obligation lying on thers Subiects to submitt to their Authority and at the same time to preferr the Authority of a particular Church before that of the Vniversall which is the fountain of all Authority is to putt out their Subiects eyes and to hale them after them with chains And above all other Congregations the Tyranny of Presbyterians is most brutish who after a denyall of all Visible Authority extant before them endeavour violently to subdue mens consciences to the Jurisdiction of their Classes erected upon controverted Texts of Scripture as interpreted by themselves alone 8. The Doctours Principles therefore being by far the most materiall Part of his Book it is not notwithstanding my business in this Treatise to examine them apart one by one or to trouble my self with making a setled Iudgment whether of the two fore-named Parties Catholicks or Independents has the most solid reasons on their side For being engaged to make Reflexions on that part of his Book which is of least importance writen in an immodest uncivill petulant stile it was not fitt in my Answer to mingle considerations on a Subiect so serious and soberly expressed as his Principles are which indeed deserve to be examined separately with all possible calmness and impassionateness as being an Argument on which all other Controversies do depend and which one way or other makes an end of them all 9. Yet for all this it was not possible for me to avoyd all mention of his Principles in this Answer to a different Subiect since as hath been already intimated and will be seen by the Sequele whatsoever Charge he brings against the Catholick Church and which I pretend here to refute does scarce at all touch Her but lyes most heavily and unmoveably upon his Principles and on any Church acknowledging or adopting them He must therefore dispose himself with the greatest patience he can to be put in mind more then once or twice of his Principles and the fatall Consequences of them From which Consequences till he can effectually clear them he will have little cause to call as he hath done for an Answer to his former large Volume For if it shall appear by the ruine of his that the Principles of Catholick Religion only are solide and inexpugnable that is that the Catholick Church is indeed and to be acknowledged the Pillar and ground of Truth from whose Authority no Appeal is to be admitted then both his Former and latter Books are thereby sufficiently refuted as far as they condemn or but question any Doctrins whatsoever determined by her This being once established he will find his Books not having a few leaves gnawed by Ratts but unà liturâ entirely abolished §. 2. A Vindication of the Honour and Sanctity of S. Benedict c from the Doctours contumelious imputations 10. HAving given this Account of the Motiue and Design of this Treatise it is time to take into consideration the forementioned Heads of Accusation layd by the Doctour against the Catholick Church which he thinks of sufficient weight to deterre any one from ioyning in her Communion I will begin with that touching Fanaticism which though the Second in his Order yet principally concerned me to disprove and particularly that part of it which contains an Invective against the Life and Prayer of Contemplation commended and practised only in the Catholick Church it being a State which from the infancy of the Church hath been esteemed the nearest approching to that of Glorified Saints From whence notwithstanding he has taken occasion to vilify in particular the Authour of this ensuing Treatise Who is very well content to receive his proportion of Scorn with such companions as Thaulerus Suso Rusbrochius Blosius c. 11. Now the Doctour to the end he might make an entrance into his In vective with better grace has prepared a way thereto then which a more proper could not be found for such a purpose by producing on his Stage antickly disgvised the famous Teachers and Erectours of Schools for Contemplation S. Benedict S. Romuald S. Bruno S. Francis S. Dominick and S. Ignatius so exposing them like blind Samson to the derision of profane Readers for from Such only can he expect an applause for his impiously employed Wit And he will find in the end except Repentance prevent it that Selius his argument in the Epigrammatist wil prove a dangerous Fallacy 12. And to the end he may not too much boast of the Novelty of his invention and his profanely employed Witt I doe assure him that I my self being then a young Student in Oxford was witness of a far greater and if Fancy alone be considered far better deserved Applause given to a Preather who in a Repetition-Sermon to the Vniversity descanting on the whole life of our Saviour rendred him and his Attendants men and women Obiects of the utmost scorn and a version as if they all of them had been only a pack of dissolute Vagabonds and Cheats This the Preacher performed taking on him the person of a Iewish Pharisee and Persecutour of Christ. And he performed it so to the life that he would have shamed Lucian and raised envy in the Doctour himself But presently upon it changing his stile as became a Disciple of Christ he with such admirable dexterity and force of Reason answered all the Cavillations and Invectives before made that the loudly repeated Applauses of his Hearers hindred him a good space from proceeding Notwithstanding this the Grave Doctours and Governours of the Vniversity though much satisfied with his Intellectuall abilities yet wisely considering that a petulant histrionicall Stile even in Obiections did not befitt so Sacred a Subiect and that it was not lawfull to personate too naturally a deriding Iew obliged the Preacher to a publick Recantation-Sermon in the same Pulpit the Sunday following And this deservedly For Vitium simulari non potest Virtus potest 13. If the Doctour would now make a second Essay of his Witt and invention on severall Stories as we find them recorded in Holy Scripture he would perhaps find his Fancy as inventive and if Nature had denyed him the Devill would no doubt once more furnish him with Expressions as apt to move the Spleen and laughter of his present applauding Readers as any are now found in his Book by which means he perhaps may arrive at the glory to be acknowledged the Head of a New Sect of the Ecclesiae Malignantium And unless Report deceives us there are already severall Books of the Holy Bible descanted upon in a stile like to his and it may be the unhappy Authours conceive that the same Press may without an Imprimatur be allowed them also 14. It is not now my purpose to make a particular Vindication of each Saint traduced by him But considering the publick Interest obliging the whole Western Patriarchat and most especially England to be tender of the Honour of S. Benedict by whose Disciples if they were Fanaticks Christianity has been
in a wonderfull Extasy he found himself present in Paradise and there saw and heard as he thought God only knows what Now what soever it was that he saw and heard he was no doubt willing to have communicated it to his brethren but he had not the power to doe it No human language could afford words to express matters so elevated and Divine For if it could I am assured he who was the greatest master of language that perhaps ever was had not failed to do it Nay more which still encreases the wonder though he professes that he really saw and heard these inexplicable glorious things yet he could not determin whether all the while his corporall sences externall or internall were employed in this Divine Visitation 44. This was surely according to the Doctours grounds the greatest Fanatick that ever was yea the father of all Fanaticks Yet the Doctour dares not call him so after he is told that this was S. Paul and that he it was who describes the Revelations communicated to him by Gods Divine Spirit describes them I say by not describing them but by professing that no human language could describe them nor humane fancy comprehend them This certainly the Doctour will not deny to have been a Passive Vnion so derided by him of S. Pauls soule with God for he contributed nothing actively either to the procuring or enioying of it 45. If therefore Mystick Writers many of them persons both of great Sanctity and Learning in endeavouring to describe what passed in their soules during Vnions far inferiour to those of S. Paul are forced to make Expressions out of the common road and not agreeing with School Philosophy if observing that in pure Contemplative Prayer their own operations and the infusions of Gods Spirit are so in time in the soule that it seems to them that there is as it were a Region of it beyond the discovery of Philosophy which they think fit to call the Apex mentis and Fundus animae the Doctour might without any further guilt have abstained from imputing Fanaticism to Ludo vicus Blosius or M. Cressy for transcribing such expressions But this is a Sycophancy inexcusable in the Doctour who mentions such Mystical phrases on purpose to deride them as unintelligible Non-sence and at the same time omitts the setting down expressions which interpret them 46. But there is one speciall Phrase which above the rest cited by M. Cressy exposes him to the Doctours utmost contempt This is where it is sayd that In the supreme Degree of Contemplative Prayer the soule is so united to God as if nothing were existent but God and the soule Yea so far is the soule from reflecting on her own existence that it seems to her God and she are not distinct but one only thing This is called by some Mysticks an Vnion of nothing with nothing in which the soule comes to a feeling of her not being and by consequence of the not being of Creatures the which is indeed a reall Truth True says the Doctour this is indeed either a reall Truth or else Intollerable Non-sense 47. Now I suppose it is not for the Doctours interest to seem to have received any satisfaction from persons iniured by him Therefore addressing myself to any indifferent Reader I doe affirm that the most supreme affirmative Notion that we can have of God is that which is implyed in his most adorable incommunicable name of Iehova or as himself interprets it Sum qui Sum I am what I am which imports an infinite Vniversall Plenitude of Being Therefore as the Schoole Doctours say if we hold to the Notion of Being between the Being of God and the limited participated Being of Creatures there is an infinite distance and by consequence Creatures compared with God have more of Not-being then they have of Being in which regard their denomination so considered ought rather to be taken from not-being then from being Thus the Sthooles which if they speak Nonsense for my part I think they doe not yet surely the nonsense is not intolerable 48. But moreover Mystick Divines though they acknowledge the Infinitenes Totality and Vniversality of Gods Being yet they rather chuse to which choice the Nature of Contemplative Prayer even forces them to reiect all distinct affirmative Notions of God and his perfections as coming Infinitely short of his Divine Nature and which indeed are falsely applied to him if considered as they are comprehended by us and they frame to themselves a Negative Notion of him by separating from him all Attributes whatsoever comprehended by us because as such they are indeed imperfections And to instill into our minds such a Notion of God of all others least imperfect he is pleased to describe himself in Scriptures to be inaccessible light that is light though infinitely glorious yet to us invisible and invisible because of the excess of its Visibility Hence he is sayd to dwell in darknes and to make darknes his secret place and his pavilion round about him to be dark waters and thick clouds of the skyes In this darknes it is that God is contemplated in pure Spirituall Prayer in which all Images and positive Notions of the Divinity being reiected an Incomprehensible Nothing remains to which the Soule is united and in whose presence all Created Beings are annihilated In this darkness therefore contemplative Soules have as it were an experimentall perception of what Schoolmen deduce from reasoning 49. It seems now to mee that a weaker Capacity then the Doctours may perceive in this no intolerable Nonsense Yea I must add that here the Doctour gives a manifest proof of his dishonesty in wilfully leaving out that which evidētly explains M. Cressy's meaning which if it had not been concealed from the Readers would have rendred his Assertion touching the Not-being of Creatures to be most rationall For thus M. Cressy in Sancta Sophia Treat 3. p. 304. treating of the State of Perfection writes In this State the soule comes to a feeling indeed of her Not being and by consequence of the Not being of Creatures The which indeed is reall Truth Not as if the soule or other creatures either did cease according to their Naturall Being or as if a natural Being were indeed no reall Being as F. Benedict Canfield doth seem to determin But because all sinfull adhesion by affection to creatures being annihilated then they remain as to the soule only in that true Being which they have in God by dependance on him and relation to him so that he alone is all in all Whereas while we sinfully adhere unto them by staying in them with Love we carry our selves towards them as if we thought them to have a Being or subsistance of and in themselves and not of God only and that they might be loved for themselves without reference to God Which is the fundamentall Errour and root of all Sin 50. Thus the Doctour deales with his Catholick Adversaries He can at pleasure
Teachers does it not necessarily follow that all Sectaries are equally iustifiable since it is impossible without looking into their thoughts to evince against them that they have not enquired soberly What monstrous opinions now may not hereby be justified and what possibility of confuting them now if among such opinions this be one That it is the necessary Duty of a Christian Subiect to contribute all that is in his Power even goods and life it self to sett up the true Religion that is his own Sect and this against all Power whatsoever civill or Ecclesiasticall which shall seek to oppress it what will the Doctour standing to his own Principles say hereto if he had a mind to oppose it Now that such an Opinion may possibly spring up and the Assertours of it may pretend that it is grounded on evident Scripture the Doctour himself will not deny since I am sure he remembers and has reason to do so that this was the Architectonicall Principle common to all Sects in the like Rebellion this was thundred out in Pulpits of this all Pamphlets were full the Bible and nothing but the Bible was all their warrant the Bible was the Ensign carried up aloft before their Troops as if the King Bishops and all their party had been professed Enemies to the Bible or had grounded their Religion upon the Alcoran whereas indeed all these Sects had turned Christs Doctrine into that bloody law of Mahomet Yet notwithstanding all this the Doctour zealously and furiously against the Papists still contends for putting the Bible into all mens hands and assures them that they are the only Legall Iudges of the sense of it in Necessaries upon condition they will only say that they are Sober Enquirers into it 57. This seems to me to be an evident consequence of the Doctours Principle a Principle never acknowledged in Gods Church for above fourteen hundren years by any one Orthodox Christian or by any unless by some whom the Doctour himself will call Hereticks If the Doctour think I doe not speak truth lett him search and lett him employ his freinds to search into Libraries let them consult all the ancient Fathers of the Church and all Councills and when they have done and seen themselves deserted by all Antiquity and Vertually condemnd and Anathematized by all Councills which pretend to have right to teach and to oblige Christians to yeeld their assent will it not follow that his Religion hath a most pittifully unstable and sandy Foundation But to return from this digression to an argument more gratefull to the Doctour the Fanaticism by him imputed to the Catholick Church with regard to the Prayer of Contemplation 58. Whereas M. Cressy in his Sancta Sophia among severall things by which Liberty of Spirit may be hindered reckons this for one The doing actions meerly for edification the Doctour in scorn adjoyns hereto these words A most excellent and Apostolicall Doctrine These words shew that the Doctour likes not that saying but I cannot imagin what reason he had for it Our Saviour indeed requires that our light should shine before men that they seeing our good works might being edified glorifie our heavenly Father But this concerns only such good works as our Duty obliges vs to doe in Publick But as for other duties such as is Prayer and Fasting he bids us retire into our closets to practise them there without an eye to the Edifiing others and condemns the Pharisees for doing them that they may be seen of men In like manner those who are called to an Internall life and Solitude for them to quitt their proper Exercises to goe abroad on purpose to do actions good in themselves for no other end but Meerly to give a good example for the Edification of others was there iustly esteemed a prejudice to the liberty of Spirit necessary for their state 59. But moreover I would ask the Doctour whether being at Church in a publick Duty and not having any Devotion himself at present he would esteem it a commendable action to pretend to much fervour by lifting vp his eyes or beating his breast and this meerly and only to the end that others seeing him might be edifyed himself being nothing the better for such grimaces or would he give an Alms before people meerly for their edification and not out of a Motive of Charity inherent in himself Truly if he should doe all this in such a manner I should be none of his admirers And much lesse do I or I think any good Christian admire him for his Book so full af all manner of Vnchristian affections which surely he cannot pretend to be written meerly for edification and for which I hope his Judgement is not soe perverted as to expect a reward from God who litle esteems witt without Charity or rather witt shewed for the destruction of Charity and Truth also 60. After this the Doctour out of the same Book mentioning the Supernaturall Favours which innumerable Catholick Writers both ancient and Modern do testify to have been communicated by Almighty God to his servants after a constant exercise of Internall Prayer and Mortification the Doctour I say would have his Reader think that his deriding of these is a sufficient confutation And I may more justly think that a sober Reader will Judge that the only mentioning of a proceeding so contrary to all rules of reasoning is a sufficient Reply 61. What hath been hitherto sayd is even too much touching the defence of a Book of Prayer published by M. Cressy in which the Church of England is so litle concerned and which was compiled for the use of good devout humble Soules and not at all for persons of the Doctours temper Those eminently learned and Pious Fathers and particularly R. F. Leander a S. Martino who with great care perused the severall Spirituall Treatises written by R. F. Baker and gave their Approbations of them were persons in all regards for their profound universall Learning far exalted above the censures of Malignant Pedants and the devout soules to whose practise they recomended those pious Instructions have reaped such fruits from them such effectuall helps far their advancement in the Divine Love and Spirituall Perfection that the bouffoneries of such a Doctour will only produce this effect upon them to give God daily thanks that they have escaped from a Church in which blasphemous Invectives against Gods Saints and the Science of Saints are not only permitted but applauded and rewarded 62. None can justly wonder that a soule so manifestly voyd of Divine Love should want both light and tast in such things Daamantem sentit quod dicimus saith S. Augustin But does the Doctour hope that because he understands not and therefore proudly contemns Misticall Theology and the Exercises of an Internall life the Catholick Church and Governours of it will abate their esteem of that Blessing which manifestly proves that Gods Holy Spirit does not communicate his most sublime and