Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	body_n	soul_n	union_n	1,547	5	9.5555	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B10083	Tracts theological. I. Asceticks, or, the heroick piety and vertue of the ancient Christian anchorets and coenobites. II. The life of St. Antony out of the Greek of Sr. Athanasius. III. The antiquity and tradition of mystical divinity among the Gentiles. IV. Of the guidance of the spirit of God, upon a discourse of Sir Matthew Hale's concerning it. V. An invitation to the Quakers, to rectifie some errors, which through the scandals given they have fallen into.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Asceticks, or, the heroick piety and virtue of the ancient Christian anchorets and coenobites.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Life of St. Antony.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Antiquity, tradition, and succession of mystical divinity among the Gentiles.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Enthusiasmus divinus: the guidance of the spirit of God.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Apology for, and an invitation to, the people call'd Quakers, to rectifie some errors, which through the scandals given they have fallen into.	1697 (1697)	Wing S5444E; Wing S5444E; ESTC R184630	221,170	486

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 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

Prince of the Power of the Air for here 't is that the Enemy exerts his Power in Fighting and attempting to stop those who pass thorow for this Reason he the more earnestly exhorts Christians Eph. 6.13 Take ye the whole Armour of God that the Enemy having no Evil thing to say of you he may be ashamed But we when we had been inform'd of this remembred the Apostle Whether in the Body I know not or out of the Body I know not God knows St. Paul was wrapt up as far as the Third Heaven and heard unutterable Words But Antony saw himself going up into the Air and contended till he was free 38. He had also another particular Favour for as he was sitting on the Mount in a Praying posture of Soul and perhaps gravelled with some doubt relating to himself for not long before he had been conferring with some who had been conversant with him about the State of his Soul and what place it should have after this Life in the Night-time so that we may truly say he was one of those Blessed Men who are taught of God one call'd to him from on high and said Antony Rise go forth and look So he went out for he knew whom he ought to obey and saw a certain terrible tall deformed Personage standing and reaching up to the Clouds and as it were winged Creatures ascending and him stretching out his Hands and some of them he saw stop'd by him and others flying beyond and above him and those that pass'd them carried higher still without the least Solicitude upon these the Tall Person gnash'd his Teeth but over those that fell he rejoyc'd And the Voice said unto Antony Consider on what thou hast seen And his Understanding being open'd he perceiv'd that 't was the Enemy of Souls who envies the Faithful and seizes on and hinders the Passage of those who are accountable to him but that he is not able to seize on those who were not perswaded by him for they get out of his reach Being minded by such a Sight again he strove the more to make a Proficiency in his Holy Purposes 39. But I must do him Justice by acquainting you that he did not tell of these things willingly But being he was long at his Prayers and admiring with himself those that were with him would be importunately asking him so that he was forc'd as a Father who could not hide them from his Children to tell them Besides too he knew the Purity of his own Conscience and that the Declaration of them would be profitable for them for hereby he shewed the Blessed Fruit of Perseverance in Exercise and that in great Difficulties God condescends to tender Consolation to his Servants even by Visions I might also tell you how Patient he was under Afflictions and how Humble of Soul and how that Frame of Spirit made him revere the Canons of the Church with a peculiar Tenderness of Disposition and how willing he was that every Clergy-Man should be preserr'd before him for he was not asham'd to bow the Head before Bishops and Priests And when-ever a Deacon came to him to be benefitted by him he discours'd usefully to him But he would resign the Exercise of the Ministry by Prayer to him not being asham'd to learn himself for oft-times he propos'd Questions and condescended to give Ear to all that convers'd with him and own'd himself benefitted if any one spoke any thing that was useful 40. There was much and wonderful Comeliness in his Face If he was present with a great many Monks and any one seem'd uneasie that he might have a full View of him though he did not know them before yet passing by the rest he would run to him as though he were drew by the Person 's Eyes He did not excell others in the heighth or breadth of his Body but in the Constitution of his Morals and the Purity of his Soul for his Soul being free from tumult he always had his outward Senses free from Disorders so that his Countenance derived Chearfulness from his Soul and the Temper of it was discernable from the Motions of his Body as 't is written Prov. 15.13 A glad Heart makes a cheerful Countenance But a sorrowful one makes it sad Thus Jacob discerned Laban to have some treacherous Design in his Mind and said unto the Women Gen. 31. Is not the Face of your Father toward me as yesterday and the day before Thus Samuel knew David For he had cheering Eyes and Teeth white as Milk Thus also Antony was known for he never look'd disturb'd because his Soul was always at Peace His Mind was constantly in a rejoycing Posture and therefore he never had a louring Look He was also very admirable and strict as to his Faith and Piety 41. He would never hold Correspondence with the Meletian Schismaticks because he knew their Wickedness and Apostacy from the Faith nor with the Manichees nor with any other Hereticks in a Friendly manner any otherwise than to advise them to turn to Piety for he judg'd their Friendship and Conversation to tend to the Mischief and Destruction of the Soul He abominated the Heresie of the Arians and charg'd all not to go near them or to hold with their wicked Tenets Some of the Areiomanites having once came to see him as soon as he perceiv'd what they were he chas'd them out of the Mount alledging their Discourses to be worse than Poyson And when the Arians told a Lye as though he were of the same Judgment with them he express'd great Indignation against Arius and being sent for by the Bishops and all the Brethren he declar'd against them in Alexandria telling them that this was the last Heresie and the fore-runner of Anti-Christ and he added That the Son of God was not a Creature made of the things that are not but the invisible Word and Wisdom of the Father's Essence Wherefore 't is impious to say there was a time when he was not for He was always the Word co-existent with the Father Wherefore have ye no communication with the Arians for Light hath no fellowship with the Darkness For ye who are pious are Christians but they who impiously say that the Son and Word of God who is of the Father is a Creature differ not at all from Heathens who serve the Creature more than God who created them But do ye believe that all the Creation groans against them because they reckon the Lord and Creatour of all things by whom all things that were made were made a Creature 42. So publickly did all the People see that Heresie which so opposes Christ anathematis'd by this great Man and therefore abominated them And all of the City ran together to see Antony The Greeks also and those that were called their Priests came to the Temple saying We desire to see the Man of God for all call'd him so Also the Lord cleans'd many that were Possess'd by him and

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. 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 recieved 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

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 calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 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 Monfieur

encreas'd and the Negligence of some was shook off and the Opinionativeness or Self-Conceit and Vain-glory of others ceas'd and all were perswaded to despise the Devil's Treachery admiring the Grace that was given to St. Antony by our Lord for his Exercise 21. The MONASTERIES now were like so many Sacred Tabernacles full of Divine Choirs singing and delighting in Holy Conferences and Fasting and Praying and exulting in the Hope of future Goods and working to give Alms and Exercising mutual Love and unanimous Symphony among themselves So that you might see there of a Truth a Land of Piety and Righteousness by it self For there was neither an Injurious nor an injured Person neither any Complaint of the Oppressour But a Multitude of Asceticks having one and the same Ardour for Vertue insomuch that one amongst the rest of the Spectatours seeing such Monasteries and regular Discipline could not forbear crying out as we read Numb 24.5 6. How goodly are thy Dwellings O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel As the shady Vales are they spread forth and as the Parks beside the Rivers and as the Tents which the Lord hath fix'd and as the Cedars by the Waters side 22. St. Antony therefore oft retiring himself into his Monastry daily grew Vigorous in Exercise and groan'd longing for Mansions in Heaven because he long'd for them and observ'd the frail Life of Man When-ever he was about to eat or drink or sleep or serve any other Bodily Necessities he blush'd for he thought upon the Dignity of his Intellectual part So that oftentimes when he was going to eat with other Monks and call'd to Remembrance his Spiritual Food he refus'd and retir'd to eat alone thinking he should blush if he was seen Eating by them When he eat alone 't was purely out of Necessity Sometimes though very seldom he eat with his Brethren But though 't were with Blushing he took the Liberty to acquaint his Brethren for their Benefit that they should lay out their Leisure rather on their Soul than their Body lest it be weigh'd down by the Pleasures of the Body which ought to be in Subjection to it For our Saviour has said Take no thought for your Life what you shall eat nor for your Body what ye shall put on Do not seek what ye may eat nor what ye may drink neither aim at high things For all these things the Nations of the World seek for your Father knows that ye need them and all these things shall be added unto you 23. Not long after the Emperour Maximinus Persecuted the Church and some Holy Martyrs being carried to Alexandria he left his Monastry and followed them saying to his Friends Let us also go and combat or see those who do for he was Ambitious of Martyrdom But not being willing to deliver up himself he ministred to the Confessors in the Mines and Prisons and shew'd great Diligence in the Court of Judicature comforting and spurring on those that were call'd to it and attending them till they were Crowned Martyrs Wherefore the Judge observing the Fearlesness and Assiduity of Antony and of those that were with him ordered that no Monk should appear in the Court nor so much as live in the City so that all the rest seemed to abscond that Day But St. Antony took this so much to thought that he wash'd his Scapulary the cleaner the Day after and stood foremost on an high place before the Judge's Face And though all Persons admir'd at it and the Governour as he pass'd by with his Train took Notice of it yet he stood unmov'd shewing the Readiness of the Christians to die For as I said before he wish'd to die a Martyr and appear'd very much griev'd because he did not But the Lord preserv'd and reserv'd him for our Benefit and the Advantage of many more that he might be a Teacher to many by the Exercise which he learnt out of the Holy Scriptures for the bare sight of his Discipline inflam'd many others to imitate his Life Wherefore he again visited the Confessors as he us'd and as it were bound up together with them he labour'd to serve them But after that Persecution in which the Blessed Bishop Peter suffered Martyrdom ceas'd he pilgrimag'd and retir'd again to the Monastry where he was daily a Martyr in Conscience and fought the Combats of Faith For there he us'd himself to much and stricter Exercise for he always fasted His inner Garment was Hair-cloth his upper of Leather which was the Habit he wore to his dying Day neither washing the dirt off his Body no nor so much as his Feet unless they were wet by chance when he waded thorow Water on a Journey 24. Now when he had thus retir'd and resolv'd to continue in that State some time without ever going abroad or entertaining any Company There came to him one Martinian a Colonel who had a Daughter troubled with a Devil and was very troublesome to him and after he had stood a long while knocking at the Door and entreating him to come and pray to God for his Daughter Antony would not suffer him to break open his Door but leaning out of the top said Man Why dost thou stand crying thus I am a Man as well as thou If thou believest pray to God and 't is done presently The Colonel therefore pray'd to God with Faith and went his way and his Daughter was cleans'd from the Devil Many other things did our Lord by him Wherefore we do not read in vain Matt. 7.7 Ask and it shall be given you For many that were Sick and only sat without the Monastry by Faith and Prayer were Cur'd But as soon as he saw himself thus disturb'd by a great many People and not permitted to retire according to his Purpose and Desire and fearing lest from what the Lord did by him he should be lifted up or any one else upon that account should think of him beyond what he ought he thought and was resolved to go to the upper Thebais where no body knew him and having took some Loaves of his Brethren he sat down by the River Banks watching for a Vessel to get over In the mean while came a Voice from Heaven saying Antony Whither goest thou and wherefore Antony without any Commotion or Disorder of Mind for he was us'd to such extraordinary Occurrences said Since the Multitude will not let me be at rest here I have a mind to retire in the upper Thebais and so much the rather because they require things above my Strength Then reply'd the Voice Should'st thou go thither thou would'st have double the Trouble to undergo But if thou would'st be quiet indeed go into the inner Wilderness But Who said Antony shall shew me the way for I don't know it And the Voice presently directed him to some Sarazens that were travelling that way Whereupon Antony made up to them and requested to walk with them to the Wilderness They as it were by the

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 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

been managed and so superficially and impertinently our Preaching been generally throughout the Nation that we have disputed one part into disbelief of the Scriptures and Infidelity another into contempt of one of the chief Principles of Christianity and generally all into Neglect and Contempt of the Examples Precepts and Counsels of greatest Perfection in the Christian Religion and together with that preached the People generally into a careless tepid state of Indifferency so that in the Country especially it is rare to meet with two or three good sensible intelligent lively Christians in a Parish And who of our principal Clergy can deny any of this And if it be all true why is it not reformed If they cannot reform all why not as much as they can Why is not the Christian Worship restored in their Cathedrals And if those be so burden'd by prophane Officers imposed upon them that they fear to expose it why do they not reform their own Families and restore it at least in their own Chappels What Account will this Glorious Church as carnal Flatterers call it give of their Neglect of Propagating the Gospel in Foreign parts at least in our own Plantations and suffering them to be such Nourseries of Scandals to the Infidels What Account of the many things fit to be done at home for the Service of their Master and fit to be considered by them jointly in a Body and promoted in Parliament which yet are neither studied nor considered nor so much as thought on by any of them no more than if they did not belong to their Care or were not of any Concern to their Master though they sit Session after Session in the Parliament But how can it be expected that they should ever extend their care to things so remote who take no more care of what doth concern them in their own Chappels and Families It is an amazing thing for one whose Eyes are open to consider these things But it fairs with collective Bodies of Men as with single Persons they are subject to the like Diseases the State of this Church is plainly a Tepid Scorbutick Latitudinarian Laodicean State quite sick of the Prudentials and has been so in a manner from the first Settlement of the Reformation And to speak freely as becomes an honest Man though there was great need of a Reformation when it was begun by Luther and long before yet hath that great Work been so ill managed with more of the Antichristian than Christian Spirit that I cannot see by any growth in Grace and Virtue that the Blessing of God hath ever been with it only he seems to have preserved these Reformations rather as Judgments and Corrections for the Obstinacy of that Church which would not reform and raised up and preserved the several Sub-divisions of Parties amongst us for the very same cause and purpose For the True Cause of all the Divisions and Separations amongst us is no other but our Scandals Abuses and Corruptions both by way of Natural Causation and by the special Judgment of God to awaken us if it be possible And though the Blessing of God the true Spiritual Christian Blessing be not upon them because he doth not favour Schisms and Divisions yet is his Protection over them as his Instruments in the Nature of a Judgment and in some things to raise an Emulation in those of the Church if they would lay it to heart and understand it For there is none of them all but there is some thing in them which may serve for Admonition and Notice of something amiss in the Church This which I have now said may be of use not only to them of the Church but also to all the several separate Parties and deserve their very serious and deep Consideration For it is not a light matter to Make a Schism or Division in any particular Church or in the Catholick Church It hath been looked upon in all Ages to be a damnable Sin and who-ever doth well consider the several weighty Admonitions in the Scriptures concerning it if he have not a benumed Conscience will not make light of it nor yield to plausible pretences there is nothing so bad but the Wit of Man and subtile Suggestions of Satan can put a colour upon it nor so good but they can mis-represent it and disparage it but it is dangerous and very imprudent to play tricks with Sacred things Any thing else may be more safely medled with in that manner This does concern them all in general and I must add a word or two more There are none of the best of them that I have yet talked with that could or would deny that their Party was much sunk in Piety and Virtue from those degrees of it which was in those before them of the same Party And this being so it concerns us all to consider well whether the Apostacy foretold be not an Apostacy in Practice as well as in Principles and Whether while we are gazing to see the Judgments of God upon it abroad it may not be found amongst us at home and we feel in a surprize upon the Nation at home what we expect to see elsewhere at Rome as was upon this City in sixty six And certain I am that there are not only Antichristian Principles amongst us all but whole Antichristian Sects and Parties which deceived by the Subtilty of Satan under the most specious appearances of the most pure and refined Christianity do undermine and enervate the true Genuine Christianity and the Power of Godliness It is one of the Devil 's most subtile Policies by abuse of Scripture and mis-application of certain Truths to impose upon People and overturn them So he began with our Saviour and so he goes on with Professors to and at this day The Holy Scriptures are abused the Honour of God is abused the Merits of Christ are abused the Guidance of the Spirit is abused the Moderation and Condescention of the Gospel is abused and whatever is most Excellent and Admirable is abused by the Subtilty of the Enemy and the supine Negligence and Inconsiderateness and Folly of Men. And woe be to them who dare presume to be the Instruments and Leaders in these Abuses and Doctrines It is certain that our Saviour gave Instructions to his Apostles for the Settling of his Church and that they accordingly in all places where there were a competent number of Converts did ordain Elders and gave Authority to others to do the like and so settled a Succession in the Church which hath continued all over the World to this day And it is certain that the State of the Jews was so corrupted in his time as provoked the Judgment of God upon them so that they are a Monument thereof all over the World to this day and yet neither He nor his Disciples did ever refuse communion with them till they were cast out and so far was he from allowing them to separate that he foretold