favours done to reputed Saints from plain Fanaticisme Again we contend also that all obscure language in Divine matters and such things as are mysterious and difficult to be vnderstood ought not therfore to be exposed to sport and Scorn as savouring of Enthusiasm or madnes or as affronting and taking away the vse of Reason a thing these men much talk of but never reasonably do this against Church-authority For such things they may be as are above the ordinary comprehension of Reason or most men's Experience and the vnintelligibleness of them may lye in the sublimity of the matter not in the expression And it hath bin a long observation that the plea of Reason hath bin the common practice of Sects and is now of the Socinians as Faith is the thing especially called for by the Church If then the language of our Mysticall Divines savours of Fanaticism I see not how severall passages in the Scripture do not run the same risk and may not be also questioned for it if arraigned at the Barr of some men's Reason had they not had speciall protection from the sacred Persons that penned them Such are to name some of them S. Paul's not living but Christ living in him Not his acting but grace With him His being in travell with the Galatians till Christ was formed in them our inward and outward our old and our new Man We dead and our life hid in Christ Our being transformed in the renewing of our mind The new Man renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Our being borne of God Being borne of the Spirit walking in being led by the Spirit Our being changed into the same image with Christ. Our being made partakers of the Divine Nature A peace of God in the mind that passeth all vnderstanding Attaining a knowledge of the love of Christ that passeth knowledge by our being rooted in charity so as to be able to comprehend the breadth length depth and height thereof Filled with all the fulness of God according to the power that worketh in vs above all that we can desire or vnderstand He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit The Kingdome of God not comming with observation from abroad but within vs. If any man love me my Father and I wil come vnto him and make our habitation with him The Father in Christ and Christ in vs that we may be consummate in one That God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him and this more as the love is greater In the last dayes God's powring out his Spirit vpon all flesh so that their sons and daughters too shall Prophesy their young men see visions and their old men dream dreams The Apostles ordering 1. Cor. 14.30 That when a Prophet is speaking in the publick congregation if any thing happen to be revealed to another who standeth by that the first should hold his peace and â—biding them ver 26. for not ordering their Revelations discreetly His praying for the Ephesians That God Would giue them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation for enlightening the eyes of their vnderstanding 5. Phil. 13.15 presuming that God in good time would reveale also things to the imperfect surely by an illumination of their vnderstandings as before which the perfect already believed Davids Audiam quid in me loquatur Deus Praying with the Spirit whil'st the vnderstanding is vnfruitfull or vnedified so We not knowing what to pray for as we ought that is according to Gods will the Spirit that is Within vs helping our infirmities and requesting for vs with vnspeakable or vnexplicable groanes The gift of the Holy Ghost inexplicable Saint Paul reckoning Three parts of a Man Body Soule and Spirit His being present in Spirit when absent in Body The Word of Gods Word dividing Soul and spirit Sive mente excedimus Deo sive sobrij sumus vobis Benjamin adolescentulus in mentis excessu what language is found here as well as in the Mystick Divines for one of those men's humor to have made sport with had it not bin Scripture Mean while I do not deny but many of the expressions may be in some lower degree verified of every person that is regenerate and in the state of Grace all such having an Vnion with God less or more by his Spirit and his extraordinary Grace importing only an higher degree thereof yet much more properly and in their full sense they seem only applicable to those who have attained to some Measure of Christian Perfection and therfore Divines are not to be censured that vnderstand these chiefly described in them in whom they are most eminently fulfilled To conclude Enthusiasme or Fanaticisme is not the speaking things hard to be vnderstood S. Peter saith S. Paul did so nor yet the pretending high and mysterious effects visions Revelations c. for all these we believe may be and are often wrought in Gods Saints by the Holy Spirit and his speciall presence in their Souls and that we say in a much higher and more admirable way then any of Satans infatuations can imitate or ascend to But Fanaticisme is a false pretence of these or the like when having no just ground to be credited 4. FOr the discerning of such Illusions proceeding from Satan from the true inspirations of Gods Holy Spirit we affirme that many notes and observations there be whereby they may be known if not certainly whether Divine as to their original where no spirit of Prophecy or miracles yet whether containing truth and advancing vertue as to the matter and whether any way noxious and hurtfull either to the person that receives them or others And this is abundantly sufficient Now for these notes of discerning them I need referr the Reader to no other Book then to the Doctours Martyr Sancta Sophia though he was pleased to take no notice of them there in the Preface from § 29. to § 35. again in the third Treatise p. 268. from § 9. to § 22. Where after directing a strict observation to be made concerning the Person Whether 1. viciously inclined 2. arrogant and proud or 3. curious 4. or much addicted to melancholy there are particularly cast off and marked out for Satanicall Illusions among others these All such pretended inspirations or revelations as doe inuite the person to say or do any thing contrary to the Catholick Faith Obedience Humility peace and Vnity Honesty Purity and any other Divine vertue but especially contrary to the Catholick Faith or Obedience for instaÌ„ce as the attempting to make any new and seditious reformations as likewise When the persons obstinately belieue these revelations to be of God after they have bin condemned by experienced Superiors and Directors All such I say are condemned for Satanicall Illusions which cuts all the nerves of all such pretended Revelations as can any Way disturbe the
any Ingenuous Reader for most of them it seems labour lost Passive Vnions are sufficiently explained before § 30.31 called Passive not that when herein a Soul contemplates God she may not be said in some sort Active but Because when God is pleased so graciously to communicate himself to the Soul the Soul is taken out of her own disposall and doth and must see and think only what God will have her and this no longer then his good pleasure is such Neither can any dispositions or preparations that the Soul can vse assuredly procure it Thus Sancta Sophia explains this word And the Expression is secured by such like Scripture language Qui Spiritu Dei aguntur Not I live but Christ in me Not I work but the Grace of God which is with me Not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you So the Spirit that is in vs said to intercede for vs with groanes vnutterable So the Naturall actions of S. Pauls Soul seem wholy suspended when it knew not so much as whether it was in or out of the Body Hierotheus saith S. Dionysius Areopag was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the Diuine influences admit degrees and the Soul is said to be more Passive as the Holy Spirit is more operative and so in it's strongest and most extraordinary workings the Soul is hindred at least from reflecting on it's own action seems to it self not to act at all as in a great intention of the Mind the actions of our senses what we then see or hear are not at all observed Divine Inaction is in plain English the acting of God or his Spirit in vs which in the perfect is more extraordinary sensible and manifest A Superessentiall life of the Soul Superessentiall is a composit as also many other words with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added to them vsed much by Dionysius Areopag or the Ancient Author of those works signifying no more then Superlative a life of the Soul much advanced by Gods Spirit above it's naturall operations and apprehensions Deiformity and Deification are words not of late only but Anciently vsed signifying an vnion with God not in Essence but by Grace and this vnion still more intimate as the Grace more extraordinary secured by like Scripture language For Deiforme Renewed to the Image of our Creator Changed into the Image of our Lord Transformed by the renewing of our Mind For Deification Partakers of the Divine Nature and of the Powers of the future World The Lord and we made one Spirit Filled with all the fulness of God c. And if any of these may be communicated to the lowest ranke of Gods Saints the less may the Mysticks be blamed for applying them to the highest and most perfect The reason of the Mysticks vsing sometimes the expression of the Depth Fund that is in plain English the Bottom or Apex the Supreme Point or top of the Soul or Spirit that is the innermost or the highest part of the Soul is mentioned before viz. a double motion observed by the experienced in the Soul in Gods communicating his more special Presence and more extraordinary Graces to it as it is in Extasies and Rapts or inferiour Transports somwhat partaking thereof either one Inward or one Vpward We find in Scripture Cor altum and Excessus mentis and Heights and Depths of Love answering those and this Author may find in the Common Prayer Book A sinner repenting from the bottom of his heart and that is of his Soul and what more vsuall then to say a Man in passion and this Holy Love is such is transported above beyond beside himself yet some Mystick's there are who vse Fund to express the lower and affective part of the Soul and Apex Spiritus to express the Superior and Intellective However the impropriety of a term may be excused where the explication of it prevents mistakes Superior Intellect and Will are School-terms called so from the Supernaturalness and sublimity of the object to which some actions of these Faculties are directed Nothingness of the Creature is an expression of it's extreme litlenes compared with God And if he be all in all and I am be a name that none but himself can claim this will carry it that in some sense they are nothing that they are not It is no hard matter to shew the Apostle saying that Man is nothing If a man think himself somthing when he is nothing Gal. 6.3 The planter and the waterer both nothing 1. Cor. 3.7 And Things that are not 1. Cor. 1.18 But the Mystick's nothing chiefly is when we think them as nothing so think nothing of them as the greater Saints still do less Again there is a nothingness that may be affirmed of God also in respect of his being nothing that the Creature or any thing that we know is and whose Being as yet is better apprehended by vs negatively and by what he is not removing all the natures and imperfections of Creatures from him then positively and by affirming what he is of whom nothing that man doth or can apprehend hath the least Similitude S. Dionysius is much in this and so since him the Mysticks And the summ is 1. to instruct vs That for obtaining such an vnion with God in a more special presence thereof to devout Souls in Prayer we need not frame to our selves any curious Ideas of him who is incomprehensible and that the less we labour with the Intellect to do this the better and the less hindrance to Devotion but rather we are to contemplate him by Faith as the most beatifying object of our Love and containing in him all Perfection and to be contented with such a generall confused obscure notion of him as this life affoords 2. and also to signify that the nearer any one in such high contemplation is admitted to a fuller sight of his Perfections and Beauty the more still they are dazled and darkned with his light and are less able to express what they see The more also a Creature becoms vile vnto them and as his greatness more appears to any one the more their Smalness or Nothingness As at the farther distance we are removed from any thing the less still it shews to vs at last quite vanisheth Divine Inspirations or Illuminations and Infusions of the Holy Spirit enlightening the vnderstanding with a right apprehension and judgment of things and inspiring into the will holy desires and such as are acceptable to God and conformable vnto his will surely this Author will not deny These are frequently petitioned for in the publick Prayers of the Church Catholick and Protestant I dare not spend long time in proving them least I should incurr the censure below p. 338. Only I wonder how they came to be put here amongst non-intelligibles Must nothing be ackowledged and allowed that Fanaticks pretend to
hence is the question in the Schools An contemplatio possit consistere in solo actu voluntatis With all Divine influxes into the Soul both the intellect and will seem affected though not equally and the soul sees and tasts such celestiall delights both at once Neither are the Acts of the vnderstanding in Meditation to be conceived abstractively from all operation of the will accompanying them nor those of the will in Contemplation or fruition abstractively from any operation of the vnderstanding The common vse and not an Etymology gives law to the sense of words Else what word almost may not one make sport with Videte quoniam suavis est Dominus therefore as well gustate quoniam pulcher This said besides what is explained before I think I may securely pass on to the next Paragraph p. 333. without a just charge of having left any Roman Fanaticisme behind me Reply to page 333. The steps he sets down c. Of the steps in Order to the highest State of Perfection which this life arrives to mentioned in Sancta Sophia p. 32. 1. the first is the way of Externall and Imaginary Exercises of Prayer that is vsing the Discourse of the vnderstanding and Meditations as also Vocall Prayer then which step Sancta Sophia observes many goe no further but end their days in it that is In such Meditations is taken vp 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 supernaturall and more sensible operations of Gods Spirit in the Soul wherin God acteth more then she and which are not in her power at all to procure sooner or retain longer then God pleaseth of which much hath bin said before 4. After which vsually in the intervals of these celestiall visits do follow great Desolations of Spirit as the Experienced have described them partly arising from a 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 imagine 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 But not only this but God also sometimes withdrawes even from his greatest Saints that for some long duration of time any sensible assistance at all of his Grace leaving the Soul as it were in its pure naturalls and as if he were quite departed from it in great Aridity obscurity solitude pressure and heavines disgusted with al 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 imagine it to be caused by some great indisposition of Body as it is granted sometimes partly it may so as some begin therfore 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 deiection 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 therin and the rendring them more capable of higher favours and therfore 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 turnes 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 wherin 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 Gods Children do these vicissitudes happen but these in a higher degree to the further advanced in Perfection and the greatest Favours are preceded with greater Desolations and these ordinarily proportioned one to the other And alwais necessary less or more are such purgations and refinings of the Soul by these interiour Crosses because alwais somthing in them is amiss and as yet imperfect Our natural corruption is still producing somthing in vs to be amended and some self will and self love to be pared 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 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 quiesceree 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 S. Gregory 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 of 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 mercifull High Priest before God-and experimentally that he might compassionate our infirmities in the great Desolation he vnderwent in the garden
as the old should grow by degrees and not be made compleat in vs all at once Mention I say of some Babes and litle ones and to be fed as yet only with Milk Of strong Meat and Wisdome and higher Misteries only to be delivered to and Spoken amongst the Perfect See Heb. 5.12.13 1. Pet. 2.2 1. Cor. 3.1.2 2.6 Of Growing in grace and receiving increase from God Of the new Man being renewed day by day Of arriving to a perfect Man vnto the measure of the stature or age of the fulness of Christ Of the Apostles labouring to present every one perfect in Christ Iesus and that they might stand perfect and full in all the wil of God 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 therfore 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 Supernaturall Grace freed at the first from the former state of Mortall Sin and from the Slavery and Captivity we suffered vnder it's dominion yet hath not this Spirit as yet attained such a soveraigne Empire and Mastery over the importunate solicitations of Concupiscence and the naturall inclinations of our Will and Affections as that we do not still fall frequently into many lesser and those called 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 designes Though such actions are no way expedient for vs nor acceptable to the Holy Spirit in which now we live nor do conduce to our growth in Grace but are great hindrances thereof and though these acts contained indeed within the compass of lawful yet often expose vs to occasions of Sin Now so long as we stay here advance no further we appear but as infants and Babes in Grace It having not as yet obtained it's perfect Reigne in vs either over our Concupiscence which carries vs still into frequent venial Sins or over our nature and will which carryes vs in other matters lawful to those satisfying our natural condition But when we are come to have potestatem voluntatis nostrae as S. Paul expresseth it 1. Cor. 7.37 come once to act seldom according to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concupiscence to fall seldome into Venial sin especially with advertency and vnsurprised and the Holy Spirit to have a more absolute power over Sense Reason our own wil Propriety and Self-love as to these things lawful but not expedient when come to S. Paul's omnia mihi licent sed ego sub nullius redigar potestate and to his corpus in servitem redigo and to act more constantly according to the Spirit moving now more perceptibly in vs and giving the laW to vs when Grace is as to these non expedients also predominant and sole Mistress ordering all things without our reluctance or also with our zeale to the greater love praise honour of God and the doing of all things in order to his wil so far as it is made known to vs 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 dye in their Spiritual youth before they come to such a mature age As therfore 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 misteries it speaks of as to the supreme effects of this Grace Mysticall 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 vs. which finds so many great rewards not only in the next but this present life 2. We must know therfore That to such end this Holy Spirit received in our Regeneration assisteth and worketh in vs not only as to affording generally to all good Christians that seriously endeavour to save their Souls such internall 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 wherin they are obliged to it but also in affording vs light and ability in all indifferent actions and occurrences With which may be also joined all the Acts of Christian vertues When no necessity obligeth vs to do any of them and so When it is lawful for vs Without Sin to do or omitt them whereby we are guided to make such a choice as is more conformable to Gods Will and particular circumstances considered may much more advance vs 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 vnder pretence also of some good end but to defeat a better For the Holy Spirit excites vs and assists vs not only in doing dutyes of necessary obligation or in the avoiding what is prohibited and performing What is comanded by God vnder penalty of sin but in all these acts also that may any way tend more to Gods 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 vs is like to Concupiscence in vs the one continually exciting vs vnto 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. 17. 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 Gods children or Regenerate aguntur Spiritu are acted by the Spirit It guides vs into truth Brings things forgotten to our remembrance Gives knowledge and arguments to one vtterance and Eloquence and the power to perswade to another To another Wisdome or a good Iudgement Prudence in Gouerning in executing anothers comands To another courage and boldnes It opens mens vnderstandings and hearts and renders them docile and apt to believe What is there that is not done in vs 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 wholy managed by this Spirit as the natural is by the Soul and if not obstructed works in vs a continual growth in Grace till we come to a perfect man in Christ Therfore the Apostle exhorts his converts 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 fruitles 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 we cannot think a good thought and our Lord that We can do nothing 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 Councels and the dictate of rectified Reason are clearly discerned by vs the one to be better and more to lead to Christian Perfection then 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 vs to be the better as to our perfection is the motion in vs of the Holy Spirit and that the doing it is the doing the wil 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 vs to perfection and refuse to do Gods will when this is known to vs Whose wil it ought always to be presumed to be that we should do that which is cleare to vs 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 vs and the not hearkning 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 Counsel seldome or never accepted or asked abates the fervour and solace that there would be in prosecuting it's suggestions and leave vs guilty of much vnkindnes and ingratitude For as S. Bernard Cum hae Sancti Spiritus circa nos dispensatoriae quidem vicissitudines vigilantissime non observantur fiâ— vt nec absentem desideres nec presentem glorifices 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 vs 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 cleare 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 vs in the Scriptures That the effectual prayer of a righteous man as that of Elias auaileth much that he heareth not sinners but if any one be a worshiper of him and doth his wil him he heareth That all things whatsoever we shall ask in prayer that is Such persons not doubting but believing we shall receive them that if we abide in Christ and he in vs ask what we will and it shall be done vnto vs because indeed such ask by the Spirit of Christ who liveth in them and so ask according to Gods will That if we keep his comandements and do what is pleasing in Gods sight whatever we ask we receive of him That if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth vs and grants our requests that though we know not what we should desire or pray for as we ought that is as to temporal prosperity or afflictions or such like things of which S. Paul there speaks what therin is best for Gods glory or our own proficiency yet the Holy Spirit within vs with vnutterable groans and great ardour intercedeth for vs according to Gods will and that God knoweth its mind though not expressed in Words and granteth it's requests that the same Spirit searcheth the profound things of God and what is his will and revealeth them to vs that natural Reason is not able to vnderstand them but they many times seem foolishness to it But that the things of the Spirit are discerned only by the Spirit most of Which Texts seem to be spoken not only of our petitioning God concerning the necessary means of our or others Saluation but more vniversally of all sorts of requests concerning the things of this life and any things that are in their nature indifferent and lawfull and of his Spirit directing vs to ask and do in them what is his wil and of his granting those to vs Which may be best for vs wherein God heareth and granteth the petitions of his Saints much sooner then of others 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 Gods Spirit either illuminating somtimes our vnderstanding in discouering to it some Reasons not so well discerned or else disesteemed and thought considerable before Or somtimes more confirming to vs the judgment our own Reason made of the thing before Or some times effecting a strong and suddenly iniected inclination in the will so swayed without any preceding Reasons or discourse of the Intellect presented it Or somtimes causing an extraordinary tranquility consolation and satisfaction to accompany such our Election According to the Rule of Abbot Isaac in Cassian Cum orantes nos nulla interpellaverit hesitatio si obtinuisse nos in ipsa orationis effusione quod poscimus senserimus non ambigamus preces nostras ad Deum efficaciâ—er penetrasse where note that the Devill or any Creature cannot work so immediatly and intimatly on our vnderstanding and will as Gods Spirit doth but by the vse of phantasms
or Images of the Spirits humors 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 vse of our best Reason or others Advice without any solicitude we take either side Now in the discerning of these Divine Illuminations and inspirations from Enthusiasmes or the motions of the Good from those of our own or a Bad Spirit in these matters As any one hath attained ro a greater perfection in Prayer and Mortification and Purity of life they attain hereby a greater measure of Gods Spirit and hence it's Illuminations and inspirings in them are also much greater and stronger and more intimately effective on the Soul then any other motions from whence soever 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 vpon the Soul as that it cannot resist disbelieve or any way doubt of them that they are Supernatural and Divine So S. 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 And indeed if such interiour Divine operations Were not somtimes certainly discernable how could S. Paul be assured when he intended to preach the Word in Asia and again in Bithynia a most charitable designe 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 men's 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 itself A certain Assurance then it cannot be denyed that some at somtimes 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 somtimes 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 vnto 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 Sancta Sophia See 1. vol. p. 139. and p. 137. 4. But 4. in case such Divine inspirations be somtimes mistaken yet can no dammage 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 lawfull See Sancta Sophia 1. vol. p. 143 -2 No command of Superiours in these any way neglected 3. no neglect besides vsing 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 deuout Soul in vsing these endeavours yet relies not on them but on the directions of Gods Holy Spirit working continually in the Regenerate both by prevenient and subsequent Grace makes no sudden resolutions nor rushes hastily vpon any action but diligently hearkens first to this internal Guide what it may tell her is best desiring faithfully all naturall Passions and self-love layd aside to correspond with all it's motions the carefull observers of which with a pure intention of mind may be justly presumed seldome 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 Enthusiasme or such as any other person except by Divine Inspiration can either censure or discouer 5. Having spoken thus much from § 3. of the extraordinary and Supernaturall Graces and Favours the Illuminations and Influences of the Holy Spirit that are communicated by God to persons of greater Sanctity and practice of Prayer which do also more clearly and evidently guide them in all their actions and of the discerning of these from other Enthusiasms and Illusions In the last place I shall consider the Churches Directions concerning Prayer and Devotion the chief means of procuring all these Divine Graces which Directions this our Author censures to be such as if they were designed only to amuse and confound the minds of devout persons and to prepare them for the most gross Enthusiasme and extravagant illusions of fancy whereas indeed there is no part of a Christian's duty in which the Church by those many Doctors of hers Mysticks and others who have chiefly employed their talent and communicated their experience on this Subject hath taken more profitable pains and descended lower even to the meanest capacities nor where this displeased Author can find less ground for a quarrel Infinite are the Books written on this Divine Art of Prayer Wherein like a careful Mother she trains vp her children by certain degrees from the lowest step thereof which touches the ground to the highest which reaches to heaven knowing it to be the Foundation of all Goodnes and the Attractive of all the Divine Benedictions and Benefits She then first here in preparation for Prayer adviseth her Children to a serious endeavour to keep their conscience clear from Mortal sin or also Venial as much as humane frailty permits and to a care of avoiding the occasions thereof without which endeavour our devotions cannot be acceptable to God I mean as to the receiving from him any great plenty of his Grace And again requires at such times of Prayer a dismission of and abstraction from all secular busines Solitude and a recollection of the mind and thoughts and oblivion so much as we can of all creatures and a removing also of all hindrances that may come from the objects of the exteriour senses c. These presupposed She first begins to feed her little ones with milk and as it were to chew their meat for them giving them infinite prescriptions for all occasions of several Formes of Vocal Prayer where Novices begin and Which the most perfect also return to From these Vocal she next leads them on to Mental Prayer where their devotions may enjoy more liberty whatever way they are bent without their former confinement to set Words or Forms and where the cessation from external action renders the inward more attent and affective as experience shews and more freed from the distraction of the senses and also from the
speciall Presence of God in it Who somtimes with the touches and influences of an extraordinary Grace doth illuminate enflame and ravish the Soul and causeth in it an ineffable and transporting delight in contemplating what is shewed to it of the Divine Beauty and Perfections perceiving in itself a most ardent Love and this supernaturally infused When also are communicated to it many times celestial Secrets and Divine Mysteries and Future events by internal words and Revelation All which things are received by it with a great tranquillity and attention and cessation of the naturall vse of its Faculties Sensitive or intellectual nor seems it in its own disposal whilst it hath these touches but both doth and must see and think only what his Divine Majesty will have it and this only so long as he pleaseth Nor can any of these things by any art or industry of the Soul be attained or procured when she will but all is Supernaturall and as well aboue the operations of common Grace in vs as of Reason In which supernaturall and extraordinary Divine Impressions vpon the Soul the experienced also observe two sorts of motions in it either a very intimate Retreat and Recollection of the Soul from exteriour objects as it were into some interiour part of itself removed from the thoughts or remembrance of Creatures or worldly things which is often joined with a retiring also of the vitall Spirits more or less from the outward parts of the Body lest somtimes in such Recollection without sense motion or heat Alienatio mentis a sensibus Corporis S. Austin calls it vt Spiritui quod demonstrandum est demonstretur Such perhaps was that Extasy of S. Iohn when he is said to be in the Spirit Apoca. 1.10 or 2. An Elevation Rapt or Flight of the Soul as it were above it self and as if it were to depart presently out of the Body and the person to suffer a present dissolution Ablatio mentis as S. Bernard expresseth it Such seems that of S. Paul 2. Cor. 12. And in the expression of these supernaturall Graces and influences it is that the experienced and the Mystick Divines labour so much Touching these it is that they vse such terms of a Supernaturall life a Deiformity or Deification of a sense or fruition of Gods Presence in the Fund depth or center or innermost part of the Soul or also in the Apex or supreme point of it of Passive Vnions Where is to be vnderstood not an exclusion of all acts whatever for the souls knowing receiving assenting to such things cannot be withour some action of it and that not only of the Will but intellect Quod sentit affectus intelligit Intellectus but an exclusion of any discursive and laborious acts and any primacy moving of it self to action Which terms if hard to be vnderstood so are the matters they would express which have somthing of S. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them and to be throughly apprehended only by the experienced And for him that saith he vnderstands them not me thinks S. Austins advice writing of a very difficult matter the Trinity is very seasonable Ille qui se ista non intelligere conqueritur secum agat votis studiis ut proficiat non cum Ecclesia agat querelis convitiis ut taceat Especially considering that these things are not handled by Catholick Divines as a part of the Churches Rules of Devotion but as a reward of it and as things only in Gods not our power Yet these rich Gifts of God and pregustations of the state in the world to come the Church neglects not to recommend vnto her Children and to signify the many noble effects and powerfull influences that such favours have upon those that receive them as to the compleating them in all Christian Perfection that is in the perfect Love of God all these Divine Inactions if the Reader will pardon the word tending still to a clearer manifestation of God to the Soul and so to the wounding it more deeply with the loue and longing after him and after the suffering and doing any thing with all alacrity for him and the Graces that are received disposing vs still to others higher if the Soul correspond to them so as she ought Si perseveravero saith S. Bernard speaking of these favours huic Dignattoni dignis quod in me est Affectibus actibus respondere gratia Dei apud me vacua non fuerit etiam mansionem apud me faciet Pater Filim She neglects not to tell them also that though vpon no preparations and predispositions in vs whatever such favours do necessarily follow yet that without these God doth not usually do them that Active contemplation is the ready way to Passive and that though in the higher degrees of them they are but rare and given to few yet in some inferiour degree they are communicated to many And how ever that an Active Contemplation and Fruition of God by love spoken of before and the great advancement in all Christian vertue we gain thereby if we be admitted to no higher things of which true Humility always esteems it self vnworthy is a sufficient recompence in this world of any pains of ours in purging of our life and close attendance on God in Solitude and Prayer that is vndertaken for it Lastly since such Christian Perfection chiefly consists in and depends vpon the exercise of the Affective part of the Soul and not on high knowledge or Speculation therfore the Church recommends it as attainable by all Sexes and conditions and equally encourageth all in the prosecution of it Non enim as S. Gregory observes Contemplationis Gratia Summis datur minimis non datur sed saepe hanc summi saepe minimi saepius remoti id est a curis mandanis aliquando eam conjugati percipiunt Of these Supernaturall and extraordinary Graces and Caresses received from God before I conclude this generall Discourse I have thought fit here to sett down some passages I have met with in the Fathers because some Reader perhaps may receive from their experiences benefit and encouragement for a more diligent practice of Prayer And he who hath no further curiosity to informe himself herein may omitting them passe on to § 40. Of these then thus speaks S. Austin Confess l. 10. c. 40. Lux es tu permanens quam de omnibus consulebam audiebam docentem ac jubentem Et sepe istud facio Hoc me delectat ab onnibus actionibus necessitatis quantum relaxari possum ad istam voluptatem refugio Et aliquando intromittis me in affectum mulâ—um invsitatum introrsus ad nescio quâ—m dulcedinem quae si perficiatur in me nescio quid erit quod vita ista non eriâ— Sed recido in haec aerumnosis ponderibus resorbe or solitis teneor multum fleo sed multum teneor Tantum consuetudinis sarcina degravat Hic