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
by Enquiring In what manner God appears Whether an appearance of Fire come before Him Whether he fills up and acts the whole Soul so that there is a Cessation of all its own Acts For this he makes the main Character of a Divine Inspiration that the Persons are wholly taken up and possessed by the Deity from whence follows an Extasie and alienation of the Senses But if either the Soul acts or the Body moves then he saith it may be a false Inspiration No Man can express himself more emphatically concerning the Excellency of Contemplative Prayer than Jamblicus doth This quickens the Mind inlargeth its Capacity opens the Secrets of the Divinity and fits it for Conjunction and Vnion with God and never leaves Men till it hath carried them to a State of Perfection and by degrees doth alter and change Men that it makes them put off Humane Nature and bring them into such a State of Dei-formity that they become Gods The first degree of Prayer saith he brings to a State of Recollection and hath some Divine Contact which helps our Knowledge The second carries the Soul to a nearer Communion with God and excites the Divine Bounty to freer Communications to it But the third is the Seal of the ineffable Vnion which makes our Mind Soul to rest in God as a Divine Port or Haven And he concludes his Book with saying That this Vnion with God is Man's greatest Perfection and the End of all Religion among the Egyptians whose Mysteries his Design was to explain and vindicate Many other Passages might be produced out of him concerning the Knowing of God by Divine Contact and the Insufficiency of any Act of the Mind for this ineffable Vnion but these are enough to shew how well acquainted Jamblicus and if we believe him the Egyptians were with the profoundest Secrets of Mystical Divinity There is a Book translated out of Arabick intituled Of Divine Wisdom according to the Egyptians wherein are many things to this purpose but our Author takes notice but of one passage in it which he sets down as the Words of Plato But before we come to Plato it is fit to be noted that PYTHAGORAS and the PYTHAGORIANS could not but be well acquainted with this Mystical Theology though they did not ordinarily deliver it in such express terms but in a more occult manner For it is known confessed That Pythagoras himself was from his Youth greatly inclin'd to an Inquisition into Religious Rites and Mysteries That he travelled into Egypt to hear their Priests was there 22 Years had recommendations from the King to the Priests and was permitted to acquaint himself with all their Learning entred into the Egyptian Adyta and was instituted in things unexpressible touching the Gods gave himself exact Information concerning Persons and Things not omitting any Person eminent at any time for Learning or any kind of Religious Rites or any Place where he conceived he might find somewhat extraordinary That he went thence to Babylon and continued there 12 Years conversed with the most Eminent of the Chaldeans as also with the Persian Magi who entertained him very courteously gave him insight into their more hidden Mysteries and Religious Rites and without doubt with the most Eminent for Knowledge of the Jews in both places and likely enough as Selden and others think with Ezekiel in particular That he made Theology or the Knowledge of God the First most Universal Being the Centre of all his Philosophy That he was by way of Eminency call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he treated chiefly of God his Nature and Worship That he was a great Devoto or Advocate for God his Worship and Sacred Institutes That the Confederation of his Coenobium for so they called it or College had reference to some Divine Temperament and to Union with God and to Unity with the Divine Soul That the Institutions of his Society and Sect for the Admission and Probation of Disciples distinction of Persons Reverence to their Elders Celibacie Communion of Goods Retirement from the World c. were very much the same with those of the Esseans and the Christian Coenobites afterward That of the differing Sects afterward none did Pythagorize more than Plato especially in Divine matters as Aristotle and Laertius have observed yea that the choicest of his Metaphysick Contemplations seem to be traduced from Pythagoras and his Followers and that Plotinus did more clearly explicate the Principles of the Pythagorick Philosophy as well as of the Platonick And from all this put together we may very reasonably conclude especially if we take in what is related by Jamblicus That he continued 3 days and 2 nights at one time in the same Posture without taking either Meat or Drink or Sleep lib. 1. cap. 3. That he must have been well acquainted with this Mystick Theology which was in such Esteem with both those from whom he received Instructions and those who received from him and that in Plotinus and others we read the Pythagorick as well as Platonick Principles and that in both was a mixture of the Judaick and what was derived by all from the Common Parent Noah To this I will add only a Passage or two of his out of Demophilus Being born of God and rooted in Him let us cleave to our Root For the Streams of the Waters and the Sprouts of the Earth if they be cut off from their Root are dry'd up and wither away p. 11. Is not this the very Doctrine of our Saviour The True Light which lighteth every Man who cometh into the World of being born of God and abiding in the Vine It cannot by any means be that one and the same Person should apply himself to Pleasures to the Body to the getting of Riches and also to God And is not this also the very Doctrine of our Saviour Ye cannot serve God and Mammon But he goes on For he who is given to Pleasures the same will also be careful for the Body but he who is careful for the Body he will also study to get Riches and he who studies to get Riches will necessarily be Vnjust But he who is Vnjust is both impious toward God and unjust toward Men and therefore although he sacrifice whole Hecatombs he is but the more impious and far from God and all Religion and deliberately Sacrilegious Wherefore it behoveth to avoid every voluptuary Person as impious and sacrilegious p. 12. You cannot well say that he is a happy Man who relies upon Friends or Children or any transitory and fading thing for all these are instable things But to rely upon ones self and upon God that only is firm and stable p. 12. A wise Man sent hither Naked will naked or stript of all invoke Him who sent him for God hears him only who is not incumbred with Impertinences p. 9. A Divine Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solidly joyns us to God For
it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For saith he though there be many Intellectual Powers in us yet it is by this only that we can be united to the Divinity and be made partakers of it For we cannot reach the Divine Being either by our Senses or by Opinion or by Apprehension no nor yet by Ratiocination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It remains therefore that if the Divine Nature can any ways be known by us it must be by the Essence of the Soul For the Soul being drawn into its own Vnity and removing from it self the Multiplicity of its Powers it ascends to the greatest height of true Contemplation While the Soul looks about on things below it it sees nothing but Shadows and Images of things When it comes to a State of Introversion then it sees its own Essence and Operations of the Vnderstanding But when it searches deeper then it finds the Mind within it self and the several Orders of real Beings When it goes yet farther into the most secret Closet of the Soul there it contemplates as it were blindfold the Divine Beings and the first Idea's or Vnities of Beings And this saith he is the most excellent Operation of the Soul in the Rest or Quiescency of its Powers to stretch it self toward the Divine Nature and dance as it were round it and to raise up the whole Soul towards this Vnion with it and abstracting it self from all Inferior Beings to rest upon and be conjoyned with that Ineffable and Super-essential Being And by this means the Soul comes to have the truest Vnderstanding of all things All these Notions saith our Author both among the Chaldeans and the Platonick Philosophers are built upon a very ancient Hypothesis but very different from that of Christianity which Hypothesis being granted this Mystical Divinity appears with some face of Reason and colour of Probability It was this That the Souls of Men did exist in another World long before they came into the Body that in their Descent to the Body they had an Aetherial Vehicle joyned to them which upon the conjunction of the Soul and Body became the Means of Communication between them and takes up its chief Seat in the Brain which is the same which we call the Imagination that the Soul being in this state is apt to be much inveigled with Kindness to the Body and so forget its Return home that the Body is capable of doing the Soul mischief no other way being it self under the power of Fate then as it draws it downward that the Mind being the upper part of the Soul is always acting but we know not its operations but only by the Impressions they make upon the Phansie that the Mind hath the true Idea's of things within it self but we are deceived by the Representations conveyed by our Imagination and therefore our Ratiocination is very short and uncertain that our only way of Recovering our Souls is by drawing them off from the Body and retiring into themselves and that upon this the Mind hath the Divine Being so nearly conjoyned to it that it passeth into a Divine Nature and recovers its former State when it parts from the Body But because it is not to return alone without the Aetherial Vehicle it brought with it therefore the Chaldeans and Egyptians had several Sacred and Symbolical Rites for the purifying of the Vehicle as they called it which they made necessary for this End and with them Jamblicus joyns but Porphyry thought them not necessary but that Philosophy and meer Contemplation would purifie enough without it This is the true Account of their Hypothesis as may be fully seen in Hierocles and Synesius without going farther and was the first Foundation of Mystical Divinity which I will not deny to be well enough accommodated to it But it is as remote from Christianity as the Hypothesis it self is This is said by our Author to disparage Mystical Divinity because he supposeth it will not be consented to by any that are Friends to it But how doth it appear that this Hypothesis was the first Foundation of Mystical Divinity which for any thing he hath shewed to the contrary may be more ancient than it His bare affirmation in his own Case certainly is not to be admitted for Proof But in case that were admitted how is that different from Christianity for he would not say contrary though no doubt many of his Readers would be apt to take it so The Jews did believe it before our Saviour's time the Apocrypha doth favour it the Apostle's Question concerning the Man who was born Blind doth favour it nor doth our Saviour's Answer at all contradict it but rather suppose it and it hath been asserted by Learned Men both of the Church of England and other Protestants from Proofs of Scripture as well as Reason His Conclusion also is observable that Mystical Divinity is as remote from Christianity as the Hypothesis it self such another cautious Expression not to expose himself but by which the generality of his Readers may easily be imposed upon Truth is a very venerable thing and Divine matters ought to be treated with great Reverence the very Heathen Mysticks would have thought so whatever our Rationatists think Besides these ancient Philosophers our Author takes notice of the like Notions and Practices among other Gentiles even at this day but of what antiquity amongst them he saith not It is taken from a Letter of Monsteur Bernier to Monsieur Chaplain dated 4 Octob. 1667 concerning the Gentiles of Indostan wherein he gives an account of certain Orders of Religious among them who make Vows of Chastity Poverty and Obedience living in Convents under Superiors who are commonly called Jauguis i. e. united to God who used themselves to many Hardships and were looked on as so many Eremites by the People being accounted true Saints illuminated and perfect Jauguis These are People that have entirely abandoned the World and sequestered themselves into some very remote Corner or Garden like Eremites without ever coming to the Town If you carry them any Meat they receive it if they do not 't is believed that they can live without it and subsist by the sole Favour of God in perpetual Fasting Prayer and profound Meditations for they sink themselves so deep into these Raptures that they spend many hours together in being insensible and beholding in that time as they give out God himself like a very bright and ineffable Light with an unexpressible Joy and Satisfaction attended with an intire Contempt and forsaking of the World For thus much one of them that pretended he could enter into this Rapture when he pleased and had been often in it told me and others that are about them affirm the thing with so much seriousness that they seem to believe it in earnest that there is no Imposture in it To these others might be added who have had the like Notions and used the like Exercises as well anciently as at this time
like must necessarily be joyned with like p. 9. The same which I have said of Pythagoras may in effect be said of SOCRATES also both as to the Disposition of his Mind as to his Travels for acquiring of Knowledge and as to his Principles from the Observations and Confessions of such as were no Friends to Mystick Theology They were Scholars in the same Schools and received the Tradition of the same Doctrine as did Plato also from thence and from them so that I may dispatch this in a few Observations of what is known and confessed concerning him That he had as clear Notions as any touching God his Nature Unity and other Sacred Mysteries which he could never have attained unto but by some borrowed Tradition c. That he asserted That Virtue is neither by Nature nor by Teaching but by Divine Inspiration and that all true Knowledge of God comes by Divine Infusion and called God his Tutor That while Man is subject to and under the Impression of Corporal Images sensible Forms and terrene Affections he is not rightly disposed for Divine Contemplation which requires a Mind defecated c. That Divine things and Mysteries cannot be comprehended but by a refined Judgment by such as have their Souls abstracted from all Corporal Images Impressions and Affections and therefore Men should be very intent on getting a Reformed Life that the Mind being exonerated of its depressing Lusts might by a natural Vigour lift up it self to Eternals and by that Purity of Intelligence contemplate the Nature of that Eternal Incommunicable Light where the Causes of all created Natures live in Stability v. Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 8. c. 3. And as to his own Life That he instituted his whole Life even from his Childhood by the assistance of his Divine Inspiration which he called a Daemon a Voice a Sign And that Plato reports of him that he stood a whole day without any alteration in the same posture his Mind being abstracted with pure Contemplation and that Favorinus in A. Gellius saith that he did this often And now to return to our principal Author and the Words of PLATO in him which are these Being often in the Depth of Contemplation my Body being left behind I seemed to enjoy the Chief Good with incredible pleasure Wherefore I stood as it were astonished finding my self to be a part of the upper World and to have obtained Immortality with the clearest Light which cannot be expressed with Words nor heard with Ears nor understood by the Thoughts of Men and then he describes the Sadness he felt at the decay of that glorious Light and the pleasure which returned with his former Extasies The Words are At last my Intellect being wearied with this Contemplation fell back into phantasie and then that Light failing I became somewhat sad But again having left my Body returning thither again I perceived my Mind abounding with Light and that flowing then into the Body then raised above it Nor of Plato himself doth our Author take any more notice then of that one passage but of the later Platonists Plotinus Jamblicus Porphrygius and Proclus who as he saith out of Psellus did wholly approve of the Chaldaick Theology he gives us some larger Tasts and particularly The short account of Plotinus his Hypothesis is this That the Soul of Man being immersed in the Body suffers very much by reason of its Vnion with it by which means it is drawn to the Affections of the Body and to a Conversation with Sensible things and so becomes Evil and Miserable That its Good and Happy Condition lyes in being like to God not in regard of Vnderstanding but a State of Quiescency That the Practice of the Virtues of the Active Life is insufficient for Assimilation to God but in order to it those which are properly Intellectual are most necessary whereby the Soul draws it self off from the Body Thus for the Soul to act by its self is Wisdom Introversion is Temperance Abstraction from Matter is Fortitude to follow Reason is Justice That by the Practice of these the Soul purifies its self i. e. casts off the things without its self and so recovers its Purity by bringing those things into Light again which lay hid under the rubbish of Sensible things before so that the Soul did not know them to be there but for the Discovery of them it was necessary for the Soul to come near a greater Light than its self and to bring the Images which are in it to the true Originals The way of Purifying the Soul he calls by the Names of Abstraction and Recollection which he else-where expresses by awakening the Soul out of Sleep wherein it was disturbed by sensible Images not as though the Soul had need of any other way of Purifying but only restraining it to its self by taking away that load of Matter which oppressed it and then it naturally endeavours after the nearest Vnion with the first Being which he calls the True Being and the super-Essential Being And he saith When the Soul endeavours after this Vnion it must lay aside all sensible and intellectual Images of things and make use only of the purest and supream part of the Mind or the Fund of the Spirit that God then is not to be considered under the Notion of Being but as something above Being and that we are not either to affirm or deny any thing of Him that Our Contemplation of Him is not by Knowledge or any Intellectual Operation but by a Divine Presence which far exceeds any Knowledge for Knowledge he saith hinders Vnion therefore we must go beyond Knowledge and be abstracted from all other Objects and be united to Him only by the Power of Divine Love from whence follows a clearer Light in the Soul And in this State saith he there is not only a Cessation of Passion but of Reason and Vnderstanding too neither is the Person himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like one in a Rapture or an Extasie he enjoys God in that State of Quiescency as in a silent Wilderness which he calls being in God and in other places seeing God in themselves being the same with God being one with God and which is the highest of all being God which is the perfect State of Dei-formity Of Porphyry who was a Disciple and Confident of Plotinus the same Author gives us this account That he looked upon the Theurgick Way as lyable to deceit and not capable of advancing the Soul to highest Perfection Which Theurgick Way lay in the initiating of Men in some Sacred Mysteries by partaking of certain Rites and Symbols by which they were admitted to the Presence of some of their Deities the End whereof as they pretended was reducing the Souls of Men to that State they were in before they came into the Body So St. Austin tells us from Porphyry That they who were purified after this manner did converse with glorious appearances of Angels which they were fitted