performance of Prayer § 8. Freedome of Spirit is another great help in this case Distractedness for the most part proceeding from worldly matters which our too great concern in them is perpetually suggesting to our thoughts He that can contrive himself into circumstances which free him from having any thing to do with the World more then to make use of the means it affords him to gain Heaven is in the happiest condition and likely to find least disturbance in Prayer He that cannot free himself from business let him free himself from all unnecessary concerns for it and settle this judgment firmly in his Soul That reason permits him not to be farther concern'd cern'd for worldly affairs let their importance be what it will than as they depend on him That success is out of his power and depends not on him but Providence to which he should contentedly resign it and must whether he be content or no That his part and all the share he has in any Action is to use his endeavours according to the best of his skill That when he has allotted the time which is necessary for this and imploy'd it as well as he can he has done all he has to do or can do in these matters and ought to be concern'd no farther but is now at liberty to employ the time allotted for Prayer in the Best manner Likewise That there is no business which takes up so much time as not to leave sufficient for Prayer if negligence more than business do not hinder and the like But above all let him still remember that whatever other business he have or can have and I do not except any not love to Parents care of Children the strongest and most rational tyes to the nearest and most dearest Relations nay the pursuit of things most necessary even of Livelyhood of Cloths and Meat is of no importance in comparison of this If this succeed not he is undone and that Eternally however he thrive in others And if this succeed no miscarriage in any or all the rest can hinder him from being Eternally Happy He that lives gloriously and with full Satisfaction of all his desires is wretched if he go at last into Hell and after his short dream of Happiness wake into a horrid and never ending real misery And he who lives despised and scorn'd and dyes starved with cold or hunger is happy if he go to heaven and find his short and now ended suffrings swallowed up in infinite Bliss So that in truth to amuse our selves with what happens in this life to the prejudice of what is to come hereafter is a folly infinitly more senceless then what we can fancy most ridiculous § 9. This Freedom of Spirit is a Disposition so highly conducive to Devotion that it ought to be preserv'd even in the immediate means to it I mean in our Prayers and reading devout Books in case they be not obligagory or that after a deliberate consideration with the assistance and advice of our Spiritual Director it appears not that we have already made choice of the best and see that others are improper or less beneficial For there are many good Souls so strangely fixt by a habituated Custome of saying such and such Prayers that they fall into Scruples if upon occasion they hap to omit or change them and yet let them examin their own thoughts to the bottom they can discover no reason or ground of such a Scruple but the aukwardness of breaking a longinur'd Custom And to such persons it seems very advisable in my judgment that they omit them in very good occasions or with good advice change them that so freeing themselves thus from the tyrannous slavery of Custome and the biggottery of irrational fears they may inure themselves still to follow Right Reason in what they do and no other motives of which they can give no account which is indeed to assert and preserve the just Liberty of Spirit due by the Laws of Nature and Grace where no contrary Duty or Obligation does restrain it § 10. There are divers reasons why we should not always use the same Prayers and run still in one track One is because a perpetual custom hinders our attention to the sense and due penetration of the words in which chiefly consists the Fruit or spiritual advance by Prayer Another is the irrational scruple as was said of leaving off what meer Custom has addicted one to which is a fault or imperfection and so ought to be amended A third because it is not to be expected in this state that our Spirit should be always in one humour or disposition and 't is best that every thing be wrought upon according as it is dispos'd to have the Effect produc't in it A fourth and principal reason is because our Soul every day grows or should grow in spirituality at least at every competent distance season or stage of our Lifes Race she must needs by the very practise of a vertuous Christian Life have gain'd a considerable advance though perhaps she discern it not especially while 't is growing and 't is as irrational to think the same thoughts are apt to fit her in all states as to think that our Bodies ought always to be fed with Milk because we eat nothing else when we were Infants I for my part know no one Devotion suting all sorts all states all times and every pitch but that which was made by the Wisdom of the Eternal Father who fully comprehended them all I mean the Lords Prayer § 11. But the best help of all is a good Director For as in the Body the same diseases proceed somtimes from different causes and require different ways of cure so it is in the Mind too It may happen that the same indisposition which in some proceed from the Impersection of Nature may be caused by the Perfection of Nature in others A Soul fitted for higher Operations than these in which she is imploy'd and straining at them by a natural propension and yet not reaching them for want of Instruction may fall into the same unsatisfactory condition which happens to other Souls from other causes A good Director is as necessary in such cases as a good Doctor where diseases spring from not usual and not easily perceived causes However our conduct is sure to be so much the wiser as he has more Wisdom than our selves In this particular there are but two things to be observed to chuse one who is truly fit and then to treat freely with him They are both of great importance but need not be farther dilated SECT IV. Of the two chief kinds of Devotion § 1. BEcause Devotion is a steady bent of the Will to Spiritual Operations and there be two ways by which the Will may come to this disposition those two different Methods make two sorts or Kinds of Devotion For the Will may be wrought to this temper either by a Habit got as other Habits
are meerly by a frequent Repetition of her own Acts or by the interposition of the Understanding which clearly seeing that such or such things are to be done presses and prevails upon the Will to be always ready to do them These ways are both efficacious but the later the more Natural and less changeable For the will according to the designe of nature is to be led by the Understanding and indeed in some sence cannot be led otherwise there being some co-operation of the Understanding to that first Act of the Will the repetition of which afterwards produces the Habit. For unless the action had first been thought fit to be done it would not have been done at all But if the Understanding contributed but litle 't is more chance and luck than Reason that the Action haps to be good which is not connatural our nature requiring a rational proceeding in all things Again it is also less lasting for as Use produces Disuse will lose it and should the Understanding as not being first settled it self it well may come to cross the operations of the Will by contrary judgments or even doubts the Will would waver and act faintly first and after perhaps not at all But a Will produced by the Understanding cleerly seeing and conceiting practically what is to be done and out of that sight moving and indeed becoming the Will to do it cannot be changed till the Understanding change And if the Understanding be determin'd by Truth and that Truth clearly seen the Understanding cannot change because Truth can never turn into not-Truth I say clearly seen For Passion dims or blinds and so comes in Sin § 2. We shall find that in one way the Soul works upon the Body in the other the Body works upon the Soul Where the Habit is produced by repeated Acts it is caused in the Soul by the influence of the Body whose Spirits and Organs being fitted by constant use and readily concurring to such Actions carry the soul along with them In the other way the Action begins from the Soul by whose predominance over the Body those Spirits and Organs are fitted and concur with readiness and ease to her Directions yet both arrive at the same End a fitting disposition both of Soul and Body § 3. Notwithstanding since Effects must needs partake the nature of their Causes though true Devotion be an effect of both ways yet this Effect cannot but have Consequences and Operations as different as the Causes are which produce it The Devotion caus'd by Knowledg is proper for more refined Souls such as are able to penetrate into and judg of the nature of things and guide their Actions by their judgments The other for tempers less rational and who not able to go alone require to be led The former can only be lost by a wilful neglect of cultivating those Principles which caus'd it and which are not soon nor easily pluckt up where once they have taken deep root The other perishes both sooner and more easily by bare dis-use of the material actions by which it was produc'd And indeed they who have only custom from whence they can derive their Devotion generally run great hazard of a total decay in virtue upon any considerable neglect of their customary Exercises § 4. Yet in some respects this Material Way is less subject to Involuntary distraction in Prayer than the other because this way of Prayer being in a manner confused and an Elevation of the Mind to God in common as it were without distinct application of the soul to particular Motives which should advance her to new degrees of fervency it costs her by consequence little labour and obliges her not out of weariness to divert to new Objects Again this kind of Prayer having little or no height of Spirituality but being sutable to Fancy finds in the Brain Proper Species agreeable to the thoughts he has who Prays whereas the other straining after Objects purely spiritual of which we have no proper Species has by consequence less ground in Nature to fix the Attention § 5. In some respects too the Spiritual Way has the advantage in this point of Distraction For the distinct considerations to which the soul applyes her self are apt from their being Distinct to fix the Attention because they afford her a particular Entertainment to which she may attend As for Weariness when she finds that prevail and render her unfit to continue her Prayer longer she leavs it off for the present to resume it when she is better dispos'd And when some use has provided her of Spirits fit for her purpose she will seldom have cause to break off for weariness but may Pray with ease as long as is necessary or useful § 6. Hitherto we have discourst of these two kinds of Devotion as they are in their own nature If we upon look them as they are in the Subject we shall find those of the material way generally great valuers of External Acts They place all Spiritual Goodness in frequenting them think them Saints who are addicted to long Prayers and assiduously repairing to Churches and Sacraments proceeding too often to censure those as little less than voyd of all goodness whom they observe not to be still as their Beads or the like And this proceeds not from defect in Devotion on the contrary it seldom happens but where it is strong and much valu'd but from the weakness of the person who has it and who being neither us'd nor able to judge of the nature of things comprehends not how he can be Devout who does not do those Actions continually which by Experience he finds useful and necessary to Devotion in himself Those of the other Way place all their Treasure in Interiour Dispositions and for Outward Actions chuse them by Judgment and practice so many and such as they find useful to the Inward Affections They think persons more or less Saints as their Souls possess more or less of those true Spiritual Riches and hence value and endeavour so to improve their minds in the Knowledg of Spiritual things as being the connatural means to produce good Affections which the others fancy not but rather condemn as a hinderance to Devotion because they perceive no efficacy nor fruit of it in themselves § 7. The former placing much of their Devotion in performance of the External Act as going often to Confession Communion c. are not generally altogether so solicitous of due Preparation or at least aim not by their preparation to work their souls into a disposition fit to advance in true Vertue and perfection of the Interior by a connatural efficacy of the Action upon such a disposition but following Faith unexplicated by true Theology expect the fruit from a supernatural operation of Grace beyond their comprehension fixt to and accompanying the Action The later apprehending the benefit to be expected from those Actions depends after a connatural way upon the disposition with which they
frequent use of them bring us to a careless indifference in performing them and take off our conceit of them they will become little beneficial and perhaps harmful § 2. But these inconveniences avoyded these Devotes are to be advised to pray as often and as long as they can and such prayers as they please To frequent the Sacraments the oftner the better so it be with serious preparations and such as may preserve the Reverence due to them To be present at all Solemnities of the Church and there where things are performed with most Majesty and becomingness If any Extraordinary Occasion of Devotion happen as in Jubilees and the like by all means to lay hold of it Often to read good Books of which the Affective are more for their purpose than the Instructive and in a word to omit nothing proper to strengthen and increase the Habit of Devotion In general the conceit they frame in common and confusedly of the Benefit of these things should be kept up at the height and Increas'd if it may be and for particulars because they penetrate not into the nature of things nor consider which way they work it matters not much what they be so they be good and apt to move them For this Reason and because they are through their weakness easily scandaliz'd peo ple should in charity be wary of maintaining and even discovering contrary sentiments before them For these ways whatever they be in themselves the best or no are best for them and will make them Saints if they pursue them sincerely and faithfully and we must beware Nè pereat in scientiâ tuâ infirmus frater Lest a weak Brother perish by thy Knowledg § 3. The way of Knowledg must needs be pursu'd by such means as improve Knowledg and he advances in it best who most deeply penetrates into Christian Duties and most clearly sees their agreeableness to right Reason I do not mean with such a sight as is meerly speculative nor such a sight as can pierce into the Mysteries themselves and look upon them with that kind of Evidence which we have of other Truths whose terms we see connected For this would take away Faith and is impossible here and only to be hoped in the Country of Blissful light where we shall see Face to Face But I mean such a sight as presupposes Faith and renders it lively or operative which if once we can attain it is impossible not to be Devout For knowledg of any Good when 't is express and lively becomes a Principle of acting for it or to obtain it that is Will as by reflexion we may easily discover in the whole course of our lives and experience of our daily Actions § 4. Now this Knowledge is renderd express and Faith by consequence lively two manner of ways By Supernatural and by Natural means Supernatural means are either apt to affect all Mankind or some few chosen by God's providence and design'd and fitted for great ends Of the first sort are Miracles in general For the common course of Nature is practically evident to all and so what ever evidently crosses it must needs be conceiv'd to spring from the Author of Nature who can control it as he pleases Wherefore as on the one side this evidence makes it stick firmly in the soul that God has a hand in it so on the other side the Astonishment by reason of the Unusualness of the effect makes it sink deep and both together render Faith as to the point it testifies exceeding lively and prompt to Action Of the other sort are the rushing Wind the fiery Tongues and other concomitant causes which produc't that prodigious liveliness of Faith and sublime height of ardent Devotion in the first Planters of the Church by which they were renderd so strongly and readily dispos'd for those duties which Christ had order'd them that they cheerfully embrac'd all Inconveniencies Torments nay Death it self to perform them These causes were not apt to affect all Mankind as they did those few particularly fitted by long conversation with Christ himself and expectation of the effects of the Promise he made them at his departure which was still working in their minds and raising them to look for some strange Supernatural effect of it These are the two manners of External and more ordinary supernatural means for of the Inward workings of God's Spirit which blows where it lists and whose Operation and the Circumstances of it depend upon a Series of causes unknowable by us 't is not my Intention to speak in this Discourse § 5. Natural and Ordinary means to make this Knowledge express and Faith lively are also two-fold viz. penetrating well either the Grounds on which Faith is built that is the Certainty of the Authority which recommends it or else the Agreeableness of the things to be believed and of the Actions to be practis'd to the Maxims of true Reason It is the proper business of Controversy to teach the one and Scholastick Divinity the other and 't is by reading and attentively considering the discourses made by Masters in both kinds that we may attain the Knowledge we desire in these matmatters Only let us provide the Author we chuse be truly Solid for every one who writes is not so and that the Point we chuse be to our purpose It is neither necessary always nor convenient that every one who is capable of Knowledge should read all the Controversies that concern each point of Faith even though they be good and solid much less amuse himself with solving all Objections rais'd and raisable without end by Adversaries It will be sufficient to peruse and understand one or two good Books which solidly treat and firmly establish the Grounds of Faith or if leasure and opportunity serve to hear some Oral discourses of that subject In fine by any way we can to weigh attentively the Nature of the Authority on which Faith is built and what perfect Certainty the same and less Authority begets in us on other Occasions This done with that care and concern which the thing requires it will naturally breed in a Soul these and the like reflexions § 6. I believe and that with a most firm assurance that there was a King Henry 8th a William the Conqueror a Julius Caesar and many Actions perform'd by them as altering Religion in England Conquering this Nation gaining many Victories and the like The same I believe of less men and less universally-known Actions provided they were sufficiently notorious to great Multitudes and by these multitudes openly and seriously attested and without any imaginable ground of suspicion of Fear or Hope or any Interest which might move them to ly in the case I find this writ in my heart in such characters that I can as well doubt whither I am as whither such things were I find all Mankind judge the same and I can no more think it possible that Humor or Interest should beget this perswaon
alter a course directed by our best and clearest Reason for the suggestions of disorderd fancies But if once those temptations can deceive a soul into these erroneous conceits first that all her Prayer is fruitless and then harmful as being in her apprehension a kind of perpetual fault and such as she cannot mend for she finds by experience she can do no better with all endeavours she can use she is in danger to leave it quite off and think it better not to pray at all than to continue to do ill And this I take to be one of the most dangerous temptions in the World both because it comes mask't in the Vizard of Vertue and so is apt to take with well-meaning Souls which are not aware of it as also because Devotion being the best disposition of the soul to practise all Christian Duties and particularly Prayer which includes in it self the exercise of Faith Hope and Charity it follows that a soul which thus abandons her self to Sloth must needs languish away into a spiritual Consumption and piningly decay in those Christian Virtues which give life to all the rest and without which the outward practise of others are but false appearances springing from material habits and as it were the Ghosts of true Vertue § 4. Another Weapon of great use in this kind of Fight is this consideration That we may be certain we merit in the sight of God or serve and please him by continuing our Prayer when we are seized with this Dryness and Dulness and assaulted with Distractions whereas we cannot be so certain of this when our Prayer is accompany'd with satisfaction and delight The content taken in sensible feeling is so inbred and in a manner essential to a Soul according to her Inferior part or as she is the Form of the Body and this natural propension to all manner of delights so heighten'd in us by Original Corruption which still draws us from Spirituality to Sense that we are apt to adhere and cling to whatever is thus agreable and this even in prayer it self Whence it comes to pass that because nature so subtly seeks its own satisfaction 't is very hard when this sensible pleasingness accompanies our prayer to discern whether we are not serving our selves when we should be serving God at least it often happens in this case of sensible delight that our easiness and promptness to apply our selves frequently to Acts of Prayer springs in part from our love of this pleasure which is a great alloy to the spirituality of Devotion and to some degree taints the purity of our intentions Whence all spiritual Masters use to take great care that those souls who find sweetness in their prayer be not attacht to it lest they fall into spiritual Gluttony and depress the mind to sensible Objects by those very means which should raise it above them § 5 Now all this danger is securely avoyded when our Prayers are disgustful For however they seem to us sapless and dry yet we are sure the desire of pleasing our inferior part or complying with our corrupt inclinations has not any the least share in what we do but that the Prayer and Intention which as was said necessarily goes along with it in the superiour part which only is Spiritual remains altogether pure and untainted Let then the Soul which finds litle gust in Prayer continue in the posture and circumstance of praying especially if the prayer be Obligatory and in the material exercise of it at least vocally if she can do no more Two comforts will ensue hence one that the merit of such prayer is secure every Act of bearing up against this dryness and the sloth to which it tempts being manifestly an adhesion or clinging to God with the superior part of the Soul The other is that the gain made by such continuance though it seem small comes in clear there being nothing to be defalkt from its purity by the mixture of any motive sprung from matter or Body wheras generally in good actions perform'd by the middle sort of Christians there goes so much out to the inferior part that is to Fancy and Appetite that when the Chaff comes to be winnowed from the pure Corn there remains not so many grains of Spirit as some apprehend 'T is very well if they escape with the Abatement of half And after all the harvest of the former sort does but only seem small for in truth 't is otherwise since of necessity the Habit of adhering to God must be got by a frequent repetition of Acts so that the soul which faithfully continues to struggle against the difficulties of Prayer cannot fail at last to come to a facility of it so much the more to be valued and endeavour'd by how much it is free from all suspicion of alloy from the inferior part being manifestly wrought out by the strength and predominancy of the Superior § 6. There is yet another comfort in this constancy and resolution which is that the not deserting our devotions for want of sensible content but going steadily on whatever we feel is an evident testimony or argument to the soul that she is as she ought to be For since she cannot act this to please Nature to whose grain it lies so cross it must of necessity proceed from a motive above Nature that is a firm will and hearty desire to please God The knowledg of which must needs increase Hope and if it be well laid to heart will in despite of the Dryness and the Scruples apt to ensue upon it produce that fruit of the Holy Ghost which is called Spiritual Ioy and such a solid Peace of mind as the World cannot give § 7. A Soul which needs more helps in this kind may make use of some Preparation to Prayer such as may be most efficacious to fix her attention and keep her Fancy from wandring To which purpose she may a litle reflect upon the importance of it and remember That Happiness or Misery and this for all Eternity depends upon the disposition which she carries with her out of this life and that disposition on Prayer which is the means to procure it That so much time is allotted to every one to work out his Salvation as every one lives and no more And that this time mispent can never be recalled That the rest of our life is only to fit us to pray well and if the time of Prayer be fruitless our whole life is fruitless and irrecoverably Lost That we cannot be disposed for Heaven without Time and the time of Prayer is that wherein alone it can be expected this disposition should be wrought wherefore if this time be lost at what other time can we hope to do that which if it be not done we are miserable and yet cannot be done but at some time c. These and the like reflexions such as we find most apt to work upon us may contribute much to the well