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
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
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
nothing of some I know now Living whose number I pray God increase and make them perfect and compleat in all Graces and Vertue to his Honour and Glory and the Happiness of this Church and Nation OF THE Antiquity Tradition and Succession of Mystical Divinity Among the GENTILES FROM THE Testimony Confession OF AN Eminent Adversary AS Adam was the common Parent of all Man-kind from the Creation so was Noah the common Parent of all Man-kind who have lived since the Flood And of Noah it is recorded that he was a just Man and perfect in his Generations and that he walked with God Gen. 6.9 And that he was 600 years Old when the Flood of Waters was upon the Earth Gen. 7.6 From whence we may reasonably believe that he could not but be well acquainted with all the Knowledge of his Ancestors And what this Walking with God doth imply we may understand from the rest of the History and the Apostles Observation Heb. 11.7 viz. not only a careful Observance of all the General Rules of Righteousness transmitted from Adam to his Posterity but a ready Obedience and Conformity to all special Declarations and Manifestations of the Will of God to him Instances of which are those Commands of God and his Obedience thereunto in Building the Ark which undoubtedly exposed him to much trouble by Questions concerning it and to various Censures Gen. 6.14 22. He did notwithstanding according to all that God commanded him so did he and in going into it with the several sorts of Creatures Gen. 7.1 5 7 9. and in going out again at the Command of God Gen. 8.16 18. In his Walking with God in this manner he could not but besides all the Knowledge which he had received from his Ancestors learn much more by the immediate Teachings of God And it is not to be questioned but as he was instructed by his Ancestors so he was careful to instruct his Family Posterity in all necessary Knowledge amongst which that of Walking with God was some of the chief And this being so I see no reason Why other Nations should not have derived their Knowledge with their Descent directly from Noah or Why we should suppose the other Branches of his Posterity to have all received their Knowledge of Divine and Sacred things especially collaterally from that of Abraham rather than directly and lineally from their common Ancestor Noah As Noah offered Sacrifice Gen. 8.20 and Abraham offered Sacrifice so we find Priests and Sacrifices among other Nations Such was MELCHIZEDECK a Priest of the most High God Gen. 14.18 And certainly it was by Revelation from God or some Divine Means that PHARAOH understood that it was because of Sarah Abraham's Wife that the Lord plagued him and his House Gen. 12.17 as we find it expressed afterward in the like Case of ABIMELECH Gen. 20.3 6. God came to Abimelech in a Dream by Night and said to him Behold thou art but a dead Man for the Woman which thou hast taken for she is a Man's Wife And another PHARAOH acknowledged Joseph to be a Man in whom was the Spirit of God Gen. 41.38 and when he raised him to the greatest Preferment in the Kingdom gave him for a Wife the Daughter of an Egyptian Priest ibid. v. 45. And Moses Married the Daughter of a Priest of Midian JETHRO Ex. 2.16 21. who was a good Man and a Worshipper of the true God as appears Ex. 18.9 10 12. And the Means then to Inquire of the Lord were common to them and to other Nations As REBEKAH Gen. 25.22 So BALAAM Numb 22.8 9 18 19 20 23.4 went to inquire of the Lord and received Answers from Him And about this time JOB is believed to have lived who was a Holy Man and offered Sacrifices and had Visions By these Instances and others that might be noted we may understand that in those ancient times it was believed in all Nations that there were Means whereby Men and Women might come to have some Acquaintance and Communication with God and what these Means were is well worth our Inquiry That the JEWS had anciently their Schools or Colleges of Prophets we may observe in the Sacred Scriptures And though what were their Institutions and their Instructions and Orders there prescribed is not in the Scripture particularly related yet in the Particulars mentioned they seem to have been much the same with what was practised by the Ancient Christian Anchorets and Coenobites If we inquire amongst other Nations of most ancient Note and Fame for Knowledge in Divine matters the Egyptians and Chaldeans are the most considerable And the Means recommended by them do so well agree with the Mystical Divinity delivered by divers Christians that some Opposers of this Divinity think they have sufficient ground to derive it from them and supposing that a Prejudice to it have taken the pains to do it If the CHALDAICK ORACLES saith one of considerable Learning Name and Place were still extant which were frequently quoted by Plotinus Jamblicus Porphyrius and Proclus who did wholly approve the Chaldaick Theology and from them in a great measure the Fragments were preserved we might more fully manifest these things yet as they are they give us sufficient ground to draw the Fundamentals of this Mystical Divinity from thence For they speak of God's being united to the Soul by the Soul 's clasping God to herself and that not by any act of the Vnderstanding but by the Flower of the Mind the very Phrase used by Proclus and the same which the Mysticks call the Fund of the Spirit of the Soul 's being inebriated from God which Plotinus calls being drunk with the Divine Nectar and Psellus explains of Divine Illuminations and Extasies of Abstraction from the Body and extending the Mind upwards and hastening to the Divine Light and the Beams of the Father with several other passages to the same purpose And for the EGYPTIANS the same Author tells us That Jamblicus in his Book of the Egyptian Mysteries which he writ in answer to an Epistle of Porphyry to an Egyptian Priest and wherein Proclus saith that he writ like a Man inspir'd discourses at large concerning Divine Extasies and Visions and Inspirations in which he describes the Persons just after the Mystical way as no longer leading a humane Life or having any Operations of their Senses or Vnderstanding but their Mind and Soul is only in the Divine Power and not in their own being acted and possessed wholly by it Afterward he sets down the several Degrees and Kinds of those in some they have only Participation in others near Communion and in the highest of all Vnion In some of these he saith the Body wholly rests and sometimes breaks out into Singing and all expressions of Joy sometimes the Body is raised up from the Ground as M. Teresa thought hers sometimes it swells into a greater bulk and sometimes the contrary Then he lays down Rules to know Divine Inspirations by viz.
to see but Porphyry himself as he did not utterly reject this Lower and Symbolical way so he said That the Highest Perfection of the Soul was not attainable by it but it was useful for purifying the Lower part of the Soul but not the Intellectual By the Lower part he understood the Irrational which by the Theurgical Rites might be fitted for Conversation with Angels but the Intellectual part could not be elevated by it to the Contemplation of God and the Vision of the things that are true And herein he placed the utmost Perfection of the Soul in its return to and Union with God in this upper part or Fund of the Soul for the utmost the other attained to was only to live among the Aetherial Spirits but the Contemplative Souls returned to the Father as he speaks which as many other of his Notions he borrowed from the Chaldaick Theology To shew what this Intellectual or Contemplative Life was that should bring Mens Souls to this State of Perfection Porphyry writ a Book on purpose Of the Return of the Soul as St. Austin tells us who quotes many passages out of it and this particular Precept above all the rest That the Soul must fly from all Body if it would live Happy with God which is all one with Abstraction of Mind and pure Contemplative Life In that Book he complains that there was no Perfect Way yet known to the World for this End not the Indian Chaldaick or any other But what that was which he meant appears by what he saith near the end of the Life of Plotinus where he hath these Words The Scope and End of his Life was Vnion and Conjunction with God over all and four times saith he when I was with him he attained to this Vnion by an unexpressible Act of the Mind which he before sets forth by a Divine Illumination without any Image or Idea being above the Vnderstanding and all intelligible things And he saith of himself that he was once in this State of Vnion when he was 68 Years of Age. Which Holstenius understands of an Extasie he then fell into and imputes it to the depth of his Melancholy joyned with his abstracted and severe Life his frequent Watchings and almost continual Exercise of Contemplation For all these things were remarkable in him and Eunapius saith of him That he was so little a lover of the Body that he hated his being a Man and being in Sicily he was almost famished by Abstinence and shunned all Conversation with Mankind as he begins the Life of Plotinus That he was like one ashamed that his Soul was in a Body So that we find the Foundation here laid saith our Author not only for the Mystical Vnion but the Abstraction of Mind necessary in order to it and that it doth not lye in any Intellectual Operations but rather in a Cessation of these Acts is likewise expressly affirmed by Porphyry Many things saith he are said of Vnderstanding things that are above the Mind but the Contemplation of those things is better performed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 otio vacatione Intellectûs as Holstenius renders it rather by the Rest and Cessation of Operation in the Vnderstanding than by the Exercise of it as many things while a Man wakes are said of him that he does when he sleeps but the Knowledge and Perception of them is by Sleep for things are best understood by Assimilation And elsewhere he saith That our manner of Vnderstanding all things is different according to their Essence those things above the Mind are to be known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the way of unknowing and after a super-essential manner where we see the very Phrases of Dionysius used by him and in many places he speaks of the Minds abstracting and loosing it self from the Body and drawing it self nearer to the First Being of the Souls being in God of the pure and clear Light which follows the Abstraction of the Mind of the State and Life of Contemplation and the Virtues necessary thereto such as Abstinence from the Actions of the Body and from Affections to it which saith he raise the Mind to the super-essential Being And he very much disparages the Active and Political Life in comparison with this the End of one being only Mens living according to Nature but of the other Assimilation to God He that lives according to Practical Virtues is only a Good Man but he that lives the Life of Contemplation is a God From whence we understand the Deiformity of the Mystical Divines being attainable by the Life of Contemplation The Way laid down by him for Purifying the Soul is this 1. The Foundation of it is for the Soul to know it self i. e. to consider that it is in a strange place and bound to a thing of another Substance 2. Recollection or gathering it self up from the Body to be free from the Affections of it In order to which he adviseth to deny the Body in its Appetites and Pleasures and to shew as little Care of it and Concernment for it as may be by degrees to lessen all sense both of Pleasure and Pain and so to come at last to a Freedom from the Passions of the Body Then he describes the Superlative Being and saith that it is neither Great nor Little but above both and is neither Greatest nor Least but above all and that his Presence is not Topical but Assimilative and that the only Way for our Souls to recover themselves is to bring them into themselves by which Means the True Being is present with them and we become united to God Which Vnion of the Soul with God Holstenius thinks it very probable that Porphyry understood by the Book which he mentions in the Life of Plotinus called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred Nuptials because both Plotinus and he supposed this Union to be wrought by the Power of Divine Love as well as the Mystical Divines and Porphyry saith upon the reading of it some thought him Mad because there were several things spoken in it after a Mystical and Enthusiastical manner for which he was highly applauded by Plotinus Jamblicus was Porphyry's Disciple but out of him our Author recites no more than what is set down before concerning the Egyptian Mysteries but out of PROCLVS another Platonick Philosopher who lived long after these and of whom Marinus gives this Character towards the Conclusion of his Life That his Soul was so recollected and drawn into its self that it seemed to be separated from the Body while it remained in it he hath this passage In the beginning of his Theology saith he he distinguisheth between that Intellectual Faculty in us whereby we are capable of Vnderstanding the Nature and Difference of Intelligible Idea's and that which he call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Summity as the Mysticks speak and pure Fund of the Spirit which he saith is alone capable of the Divine and Mystical Vnion so he calls
Such as the Indian Brachmans or Gymnosophists the Persian Magi and the Druides who are said by some to have been as ancient as Abraham's time The Character given by Bardisanes Syrus of the BRACHMANES that they neither worship Images nor eat what is animate neither drink Wine or Beer are far from all Malignity attending wholly to God is comprehensive enough to take in both the Austerities and Contemplations of those before-mentioned But the religious Care of the Ancients to conceal their most Sacred Mysteries from the Vulgar and their communication of them principally by successive verbal Tradition is a great reason that we have so little of this in any Writings not only of the rest whom we call Heathens but even of the Jews and Christians However it is plain by what is collected by our Author that these Notions and Exercises were not first introduced by Plotinus and his Disciples but derived to them from the Egyptians and the Chaldeans And if it be inquired from what Original they derived them it will be hard to discover any other than either Abraham and his Posterity as many assert or at least the common Parent Noah so that what our Author has collected to disparage Mystical Theology being well considered will prove a notable Recommendation of it For as it is most reasonable to believe that Noah did instruct his Posterity in all things of greatest Importance to them and that the Knowledge of them was transmitted to after-Generations and in particular to the Chaldeans and Egyptians in some sort or other but to the Jews intirely and without Mixture of Corruptions so it is not to be doubted but such inquisite Persons and especially into Divine Mysteries as Pythagoras Socrates and Plato Men of such extraordinary qualifications and so favoured as they were must have obtained a compleat Knowledge of them from all these Nations and especially at that time in and after the Captivity when they seem by Divine Providence to have been carried away out of their own Countrey for that very end and purpose that God's dealings with them might be more fully known to other Nations For the Posterity of Abraham was undoubtedly designed by Almighty God to be a Light and Admonition to the Gentiles even from the beginning in all their various States in Egypt in the Wilderness in the Land of Canaan in their Captivity and in their Dispersion to this very day Nor do I at all doubt but there was so much Knowledge of Truth derived from them to other Nations as together with what is observable in the Works of God and what was received from the Common Ancestors was sufficient for the Salvation of all who used and improved the same as they ought and for the just Condemnation of the rest who neglected it And therefore if we find that these Men were acquainted with the Mystick Divinity that is with the thing whether under that Name or any other it matters not if we find undeniable Evidence of it among the Chaldeans and Egyptians and others before if we find the most ancient Christian Asceticks well acquainted with it and much or rather altogether in the Practice of it before Dionysius his Theologia Mystica was known in the World this put together is such a Constellation of concurrent and corroborating Evidences that whencesoever that Name and some Terms and Expressions which seem somewhat uncouth came in after Ages yet that the thing it self must have been derived from some very ancient common Original to those Nations and to those Christian Asceticks not from the Collections of the Adversaries of Christianity which is a meer groundless Oratorical Fiction to expose it no more than from Dionysius whom our Author doth not believe to have been so ancient but either from some of the first Converts of the Jews or which seems more likely from a Divine Conduct and Inspiration for they were many of them unacquainted with Humane Learning Nor do I see any reason to think that the Institutions of the Sons of the Prophets among the Jews were much different from the Mystical Theology which is thus opposed by our Author but rather that the same Institutions were conveyed as Secrets by Tradition to some principal Men of all Nations from the Common Parent Noah And indeed if we do but fairly that is candidly and without Prejudice consider that Account of this Divinity which our Author hath chosen for his purpose to collect from a late Author Father Austin Baker and Mr. Cressy's Preface I suppose it will sufficiently recommend it self as no improper or unlikely Method to have been used by the ancient Prophets Let the Reader judge of it saith he and so say I by these Passages in his viz. Mr. Cressy's Preface 1. The only proper Disposition towards receiving Supernatural Irradiations from God's Holy Spirit is an Abstraction of Life a Sequestration from all Business that concerns others and an Attendance to God alone in the Depth of the Spirit And a little after 2. The Lights here desired and prayed for are such as do expell all Images of Creatures and do calm all manner of Passions to the end the Soul being in a Vacuity may be more capable of receiving and entertaining God in the pure Fund of the Spirit Thus far our Author out of Mr. Cressy But I think fit to add to these two the rest of his Characters of Divine Inspirations whereby they may be distinguished from Fanaticism 3. The Prayer here acknowledged to be the most effectual Instrument to procure Divine Light is a Pure Recollected Intime or most inward Prayer of the Spirit 4. Here are no new Speculative Verities or Revelations of Mysteries pretended no private new-found-out Interpretations of Scripture bragg'd of 5. Here the Established Order of God's Church and the Vnity essential thereto is not prejudiced Yea the Inspirations expected and obtained by Pure Internal Prayer do more firmly and unalterably fix Souls under this Obedience and to this Order and Vnity 6. Our Lights teach us to attend only to God and our own Souls and never to interess our selves in any Care or Imployment about others till evidently God's Inspirations force us and External Authority obliges us thereto 7. Our Lights make us to fear and avoid all Super-eminence and Judicature all sensual Pleasures Desires of Wealth Honor c. 8. And lastly Our Lights if they should chance sometimes to be mistaken by us no Harm at all would accrue to others and not any considerable prejudice to our selves because as hath been said the Matters in which they direct us are in their Nature indifferent and are ordered only toward a more perfect Loving of God and withdrawing us from Creatures § 33. The contrary or different Characters of phanatick false Lights I pass by for brevity sake Out of Father Baker himself he produceth these amongst others Such contemplative Souls are not of themselves much inclined to External Works except saith Father Baker which our Author leaves out when
God calls them thereto by secret Inspirations or engageth them therein by Command of Superiors but they seek rather to purifie themselves and inflame their Hearts to the Love of God by Internal Quiet and Pure Actuations in Spirit by a total Abstraction from Creatures by Solitude both external and especially internal 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
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
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
with Grace excites it self to these Acts of Love and simple Contemplation Of which Practice thus St. Bernard De interiori Domo c. 14. Jam fortasse ascendisti jam ad cor tuum rediisti ibi stare didicisti nec hoc sufficiat tibi Disce habitare mansionem facere qualicunque mentis vagatione abstractus fueris illuc semper redire festina Absque dubio per multum usum quandoque tibi vertetur in oblectamentum in tantum ut absque ullâ laboris difficultate possis ibi assiduus esse quin imo poena potius tibi sit alibi quam ibi moram aliquam facere Thou hast now perhaps ascended thou hast now returned to thy Heart and hast learned to stand there Nor let this suffice thee Learn to dwell learn to make thy abode there And with whatever Wandering of Mind thou shalt be withdrawn make haste always to return thither Without doubt by much use it will at one time or other be turned to Delight to thee insomuch that without any laborious Difficulty thou may'st be there continually yea rather it will be a Pain to thee to make any stay any where else than there Thus He yet is the Soul not directed here to remain idle stupid or unactive but to return to its wonted Meditations and if neither fitly disposed for these to Vocal and set Forms of Prayer or also to Reading when the Sweetness of such Contemplation ceaseth § 28. Devout Souls advanced hitherto are directed and provoked to yet much higher flights and by their continued Devotions to prosecute a further Fruition of that Object which hath no bounds To this purpose for their Encouragement is declared to them from Persons experienced therein the many rich Rewards of Prayer the Supernatural Elevations that God is pleased to advance some Souls to who have been much practised in this Holy Exercise and the more free and familiar Manifestations of himself that he makes to them in several manners mentioned before wherein the Soul doth not now act so much as in a great Quietness Silence and rest of its former natural Operations is more immediately moved and acted by a more special Presence of God in it who sometimes with the Touches and Influences of an extraordinary Grace doth illuminate inflame 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 it self a most ardent Love and this Supernaturally infused when also are communicated to it many times Coelestial Secrets and Divine Mysteries and future Events by internal Words and Revelation All which things are received by it with a great Tranquility and Attention and Cessation of the Natural use 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 Supernatural and as well above the Operations of common Grace in us as of Reason In which Supernatural and Extraordinary Divine Impressions upon the Soul the Experienced also observe two sorts of Motions in it Either a very intimate Retreat and Recollection of the Soul from Exterior Objects as it were into some interior part of it self removed from the Thoughts or Remembrace of Creatures or Worldly things which is often joyned with a Retiring also of the Vital Spirits more or less from the outward parts of the Body left sometimes in such Recollection without Sense Motion or Heat Alienatio Mentis à Sensibus Corporis S. Augustin in Psal 67. calls it ut Spiritui quod demonstrandum est demonstretur Such perhaps was that Extasie of St. John when he is said to have been in the Spirit Rev. 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 Avolatio Mentis as S. Bernard expresseth it Such seems that of St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. § 29. These things are not handled as Rules of Devotion but as a Reward of it and as things only in God's not our Power Yet are these Rich Gifts of God and Pregustations of the State in the World to come recommended to signifie the many noble Effects and powerful Influences which such Favours have upon those who receive them as to the compleating them in all Christian Perfection that is in the perfect Love of God all these Divine Inactions tending still to a clearer Manifestation of God to the Soul and so to the wounding it more deeply with the Love and Longing after him and after the Suffering and Doing any thing with all Alacrity for him and the Graces that are received disposing us still to others higher if the Soul correspond to them as she ought If I persevere saith S. Bernard in Cant. Serm. 69. speaking of these Favours to correspond to this Condescention as much as I can with meet Affections and Actions and the Grace of God be not in vain in me the Father and the Son will ever make their Abode with me We are also told That though upon no Preparations and Predispositions in us whatever such Favours do necessarily follow yet without these God doth not usually grant 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 inferior degree they are communicated to many and however That an Active Contemplation and Fruition of God by Love spoken of before and the Great Advancement in all Christian Vertue gain'd thereby if we be admitted to no higher things of which true Humility always esteems its self unworthy is a sufficient Recompence in this World for any Pains of ours in Purging of our Life and close Attendance on God in Solitude and Prayer which is undertaken for it Lastly since such Christian Perfection chiefly contains in and depends upon the Exercise of the Affective part of the Soul and not on high Knowledge or Speculation therefore it is recommended as attainable by all Sexes and Conditions and all are equally encouraged in the Prosecution of it For the Grace of Contemplation as S. Gregory observes in Ezek. hom 17. is not given to the high and not given to the low but this do often the highest and often the lowest more often those who are remote that is from Worldly Cares but sometimes those who are in a Married State receive § 30 31. More of this he hath afterward which I shall here add as followeth 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 External and Imaginary Exercises of
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
or reproach it but plainly to assert the Truth and shew them wherein and by what Means they are misled from it 1. That the Spirit of God is the most precious and desirable thing in the World and absolutely necessary but it is to be desired principally to transform us into its own Nature to lead us into all necessary Truth to endue us with Power to overcome all our Corruptions and all Temptations and to adorn us with all those Graces which ennoble Humane Nature and raise it above its self and so make us Christians indeed and to conduct us in all the important Occurrences of our Lives but to desire it for Matters of Ostentation to glory in Divine Communications or over-earnestly seek after the Consolations through impatience of bearing the Spiritual Cross are great Signs that such Souls are either quite out of the way or have made but little Progress 2. That Satan is often transformed into an Angel of Light and therefore we must be careful to try the Spirits 3. That whatever is contrary to Sound Doctrine 1 Tim. 1.10 2.1 to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness ibid. 6.3 the Doctrine taught by the Apostles Rom. 16.17 Gal. 1.8 to the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jud. 3. cannot be from the true Spirit the Spirit of Christ 4. That such Spirits as lead into Divisions Separations and Sects lead out of the way of the True Spirit of God and whatever lead into contempt or disrespect of the Sacred Scriptures or any of the Ordinances or Institutions of Christ are certainly Spirits of Antichrist how specious soever their Pretences may be for the Conscientious and Reverend Use of these are the very Means whereby Souls are prepared for the Communication of the Spirit of God and whereby it is ordinarily communicated to them Cui Veritas comperta sine Deo Cui Deus cognitus sine Christo Cui Christus exploratus sine Spiritu Sancto Cui Spiritus Sanctus accommodatus sine Fidei Sacramento saith an ancient and eminent Christian Tertul. de Anima c. 1. To whom is Truth discovered without God To whom is God known without Christ To whom is Christ manifest without the Holy Spirit To whom is the Holy Spirit granted without the Sacrament of Faith that is Baptism 5. And more particularly in respect to some amongst us That they who assert this Doctrine without Distinction or Caution are not much to be regarded and if they be Men of Learning and may be presumed not to be ignorant what Cautions and Rules are given by Learned and Experienced Christians to distinguish the Impostures of Evil Spirits from the Conduct or Motions of the Good are much to be suspected to serve another Interest then what they pretend to those they mislead and that they all expose People to the Delusions of Evil Spirits which readily embrace such Advantages 6. That there were special Reasons why God ordered Moses to smite the Waters and the Dust with the Rod and to take handfuls of Ashes from the Furnace and sprinkle it towards the Heaven and to erect the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness c. to produce the intended effects and why our Saviour made Clay with Spittle and anointed the Eyes of the Blind Man and then bad him wash and many other such things for which perhaps no Man did nor doth know the reason and yet undoubtedly if these Orders had not been observed the Effect had not follow'd 7. That it is but reasonable that God should give Orders without declaring the Reason for Tryal and Exercise of the Subjection of the Intellectual Faculties of his Creatures and that in such Case if the Orders be not observed it is not likely the Effect should follow and that if there were no more than this Exercise of humble Submission to the Wisdom of God in the Christian Sacraments it could not be imagined to be the Spirit of Christ that should lead People to despise or neglect these Orders and Institutions of Christ But in them there is more for Instance in that of Baptism it is the Solemnity and external Act of Declaration of our Engagement in Covenant with Christ and the Refusal of it is as much as to refuse to Seal and Deliver a Bond which whoever should refuse to do and yet pretend to give Bond might be looked upon as a Knave or a Cheat and in that of the Holy Communion there is a great and Solemn Duty of Recognition of the absolute Dominion of the Father by Right of Creation and of the Son by Right of Redemption over us and all we are and have a Symbolical Oblation of our selves and of all we have to God in a Commemorative Sacrifice and Representation of the Passion of Christ before the Father as the Great Propitiation for the Sins of the World of as full import to all intents and purposes to Christians as were all the Sacrifices of the Jews to them which were but Types of the same a Holy Rite of Address to God the Father by Christ the Mediator through the Merit and Satisfaction of his Passion by which alone our Prayers and Thanksgivings have acceptance with him and of Spiritual Communion with God in Christ whereby a Divine Power and Vertue is as really communicated to Souls duly disposed as Vertue went out of him and healed the People and the Woman who touched the Hem of his Garment And these have been the Sentiments and this the most solemn and peculiar Worship of the Christian Church all over the World from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same performed every day in most of the great Churches and every Lord's-Day in all from the times of the Apostles till the last Age. It is an Ordinance of so great Honour to our Saviour and Benefit to Souls duly dispos'd that there can hardly be a greater Evidnece of the Prevalence of the Spirit of Antichrist and of Satan transformed than Disrespect and Neglect of it under pretence of a more spiritual Worship For nothing can be more grievous to that envious and malicious Spirit than to see that Passion which he had most maliciously procured to be so honoured all over the World and applyed to his Confusion and therefore hath he oppos'd it with all the Subtilty and Malice he could possible Besides for People to slight it under pretence of Christ being come to them in the Spirit is a manifest and dangerous piece of Spiritual Pride so to set up themselves above the Primitive Christians and St. Paul himself who had so great a Manifestation of the Spirit with them and therefore another pregnant Evidence of the Spirit of Delusion And if we do well consider what decays of Charity and Unanimity among Men and of Piety and Devotion to God hath in all parts attended the Neglect of this Holy Ordinance that may be another Evidence of what Spirit they are of who do neglect it whatever their Pretences be But for all Separatists
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