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A58850 The method and means to a true spiritual life consisting of three parts, agreeable to the auncient [sic] way / by the late Reverend Matthew Scrivener ... ; cleared from modern abuses, and render'd more easie and practicall. Scrivener, Matthew. 1688 (1688) Wing S2118; ESTC R32133 179,257 416

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lost their understanding but like to that Great Example set by Christ for imitation here and salvation hereafter SECT III. That in purifying our selves principall care is to be taken of the puritie of our Faith and of the affections of the Inward Man not neglecting outward severities 1. FAith is not only by the Reformed very often but sometimes by the Unreformed also of great note compared to and call'd an Hand But if this hand of Faith be all on the taking side and little on the giving both which are properties equally of the spirituall hand then is it verie defective For the Philosopher termed the hand of the Bodie the Organ of Organs or Instrument of all other Instruments usefull to us and such is Faith to our spirituall life and actions given us to work the work of God with If therefore it be only extended to receive Christ and justification by him to the quietation of the sollicitous and troubled Conscience and not to prepare the way by diligent and dutifull actions our faith being first unfaithfull to God will in the end also prove treacherous to our own Souls And that Instrument which is blunt or ill framed in it selfe is very apt to marr the work intended Without a good Pen a man how expert soever cannot make a good letter and much lesse write a fair hand And not only an hereticall Faith subverting the true Faith but an Orthodox and sound yet barren credulous presumptuous unactive impatient of both good and evill fond contumacious turbulent or unnecessary querulous and quarrelsome being entertained and rested on drawes neerer to perdition than salvation how flattering soever it may appear to the owner of it 2. And on the other side blinde zeal and violence rather than zeal going about to reforme the Soule with an unreformed or unsanctified Faith doe oftentimes expose the Bodie and Soule to unprofitable and dangerous injuries perhaps upon a mistake of perfection commended to us in the Holy Gospell For instance If a man should put out his own Eyes lest they should or because they had misled him or to the end he might become a better Philosopher as they write of some Philosophers and it is said of Didymus the Alexandrian otherwise an holy Christian given to contemplation or if a man should mutilate himselfe because he would not be chosen a Bishop of which Antiquitie gives us instances or to prevent or to revenge acts of unlawfull Lusts should destroy what Nature hath ordained or in fine should having fallen into any great and shamefull sin think to make propitiation for the same by laying violent hands upon himselfe all this must be imputed rather to want than abundance of Faith and to impenitence accumulating sin unto sin till the Soule sinks under the weight which by true Faith might have been removed or lightened 2. The inordinate passions therefore of the minde are to be the task of every good Christian and the purging or chastizing of the irregular appetites and casting out of doors and so purging the Temple of God as Nehemiah did the profane Stuffe of Tobiah the Samaritan out of the Chambers of the House of the Lord polluted thereby Severall Inmates there are which either creep in for entertainment or perhaps plead prescription which must be dislodged or there will in a short time be found no room for the Master of the House himselfe to reside in or rule over the Soule To wash the outside of the Bouls Platters and Cups is not amisse for it is required of every man not only to be religious but to appear so lest he comes under the condemnation of those who are ashamed of Christ his Doctrine and holie Discipline but to content our selves with that pittance of performance is to rank our selves with the Pharisees and Hypocrites condemned by Christ Oh that there were such an heart in them was the wish of God himselfe to his peculiar people the Israelites Deuteron 5. 19. when they promised fair and spake well concerning obedience which God requires But not the obedience of the tongue which without the heart ends only in aery Complements absurdly used towards men and ridiculously towards God when the heart is far from him And far is that heart and must needs be so from God which is unclean and unclean it must needs be which entertains such a Rabble of lusts which like drunken Companions in Taverns or Alehouses quarrel notoriously one with another but agree to foul the Room with their Pipes Pots Glasses Liquor and perhaps with their own vomit and other evacuations The sober man seeing this disorder and hearing such noise and havock sayes I would not be bound to dwell there if I might have never so much And can we think that Gods pure and piercing Eye beholding such distempers of the Spirit and disorders which the lusts of the flesh make in the Soule and the uncleannesse contracted thereby can or will condescend to take up his habitation there Into a malicious Soule wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the bodie which is subject to sin Wisdome 1. 4. For all sin consisteth of two things contrary to Wisdome and to God the Fountaine of Wisdome Folly and Foulnesse which cannot consist with the Spirit of Holinesse and the true Wisdome which cometh from above and is first pure and then peaceable c. 3. If it were therefore only because God so frequently so earnestly so pressingly requires inward Puritie Puritie of intention and understanding which qualifie exceedingly actions otherwise irregular and faulty Puritie of affections freed from smuttie delectations and cleer and sincere and fixed and fervent towards the best Objects and that upon the best Grounds and Motives Gods service and honour who well advised would not apply himselfe to so noble and necessary a task as the searching and trying his heart and casting out thence whatever may cor●upt the rest of his exteriour services and offend the eyes of his heavenly Father though not scandalous to man. 4. And this may be another Motive to interiour holinesse the powerfull influence the inward temper and disposition of the minde hath upon all exteriour actions whether good or evill For according to the Regencie of the minde is the obedience of the outward man as our most wife and holie Master Christ informes us saying Mark 7. 21. From within out of the heart of men proceed evill thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousnesse wickednesse deceit lasciviousnesse an evill eye blasphemie pride foolishnesse All these evill things come from within and defile the man. All sin defiles but principally and in the first place the inward man and thence as from a bitter or corrupt Fountain-head unsound and impure actions doe flow Or as we see in Clocks and Watches the Hand outward pointing to the hour goes true or false according to the Spring and inward frame of them so our externall practices are right just and holy or on the contrarie false and depraved according to the
Possessions And I can think little more reverently of the frequentation of Visions and Revelations celebrated in the Lives of those three famous Women published together viz. Hildegardis Elizabeth Micthildis which afford us such instances by bushells as it were I will not instance in Jacobus de Voragine his Golden Legend nor Caesarius Heiberstachius as I could to the great disadvantage of that Cause which was intended to be advanced thereby as such at which the modester and graver of the Roman Communion need not any other to put them upon blushing at they doe it of themselves But when I read in the Visions of Katharine of Sienna sainted a perpetuall storie of God himselfe appearing to her and preaching in person to her almost through the whole book though I like the Sermon very well and must needs acknowledge the Documents deliver'd to be many of them very Divine and usefull I cannot assent unto the Scene there given us If these Revelations as we say of Phanaticall and pretended Inspirations and gifts of Prayer in Publick were so Divine as reputed and affirmed why doe they not become Canonicall Why are they not equallized to the Holy Scriptures But things are not come to that height thankes be to God unlesse with them who glorying immodestly of a Light within them and the Word and Will and Wisdome of God given into them contemne the written Word themselves for this very reason becoming suspected convicted and detestable 10. But those Visions which are so practicall and grosse as that they end as in their consummation in the gratifying of our senses outward and them the grossest overthrow in my opinion the spiritualnesse and even the honesty of Revelations and notably shake the reputation of that Religion which countenances them If it were recorded only in an unapproved Author what I finde in the Sermon of an eminent Preacher Granatensis Vol. 5. pag. 387. concerning the same Katharine of Sienna Granatens Vol. 5. Conc. 3. in Cathar pag. 387. it might have been lesse scandalous to read of the great and frequent familiarity between Christ and her so that termes of wooing passed between them for a long time till at length she was sensibly espoused to him but what were the consequences of that Wedding I know not This to my apprehension is a true consequence of such Revelations that it must be the Devill rather than Christ that so appeared and led away a silly Woman laden with sinne in the midst of her profession of Sanctity or that these Talemongers have shamefully belied that reputed Saint And on the other side the like instances might be given of such who were so vehemently devoted to the Virgin Mary as to win her love so far as to condescend to suffer her breasts to be handled by her Saints A little more cleanly and credible is that story in the Remains of Gregorie Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neocaesarea of an Exposition of the Faith which he received from Saint John the Evangelist by the meanes of Mary the Mother of God. But the Romanists themselves are so modest we thank them as not to hold it to be the same we now have under that name And we are so bold to tell them that their Visions Miracles and Revelations so much sometimes with the ignorant sort boasted of have done them more discredit with the wiser than good or honour 11. And to these another note of true and false Illuminations and Alluminations which I may call all outward Discoveries made to the senses may be that made by the observation of the Masters of such Learning That in the true and near approach of God and his Holy Spirit to the sense outward or minde inward first great trouble surprisement consternation and deep humiliation are wrought upon the spirit of him the Lord vouchsafes so to honour with his presence as it appears by Ezechiell the Prophet Daniell and before them by Manoah who were struck with dread and confusion at the Revelations made unto them as likewise was the Blessed Virgin at the aspect and Annunciation of the Angell Gabriell but in the winding up and conclusion they were all refreshed and comforted aboundantly On the contrary the specious Pageantry and Insinuations of Evill Angells are begun with great delight of the deluded minde and in the conclusion bring shame sorrow and confusion answerable indeed to the method of the tempter in all other Cases in which the good Wine is brought forth first of which when men have well drunk followes the bad but Christ first sets before his faithfull servants the bad and keepeth the best to the last of all that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to doe thee Good at the latter end as it is said Deuteron 8. ver 16. Brisk Pert and vaunting are the gifted by Evill Spirits reflecting upon such their perfections above others but modest humble and grave are they who are indeed taught of God. 12. And thus having briefly prepared the true Christian with a prospect given him of the nature use and necessitie of true Spirituall Illuminations translating him out of the Kingdome of darknesse into the marvellous light of saving Knowledge and Faith before due progresse can be made to the life and power of Faith in holy Conversation and likewise shewed the hazards of miscarrying through mistaken Light I proceed to the Second Part of Christian walking with God by walking according to that Light consisting principally in Spirituall Purgation or Sanctification A Prayer for Spirituall Illumination O Allmighty God and Heavenly Father the Light and life of the world lying in darknesse Who by thy Son Jesus Christ coming into the world enlightenest every one that cometh into the world and whome to know is eternall Life But who can know thee the Father but the Son and he to whome he shall reveale him and yet none can come unto the Son unlesse the Father draw him and none doth the Father draw unto him but by his holy Spirit teaching all things Send down I beseech thee that Spirit of light life and truth into my minde and heart that they may preserve me prevent and informe me and rule me that by that key of knowledge the door of my heart may be opened and the eyes of my understanding to perceive the things of God which are only spiritually discerned and that I may not love darknesse rather than light because my deeds are evill But grant that in thy light I may see Light and know how to choose the good and refuse the Evill not calling darknesse light nor light darknesse nor bitter sweet nor sweet bitter nor good evill nor evill good Various are the Mazes and Labyrinths of this World and many are lost in them Difficult is the road and strait is the way that leadeth unto trueth and life and few there be that find them Dangerous it is to lean to mine own understanding or wisdome who am but of yesterday and know nothing as I ought