any whether from beholding it it cannot remain in that most Blessed Vision 1 Solil c. 7. One thing there is that I can prescribe thee I know no more That these sensible things are wholly to be forsaken and that we must greatly beware while we act this Body that our Wings which we need have intire and perfect be not hindered by any of their Birdlime that we may fly away from this Darkness to that Light c. Therefore when thou shalt be such that nothing of Earthly things doth at all delight thee believe me in that moment in the same point of time thou shalt see what thou desirest c. 1 Soliloq c. 14. Thou dost desire to see and imbrace Wisdom as it were naked without any thing of covering so as she doth not suffer herself except to very few and her most choice Lovers c. It is a certain ineffable and incomprehensible Light of Minds that vulgar Light c. ibid. c. 13. Confide constantly in God and as much as thou canst commit thy self intirely to Him Do not be willing to be as it were thine own but profess thy self to be a Servant of the most Gracious and Bountiful Lord. For so will he not cease to raise thee to Himself and will permit nothing to befall thee but what shall profit thee though thou knowest it not 1 Soliloq 14. Hear me my God hear me after that manner of thine known to very few Command I beseech thee whatever thou wilt but heal and open my Ears that I may hear thy Voice Heal and open my Eyes that I may see thy Becks Say to me which way I shall look that I may behold Thee c. 1 Soliloq c. 1. Being admonished to return to my self I entred into my most inward parts thou being my Leader and I could do it because thou wast become my Helper I entred and I discerned with the Eye of my Soul such as it was above the same Eye of my Soul above my Mind the unchangeable Light of the Lord not this vulgar and visible to all Flesh Nor was it as of the same kind greater as if it grew more and more clear than it and filled all with its Greatness This was not that but another quite another from all those Nor was it so above my Mind as Oyl above Water nor as Heaven above Earth but superior because he made me and I inferior because I was made by it He who knoweth Truth knoweth it and he who knoweth it knoweth Eternity Charity knoweth it O Eternal Truth and true Charity and dear Eternity Thou art my God for Thee do I sigh day and night And when I first knew Thee thou didst assume me or take me up that I should see it to be which I did see and my self not to be who did see And thou
ASCETICKS OR The Heroick Piety Virtue OF THE Ancient Christian ANCHORETS AND COENOBITES PART I. Exemplary Asceticks LONDON Printed for the Authour 1696. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER IT hath been a usual subtile and wicked Policy of the Devil and Evil Men first to render Names Odious and then by affixing them to Persons and Things thereby to render them so too with the vulgar whom by that means they impose upon and make their Tools By such means have not only the Christians of Old but also some of the chief Principles of Christianity been much injured and abused And few Parties there are who have not one time or other smarted by it That the well-meaning Reader therefore may not be so abused and imposed upon in his Judgment of the things here put together for the Benefit of all who can receive them by the Odious Names of Monkery and Popery it is to be observed that though POPERY taken properly for the Abuses and Corruptions of the Bishops and Church of Rome may deserve all the Odium cast upon it yet may most vile and wicked Abuses be committed by Pretence and Imputation of that Odious Name And in some things it is hard to say Whether the People have been more abused by Popery it self or by the Odium and Imputation of the Name And not only the People but the Gospel it self I may add and the Reformation too For while Christian Truths have been mis-represented and exposed to Contempt and Odium under the Name of Popery the Cause on the side of Popery is supported strengthened and made so much the more defensible by the intermixture of so much Truth and the Cause on the side of the Reformation so much the more weakened and disparaged by the intermixture of so much indefensible Error Whereas if they were only things inexcusable in them which were questioned as Charity doth require they must have sunk in the Cause long before this but an indiscreet Affectation of Reformation and uncharitable seeking Occasions have made a Reformation now as needful on the one side as the other Instances of this might be shewed in divers particulars but I need not step out of my way for that the other Name mentioned may serve for that purpose here MONKERY is not only rendered Odious as of it self but also as a part of Popery And indeed if we imagin all that is believed or practised by the Church of Rome to be Popery it may be so but then we shall leave little of true Christianity for the Reformation But if what is true Christianity be not Popery than neither is Monkery as some are pleased to call the Monastick Life And that it is not only true Christianity but the Practice of it in the greatest Perfection that Mortals are capable of I am apt to think will be very plain to any who will consider what here follows with an unprejudiced and competent Judgment And therefore I shall not need to say more here but only desire the Reader to suspend his Judgment till he hath perused and considered it well THE Beginning and Progress OF Contemplative Living AND Religious Societies THAT there are in the very Nature of Man some Principles of Inclination to Religion which if not corrupted by Evil Education or other unhappy Occurrences do insensibly grow and increase in Strength and Vigour and in due time exert themselves in Action though for some time they lie dormant as it were and do not appear even as some others which in all Animals are manifestly most Natural and yet appear not till after some growth toward Maturity hath been observed believed and asserted by Men of greatest Reputation for Learning and Wisdom both in Ancient times and to this Day These Principles have among Man-kind been in many much corrupted and stifled by Evil Education or Conversation with Evil Persons and by the Impressions Energy and Instigations of Evil Spirits but in others again much cherished and improved not only by Good Education and Conversation and by Consideration of the Works of Nature but moreover and especially by the kind Influences of the Divine Majesty and of his Good Ministring Spirits From hence in all Ages and in all Parts of the World have been produced and raised up Philosophers and Wise and Holy Men and Women who have been as Lights and Examples to the rest of several sorts according to their different Ways of Living some living a Life of Civil Conversation with others but strictly conscientious walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless as is said of Zacharias and Elizabeth Luk. 6. or to speak more comprehensively living in all Good Conscience before God as St. Paul saith of himself Act. 23.1 or according to the Character of Job Perfect and Vpright fearing God and eschewing Evil Job 1.1 Others living a more abstracted Life of Retirement and Contemplation abstracted not only from Business in the World but also from ordinary Conversation with Men that they might without Distraction converse with God and his blessed Ministring Spirits and others again living a kind of mixt or middle Life between these two avoiding unnecessary Business and Incumberances and exercising Recollections and Abstraction as much as their Occasions would permit and even in and amidst their Business Of those Three Ways of Living that more strict and Contemplative Life is believed by divers Learned Men to have been begun by ENOS or in his time and not without reason For as the Principles before-mentioned were apt to produce such an Effect so there seems to be something singular noted concerning Religion or some Religious Institution or Practice in that Sacred Record Gen. 4. ult But of the more ancient Times not only before the Flood but also for some Ages after the Flood we know but very little But in the Times of which we have some more Knowledge besides PRIESTS and professed PHILOSOPHERS there have always been both single Persons and compleat or formed Societies of People who discerning the Vanity and Emptiness of Earthly things and Solidity and Perminence of Heavenly things withdrew themselves from those of the Earth as much as their Mortal State could bear and applyed themselves intirely to the Contemplation and Prosecution of those of a more excellent Nature living an Abstracted and Angelick Life in Mortal Flesh in Holy Conversation and Favour with God and his blessed Ministring Spirits And some did actually and expressly consecrate themselves by Vow unto the special Service of God Of which Sort were those among the Jews called NAZARITES because they did so separate themselves from among Men to attend upon God The Sacred History Numb 6. is a Record not of the Original but of the Divine Approbation of Nazarites which though that be very ancient yet were much more ancient and more ancient than any Man can tell And God's Ordering of the Rites and Circumstances of their Consecration and Observations for that People is a manifest Indication of his Divine Approbation
Life the Thorns which choak the Seed of the Word that it bringeth no Fruit to Perfection Luk. 8.14 and concerning Watching that we be not surprized Mat. 24.42 25.13 Mar. 13.35 Luk. 21.36 And now if any one please as many have done to make any question concerning the meaning of our Saviour or the Interpretation of any part of this what more Authentick Evidence of that can be reasonably desired than what the wisest of Men have always approved and had recourse to in such Cases Usage and Practice afterward which daily Experience in the Construction of Laws and ancient Records and Deeds doth sufficiently confirm The APOSTLES certainly practised all this as far as was consistent with their Circumstances and Business they were imployed in and Preached it and recommended it by their Doctrin too as far as the Circumstances of the People and the Times would bear They forsook all not one of them Married any Wife afterward though they might have done it and were so far abstracted from all Diversions and Distractions of the World that they ordered Deacons for other necessary Works that they might give themselves continually to Prayer and to the Ministery of the Word or to Preaching And the effect of their Preaching and of the powerful Operation of the Holy Spirit upon the People was that they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrin in Communion in breaking Bread and in Prayers And all that believed were together and had all things Common and sold their Possessions and Goods and parted them as every Man had need c. Act. 2.42 And again Act. 4.32 The Multitude of them that believed were of one Heart and of one Soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things Common For as many as were Possessors of Lands or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles Feet What is here briefly said of the first Converts and Primitive Christians at Jerusalem agrees so well all things considered with what Philo more largely relates concerning those about Alexandria whom he calls THERAPEUTS who were never heard of before nor after under any Denomination unless of that of Christians which began early at Antioch and was soon spread over the World where any Disciples of Christ were and took place of all others that as the Ancients do affirm we also have great reason to rest satisfied that they were indeed such notwithstanding all the Cavils of some of the last Age which have since been sufficiently refuted It is true they did not long appear in that form of Communities for they were dissolved at Jerusalem and dispersed into divers Regions by that great Persecution after the Death of Stephen and doubtless by like Occasions in other Places But the Example and Doctrin of our Saviour and his Apostles could not but provoke many especially among the Jews before well-disposed for it to forsake the World and betake themselves to a retired abstracted Contemplative Life The Natural Inclination in them was excited and fortified by the various Examples which were common among them before and then receiving such further Encouragement from our Saviour and his Apostles both directly and indirectly from several Doctrines of the gospel concerning Self-denyal Mortification Contempt of the World Heavenly-mindedness c. this could not but mightily affect them generally with an Heroick Contempt of the World and of the Body and all Earthly things The very Doctrin Promises and Miracles with which they were confirmed were apt of their own Nature to produce all this but much more being accompanied with such a Spirit and Power as the Preaching of the Apostles and the Primitive Christians then was And certainly they wanted nothing but Opportunity even then in the Apostles times to have settled in Coenobitical Societies which as soon as the commom obstacle the Persecutions was removed by the Providence of God in raising Constantine to the Throne of the Empire they presently began to do first in Egypt where 't is probable were many descended from the Recabites and Esseans and in no long time after in most other Parts Concerning those in Egypt in his time St. John Chrysostome gives us this Account Should any one come now to the Deserts of Egypt he would see all the Wilderness altogether more excellent than a Paradice and innumerable Companies of Angels shining in Mortal Bodies For there is to be seen spread over all that Region the Camp of Christ and the admirable Royal Flock and the Conversation of the Heavenly Powers illustriously shining upon Earth And this you may see most splendid not in MEN only but also in WOMEN Heaven it self doth not so shine with various Constellations of Stars as Egypt is beset and illustrated with innumerable Convents of Monks and Virgins But of this more hereafter These things being well considered it will be very plain 1. That they who have derived these Religious Institutions from our Saviour and his Apostles by their Example and Doctrin and the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit had a good Foundation of Truth to maintain their Assertion 2. That they who have raised such Prejudice in the Minds of the People against such Holy Religious Societies in general as to beget in them an Odium against all if they did it in simplicity and meerly through the Prejudice they themselves had conceived from the Scandals of those of their time yet did they very rashly and inconsiderately in so doing but if they did it to temporize and ingratiate themselves with Princes and Great Men who had inriched themselves with the Spoils of the Monasteries and the Revenues of the Church they did very wickedly and impiously We must not deny or question the Justice of the Judgment of God upon them but Who are they by whom the Righteous God doth usually execute such Judgments And at this time we have great reason to take that for a Warning to our Selves Were they cast out for their Laziness and Corruptions What then have we to expect Suppose ye that they were Sinners above all that have succeeded them I tell you Nay but except ye Repent ye shall all likewise perish God is able to restore them again The Vineyard shall be taken from you and given to other Husband-men who shall render him their Fruits in their Seasons I Thought I had done here For though I know many have written very bitterly against Monks and Monkery I thought them not worth the looking into because I believed the Truth which I have asserted will stand as an impregnable Rock against all their Blasts Yet at last it coming into my mind that an excellent Person of great Learning Judgment Piety and Candor of this Church of England had written something to like purpose I thought fit to look into him and finding to my Sorrow for him but great Satisfaction in this Case how unworthy of himself and of how little
those who are of that sort in a Spirit of Gentleness Gal. 6. And therefore we must be diligent that when by our Renunciation we have ceased to be Carnal that is have begun to separate our selves from the Conversation of Worldly People and to cease from that manifest Pollution of the Flesh we strive presently with all our Might to acquire the Spiritual State lest flattering our selves because we seem according to the outward Man to have renounced the World or to have forsaken the Contagions of Carnal Fornications as if by this we had gotten the top of Perfection we should thenceforth become more remiss toward the Emundation of other Passions and more slothful and being detained between both not be able to attain to the degree of Spiritual Profit supposing that it is abundantly sufficient for us for Perfection that in the outward Man we seem separated from the Conversation and Delights of this World or that we are set free from Carnal Corruption and Mixture And so being found in that Cepid State which is reckoned the Worst we shall understand that we are to be vomited out of the Mouth of the Lord according to his Sentence saying I would thou wert Hot or Cold but because thou art now Tepid or Lukewarm I will begin to spue thee out of my Mouth Rev. 3.15 c. Abbot Isaac concerning PRAYER Cass Col. 9. THE End of every Monk and Perfection of his Heart tends to a continual and uninterrupted Perseverance in Prayer and as far as is permitted to Humane Frailty strives after an unmoveable Tranquility and perpetual Purity of Mind For the Enjoyment of which we unweariedly seek and continually exercise as well Labour of the Body as Contrition of Spirit And there is between these a certain reciprocal and inseparable Conjunction For as the Structure of all Virtues doth tend to the Perfection of Prayer so unless all these be bound and compacted together by the toping of it they can by no means hold out firm and stable For as without them cannot this perpetual and continual Tranquility of Prayer of which we speak be acquired and perfected so neither can those Virtues which prepare for it without the Continuance of it be accomplished Wherefore neither can we rightly treat of the Effect of Prayer or enter to the principal End of it which is accomplished by the Employment of all Virtues by a hasty Discourse unless first all these things which for the obtaining of it are either to be cut off or to be prepared be in order enumerated and discussed and according to the Instruction of the Parable in the Gospel those things which belong to the Building of that Spiritual and more sublime Tower be counted and diligently prepared for it Which notwithstanding will neither profit being prepared nor rightly admit those high topings of Perfection to be built upon them unless first all refuse of Vices being cast out and all dead rubbish of Passions dug up the most firm Foundations of Simplicity and Humility be laid upon the sound and solid Earth of our Heart that Evangelical Rock upon which this Tower to be built with the Employments of all the Spiritual Virtues may be both unmoveably established and raised up to the highest Heavens by the Consistence of its own Firmness cap. 2. And therefore that the Prayer be made with that Fervour and Purity it ought these things are by all means to be observed First The Solicitude of Earthly things in general is to be cut off Next not only the Care but not so much as the Memory of any Business or Cause is to be admitted Detractions idle Talk much Talk Jestings are likewise also to be cut off Anger above all things or the Perturbation of Sadness are to be throughly rooted out The pernicious Food of Carnal Concupiscence and the Love of Money is to be plucked up by the Roots and these and the like Vices which are visible even to the Eyes of Men being cut off and wholly thrust out and such a cleansing of the Rubbish which is perfected in the Purity of Simplicity or Singleness of Heart and Innocence first made the unshaken Foundations of a profound Humility which may bear a Tower reaching to the Heavens are first to be laid then is the Superstruction of Spiritual Virtues to be built upon it and from all Discourse or Reasoning and light Wandering is the Mind to be restrained that so it may by degrees be elevated to God and to Spiritual Intuition For what-ever our Soul conceives before the Hour of Prayer of necessity it will occur to us while we pray by intrusion of our Remembrance Wherefore such as we would be found while we Pray such ought we to prepare our selves to be before the time of Prayer For from the precedent State is the Mind formed in Prayer c. cap. 3. The Quality of the Soul is not unfitly compared to a light Feather which if it be not spoiled by some wet from without happening to it by the levity of its own Substance with the help of a gentle Breath is as it were naturally raised up on high and to the Heavens But if it be aggravated with the Accession of any wet it is not only not raised up to any Aerial Flights by its natural Mobility but will be depressed down to the very Earth by the weight of the Wet received So also our Mind if it be not aggravated with contracted Vices and Worldly Cares or corrupted with the Humour of noxious Lust being lifted up as with the natural Advantage of its Purity will with the least Breath of Spiritual Meditation be elevated on high and forsaking low and Earthly things will be transported to those which are Heavenly and invisible So that we are very properly admonished by our Lord's Precepts See that your Hearts be not at any time over-charged with Gluttony Drunkenness and the Cares of the World Luk. 21.34 And therefore if we would our Prayers should pierce not only the Heavens but what are above the Heavens let us take Care to raise our Mind purged from all Earthly Corruptions and cleansed from all Dregs of Passions to its hatural Sublimity that so our Prayer may ascend to God dis-burthened of all Weight of Corruption cap. 4. The Intention of a Monk ought always to be fixed in God by whom even a small Separation from that Chief Good is to be accounted a present Death and most pernicious Destruction And when the Mind comes to be settled in such a Tranquility or loosed from the tyes of all Carnal Passions and the Intention of the Heart doth most tenaciously adhere to that One Chief Good then doth it fulfill that of the Apostle Pray without Intermission 1 Thess 5.17 and In every place lifting up pure Hands without Anger or Disputings 1 Tim. 2.8 For the Sense of the Mind if I may so say being drench'd in this Purity and reformed from the Earthly Filth to a Spiritual and Angelick Likeness what-ever it