Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	soul_n	word_n	7,065	5	4.2672	3	false

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

Here is also a secret deceite to be avoyded a risi●g from a most abstract Image appearing when the Soule having lost all Images of all things seene heard and knowne assaies to behold God as huge and of a vast circumference as that o● the skye c. opening and extending the Minde to such a bignesse yea rejoyces when shee attaines t● behold him Without which manner of seeing him shee thinkes he eye-sight of no worth and strive in that manner to behold his Infinity forgetting that object to bee ● forme and Image rather carved ou● by the soule ●er selfe then so bei●● of it selfe which is not the absolute Truth nor God And though in the Interiour Will this Image was good and not to be despised yet here God is to be seen more essentially and that by himselfe and the finall Annihilation of our selves Let not therefore the devout reader forget in these Imperfections as well past as following of what thing and manner of Life we speak i. of Contemplation in the Life Supereminent An eighth Adversary to the perfection of this Life is to seeke God otherwise then by simple Remembrance For such a seeking presupposes absence since none seekes what hee knowes hee has already And this Contemplation presupposes the presence of God Yet this Imperfection arises from want of Faith whilst we beleeve not that we have not what wee seek Nor doth this Imperfection onely proceede from some darknes but it also produceth others causing that not to be found which is sought All things have their time saith the Wise man A time to seeke a time to finde a time to sow a time to reape And as he that alway sowes and plowes can never reape so he that should alway seeke God by practick Life shall never enjoy him by fruitive For if the Causes be ill directed they not only take not their effects but doe also produce the Contrary As alway to sow not only stayes Corne from comming up but also begets barrennesse The same befals in this seeking of God To remedy this Imperfection God is here to be found and enjoyed by losse and Annihilation of our selves in simple Remembrance of him And the ninth Imperfection is here to long for God as one absent and that for reasons not unlike the former For what is in prayer and desire is not also in possession But here God gives himselfe to be possest and is not therefore to be desired as absent but en●oyed as present This Desire also hath Act hindering compleat Annihilation A tenth Imperfection is to be caryed to God with an Imaginary Thinking both because that should not be and also because it cannot be It should not be for such an Act with stands Annihilation It cannot be because God is wholly Supernaturall c. but our thinking is Naturall God is greater and above us Our Thinking lesse and below us God therefore is to bee beheld but not to be thought on Imaginarily There is also an Imperfection in easting a Looke as it were upon God somewhat more then a simple Remembrance of him as if hee were in some other place and not in the Soule and the Soule in him as a fish in the Sea or a bird in the Fire And therefore the souls Look ought to be as suffering she ever remaining in her Nothing i. It should be extracted by this Divine Glory not from her selfe For as the Sunne darts his rayes into any transparent Body as water glasse or crystal from thence provoking towards himselfe a certaine reflex Light So God who descends his Beames and sight into the soule doth also rebound from her a mu●uall aspect towards himselfe But as that reflected Light is not the waters but the Suns which piercing and inlustring the same is flashed towards the Sun himselfe So the Light of this Eye-sight is not the soules but Gods And being Spirit Life and Light it through-breakes the soule sublimes her and so is reflected on God fixing the soul therewith which is thus made one with God as himselfe saith The Word which goeth out of my mouth shall not return empty to me but whatsoever I will it shall a●complish and prosper in them to whom I send it For as in a Bodily sight an object sends forth the forme or species to the eye which being instantly reflected upon the eye-sight or seeing-power so toucht closes therewith and knitting it selfe thereto flyes with it to the object it selfe from which the forme was sent forth and so the sight of the same object is drawn out So is it in spirituall sight wherein God shoots out his God-like Light and his Will into the soule which re-shining to God the soule which so tasted their divine touch oned therewith flyes away with the same And lastly none of the least Imperfections is a too busie observance of these such other Imperfections which now possesses the soul and makes her Active because they either are or at least containe some Action Wherefore in checking them 't is faulty to be too much intangled but only to doe it quicke with a twinkle of the eye swift as Lightning All these Imperfections therefore contend against Annihilation Not that so many points doe draw any Multiplicity upon this Exercise For how many soever the Imperfections be yet are they all done away by one only point and perfection For as they all spring from one head To be so are they al vanisht by the contrary Not to be For as all Imperfections assemble where Man is somewhat so doe al perfections flourish where hee ends to be For then God onely lives and reignes And if to any these seeme no Imperfections 't is because they lye too close If any thinke them smal 't is because the great disadvantage they bring is unknown And lastly if any take them for perfections 't is even because they consider not what exercise wee have in hand which is Contemplation in the Life Supereminent where saith Bon. all Intellectuall workings are esteemed blots and hinderances For as 't is high so it requires rules answerable to that height Wherefore the Rules of the Active or Illuminate Life or Meditations therein doe not suite therewith for they be too low as on the other side the Rules of this pertaine not to that because they be too high CHAP. XI Of a two-fold kinde of Annihilation Their difference And how they make to a two-fold Love BEcause this last Chapter shews Annihilation only by ceasing from all acts vanishing of Images doing nothing and rest from all Motion in God And forasmuch as nathlesse 't is required that some times such Acts and workings must be used such Images admitted and that we must have such Motions in renewing of workings in Meditation in studies preaching practise of the passion c. it therefore stands us upon to point out a way to annihilate such acts as also to shew the practise thereof For though we have shewed that those Acts as well as all other

A Bright STARRE Leading to Centering in Christ our perfection Or a Manuell entituled by the Authour thereof The third part of the Rule of Perfection Wherein such profound Mysteries are revealed such mysterious imperfections discovered with their perfect cures prescribed as have not been by any before published in the English Tongue faithfully translated for the common good For hee that is entered into his rest hee also hath ceased from his owne workes as God did from his Heb. 4. 10. London printed by M. S. and are to be sold by Henry Overton in Popes-Head Alley 1646. The Epistle to the Reader Christian Reader AS in the world all men are n●t of an equall height and stature of body but some taller some shorter some weaker some str●nger so neither are all of one just even pr●portion in spirituall light str●ng●h of faith in the kingdome of Christ some are dwarfs of Zacheus his pitch some againe of Saul's port taller by the head and shoulders then his brethren so the Kingdome of Christ some are babes some are children some are young men some are Fathers every one according to the measure of the gift of Christ Therefore that the bruised reede may ●ot be broken nor the smoaking flaxe quen●hed till judgement bee brought forth to ●ictorie there m●st not new wine bee put ●nto old bottles nor new cloth patcht to ●ld garments neither yet must either bee ●eglected but both carefully preserved by ●e suting of each to other for that purpose the scribe instructed unto the kingdome of heaven hath in his treasury things new an ●old not onely old nor onely new but old and new able to fit each size and to sute to each capacity not onely beating one base nor harping blindly on one string nor ever puzling about the first rudiments an● foundations of the Doctrines of Christ stinting the progresse of them to perfection by tying them to one forme and keeping them to one lesson being either unable or unskilfull to top up the work and to bring Israel not onely out of Egypt over the red sea through the barren Desart and serpentbiting wildernesse over Jordan into Canaan but there to give them a Sabbath of rest and cessation from all their troubles going on from strength to strength fro● faith to faith from light to light sorting his dispensatio●s to the sutable capacitie● of all sorts that none may goe empty away driving gently the tender little ones th● females great with young bearing also an● suckling the insant helplesse babes in th● warme bosome of the spirit of tender lov● giving milke to babes and strong meate t● men able to digest the same their wits being exercised to discerne both between go● and evill The waters issuing from under the threhold of the Temple at the first thousand ●aces measuring were but to the anckles ●hallow for children at the second casting of the line it was to the knee thence to the chin and at the last unpassable shewing the varieties of sweetest delights and soul-solacing comforts adapted and squared forth for every degree stooping to the meanest capacity yet not there leaving them where it findes them but training trading them along till it hath brought them to the profound depths where the vessells of greatest capacity may flote as the arke on the top of the Deepe I having therefore observed the ever to be bewailed non-proficiency of many ingenuous spirits who through the policie of others and the too too much modesty and timerity of themselves have precluded the way of progresse to the top and pitch of rest and perfection against themselves as being altogether unattainable and have shortned ●he cut with a Non datur ultra and are become such who are ever learning but ●ever come to the knowledg of the trueth ●otwithstanding that no lesse true then old ●aying Not to goe forward is to goe backe●ard P●ore soules after many yeares tra●ell being found in the same place going the same pace without fruit as if they had reacht the highest at the first and that there were not yet more excellent things heighths lengths breadths depths of sweetnesses and fulnesses beyond measure in the Abysse of the Divine Vision That therefore the brightest Sun might not be clouded and the cleerest glory vailed from the eyes of poore suiters I have been induced to attempt the publishing of this most excellent and spirituall piece of incomparable price to the use and view of the more common and vulgar people in their owne Mother tongue not doubting but the light breaking forth it shall finde entertainment and leade and cause to grow up as calves in the stall It 's true the argument is perfection high hard and indeede almost unheard of amongst us though the Apostles practice in himselfe Phil. 3. 14. and 15. and precept unto the Hebrewes cap. 6. 1. all things ●end to perfection groane after perfection are at rest in perfection and are restlesse till perfection And truly the method is so orderly the arguments so convincing and the experience thereof so insensibly penetrating th● secrets and inwards that I doubt not but upon the due and serious consideration hereof many shal fall downe and say Surely the Lord is in it or as Jacob Surely the Lord is and was in this though I knew it not but I must admonish thee that this is the third and last part of The rule of Perfection and therefore beginnes where they end this is as the uppermost step in Jacobs Ladder this end reacheth into the heavens as the other hath it's foot fastened on the earth this is the top of our ascent to God the other the lowest of his descent to us The first is called the exteriour will consisting in all practices and exercises of the outward man in full latitude to the law of God The second is called the interiour will con●aining of and consisting in contemplation and sweetest meditation of the inner-man whereby the soule hath delitious touches and tasts amorous imbraces and twinings of armes with her love yet is this but the act and image of the soule being so farre below and short of God and his reall possession as the image is short of God and imagination short of fruition The third is called essentiall will which is ever practised in the life supereminent where not man but God acts lives and is and all other beings as false are annihilated by him then and there alone is God all in all This first second and third part may ●e compared to the outward inward and inmost Temple all might enter the first court so must all enter the first part the practicall obedience of the outward man none but the Priests might enter the inner so none but those that are made Priests and Kings to God can enter the second part which is the interiour will practised in spirituall and Divine meditations Into the third none entered but the High Priest Jesus Christ so none can enter into this

know that manner of Action to be holy and commended in Spirituall Life as Aspirings and other Gestures of that kinde yeelding a Sensible Comfort And therefore since it seems to do them so much good they forsake not the use thereof though in their hearts they well know that those same be great Impediments in this Life as also all the other defects and failings which usually we meet with in our Comtemplation and Union from which they bee never quite freed how subtilly soever the same have winded in and hid themselves That therefore we may returne to our purpose the soul how highly soever inlightned and seated in lofty contemplation yet straight discovers here some wandrings and imperfections exceeding secret which blown away shee followes her Bridegroomes Lure with a stronger Mount and swifter Motion pursuing the threed of the Divine Wil before drawn into practise in the first and second part more essentially And these imperfections be three The first is a too much boy ling of the desires and fervours in the Soule which savours too much of Action disturbs the sweet peace and quiet Rest of her Bridegroome in her and crosses his sole ful and perfect working and absolute soveraignty over her where-through shee neither lets her selfe be perfectly illuminate nor rises to the rosie kisses and chaste embraces of her Lover but remains as it were writhen down into her selfe The second is a certain hidden thin and unknowne Image of the Divine Will which the Soule retaines vailing her from seeing it essentially The third is that shee does not instantly behold her Bridegroome as really present and more-present then her self and more within her then her selfe and more shee then her selfe but as one resiant in Paradise or some other-where more remote from her then she from her selfe whence it was that neither so lively faith nor so firme hope nor so ardent Love nor so ravishing entercourses past betweene them as otherwise should befall Yet look I not that she should perfectly discern all these failings till shee have reached the following degrees because they can hardly be perceived till they be corrected by the Divine Spirit And these three Imperfections doe directly oppose the three following points and perfections handled in the three next Chapters And therefore we will treate of them al together that the one may remedie the other The Second Point CHAP. 5. Of the too much Boyling of the Desires and of the flowing of the same Desires into God Where is shewed a simple and essentiall rise of the Minde T Is not my purpose by this too much boyling of the Desires to reprove those sacred Desires which in God are found in his Being or so far forth as they be ordered aright but so far as they are ill ordered or have some complement annexed which hinders their fulnes perfect consummation Deification free entry spentnesse and dying in God This hinderance is no other but the too much boyling of them 1. Active Active I say excluding the passive which is ever still without noise without Acts profound and godlike But the Active on the other side impatient unconstant superficiall too much smelling of Man and of the nature and operation of Man And this twofold species of the Desires may fitly be resembled to two waters whereof the one is muddy bubling and full of murmur yet but shallow the other cleare smooth and still yet extream deep Therefore this boyling of the Desires though good in the Beginginning is here to be rejected Not that good desires are to be refused but their Imperfections Not that we should forsake them but perfect them nor yet lose them but refine and fulfill them in God For as seed is not lost because cast in his place but changed and multiplied as we see in a graine of corne that it perisheth not though thrown into the ground but is changed and encreased So neither doe good Desires perish when they be terminated in God but are purified multiplied and perfected And as the grain of corne unlesse it first corrupt and dye bringeth not forth Increase So neither doe good Desires ever take their effects i. Union and Transformation unlesse they first be exhausted or fal sound asleep in God Whence is that saying of our Saviour Except a grain of corn falling into the earth dye it bringeth no fruit But if it dye it bringeth much fruit As also at first the graiue is needfull so in the end it must needs corrupt that wheate may grow up 'T is thus with good Desires and their Annihillation that they may obtaine their Union with God But as in this corruption the grain is improperly said to be corrupted but rather to be altered or changed into Corne So also wee say improperly that these good Desires are nothing but rather changed and transformed into Union Howbeit as the graine is never at length returned the same but remaines for ever transformed or altered into Corne as into his effect and last end and perfection So neither are these good Desires ever after to be begun again but to persevere transformed into Union as into their effect and crowne of compleatnesse Lastly as the grain is not to be cast in every earth nor at al times but very carefully both commodiousnesse of place and opportunity of season is to be observed In like manner good desires are not every where to be annihilated but in God alone Nor yet in every exercise but only in that of the Union Nor yet sodainly in the beginning but in the time allotted for that purpose which is even after the Exercise of the Active Life well drawn into practise is accomplisht Where plainly appeares how much they are blinded that thinke they must alway be doing and never rest from such fervent Acts Yearnings And much more they that in such manner of working imagine the true Union to be placed and condemn the contrary for faulty and stilnesse for nothing worth which is flat contrary to the doctrine of Dionysius before cited Chap. 2. who also saith in another place That our Intellectuall workings must be cut off that we may send in our selves so much as may be into the Superessentiall Shine But the Soul shal cure this failing and impediment in her Journey and found Union by emptying of her fervours into God Not that she must work any thing but onely suffer such working The Emptying here of the burning Desires into God is the exchanging of the practicke Love with the fruitive or a finall rest and full satisfaction of the desires in God where the Desire is swallowed up and passes into possession This word emptying intimates two things 1. Death and Life or Losse and Gaine Because inasmuch as the Desire flowes out of the Soule 't is extinct and dies but inasmuch as 't is ended in God it receives more Increase and lives more then ever before Therefore I listed not use the word Annihilation as if they were made nothing in God But

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

should be Divine Secondly because it moves us to produce Acts and consequently to be but causes not Annihilations Thirdly because it Clouds and fumes up Exhalations betweene GOD and the soule Thirdly I call it habituall under which word is much comprized and very remarkable which is that it ought to bee continuall without ceasing or interruption that so wee may ever behold this Infinite of Nothing and All which though it seem hard to doe yet that it may be done two Reasons shall confirme One is that as an Angel though hee be upon earth yet for the home●inesse he hath to his place is said to bee in heaven So this Light and Faith though sometimes they doe not actually see this Nothing and this All yet through the disposednesse wherein they accustome to behold them they alwayes persevere in the sight of them And as an Angel in the twinkle of an eye mounts from earth to heaven So this Light and Faith in an Atom's time reach the actuall contemplation of God and this nothing And as an Angel so return'd is counted to have been in heaven as it were from the beginning and so is verified that Say of our Saviour Their Angels doe alway behold the face of my heavenly Father So also this Light when it actually sees that Mystery even when they forget and seem to be distracted Fourthly I add which Reaso● helps i. the first point befor● mentioned which is Knowledg● grounded on Reason Philosophy the Fathers and holy Scripture● Examples All which arguments are drawne to this word Reason whereby this Faith is assisted And this contradicts not what wee said before that this Faith excludes all Reasoning for I spake this concerning the second point touching the practise of Annihilation the which must be free from all multiplicity of Discourses But here I speake of the first point Knowledg which is strengthned by reason and discourse I add which experience ratifies and confirmes i. when the soule div'd and drown'd in this Infinite sees her selfe brought to nothing For thus her Light and Faith are much encreased so that it shall afterwards bee very easie for her to believe this Annihilation and by this light to dive her selfe deeper and deeper therein Sixtly I say it comes not under sense The reason is because as the understanding is not subjacent nor tyed to any Organ so neither is this Light which pertaines to the understanding whence it followes that it falls not under sense because no Might of the soule can feele without its owne Organ Seventhly I affirme that this Faith and Light resist sense For they directly fight against it What Sense affirmes they deny Sense saith such or such a thing is which Faith and Light in respect of Gods presence say is not Eighthly I place this Faith in the Crowne of the Soule because that place is furthest from the Senses and nearest to God and it is the very top of the Soule Ninthly I say It beholds God without Meane because 't is not hindered by sense or Sensible things but stands free and cleere from them all Touching the second point this Remembrance is a certaine Inspiration Illumination Touching or Out-breake of Divine Light which strikes the Soule and quicker then Lightning smites rowses shews her where shee is even lost in this All and in the Armes of her Dear And thus by the furtherance of this Remembrance the soule mounts her selfe when she seemes distracted from the Actual sight and Remembrance of God But note well that I call it a Remembrance and not Inturning for two Reasons First because turning in stirres Action such as this Remembrance hath scarce any by reason of the exceeding purity nakednes and simplicity Secondly because such In-turning presupposes Out-turning and Distraction which befalls not in this Remembrance because it nothings all Distraction whatsoever Againe I call it Remembrance because it consists in an act of the soule so much as in the divine working upon her not proceeding from her but from God Thirdly because it changes not the state of the soule making her nearer to the Divine Being nor the Divine Being nearer to her but onely lets her see where in what degree and state she is even in this All Alway presupposed that shee neglect not her duty in this practice Fourthly because 't is swift and passes quicker then Act. Fiftly because the soule hath it before she can think Nor can she looke so suddenly as she hath it againe And that because of the habit of Light and Faith wherewith she is endowed CHAP. XIII Of the Imperfections or Impediments of Active Annihilation THE practise of this Annihilation will appeare more clearely by opposing thereto the failings and impediments thereof And therefore we will here discusse the same And first 't is an imperfection to doubt of the Reall presence of God or to believe the same doubtingly or with a languishing and sleepy faith Secondly not to live by this faith i. to sticke at things as if they were something not waking to behold this lustre and glory of the Bridegroom and everlastingly to embrace him who is not onely knowne to be present but of all things only present before whom they all vanish and cease to be esteemed for any thing Thirdly to believe the Senses and let them rule over the Light Reason and Faith To listen to them since they be lying and bring in death whose windowes they be Nor by them can there be any way to Life inasmuch as this Life far transcends them Lastly since 't is they wee here fight with to bring them to nothing therefore in their owne cause they can be no Judges but must dye and be nothing'd Fourthly to shun any necessary Worke outward or inward for feare of Distraction For therein appeares the error Darknesse and failing of such Annihilation in accounting that worke to be somewhat where indeed 't is nothing And surely to him that takes it for somewhat 't is somewhat indeed and therefore not a little to be feared But if his Anihilation were perfect the worke were nothing nor worth his feare Yea he that so abandons a necessary worke sustaines double disadvantage and incurres a double blindnesse First on the things which to him is turned into Darknesse And secondly on the Feares part which with the stroke raises obscurity Wherein they faile exceedingly who desired to doe any thing repine and excuse themselves deluded under a painted cloak of giving themselve● to the Spirit And so they run away from that which they say they seeke i. from God who is in that worke and draw on themselves a triple darknesse and stumbling blocke 1. Worke. 2. Act. 3. Their owne will and Disobedience Fifthly to adjourne a simple Conversion to God which often befalls those who having any outward worke or any Meditation in hand thinke they cannot come to God till the worke be done which manner of doing contains two failings One that in this work they were not first united