II. A brief description of the Illuminative Purgative and Vnitive way of Religion p. 9 SECT III. Of the necessity of Illumination and of Faith with its subordinate Graces especially conducing thereunto p. 12 SECT IV. That Faith and naturall Reason improved is the onely proper cause of Illumination being taken for the things revealed whereof some principall heads are here given p. 20 SECT V. Of the Grace and act of Faith leading to Illumination and of the difficulties and meanes of believing p. 40 SECT VI. Of the gift and guidance of Gods Spirit towards true Illumination the abuse and true uses of it noted And of the necessitie of believing p 51 SECT VII Of Illumination Reflexive whereby the Christian Soule comes to the knowledge of its selfe in its Spirituall State. p. 63 SECT VIII Of Revelations or Illuminations extraordinarie by Spirits and the discerning of them with the use of such Revelations p. 76 The Second Part. Of the Purgative part of Religion SECT I. THAT Action and good Works must be added to true knowledge and Believing And of the distinction of sins to be purged Page 99 SECT II. Of the Office of Faith in purging the Soule from sinfull defilements p. 105 SECT III. That in purifying our selves principall regard is to be had to the puritie of Faith and of the affections of the Inward Man not neglecting outward severities p. 114 SECT IV. Of the proper meanes and methode of cleansing the Soule And first of Baptisme p. 124 SECT V. Of the Grace and power of Repentance in cleansing the Soule p. 129 SECT VI. That this purgative Repentance must be generall of all sins and perpetuall p. 147 SECT VII Of Selfe deniall required to true Reformation and that both of Vnderstanding and Will. p. 156 SECT VIII Of the custodie and discipline to be had over the outward man especially the Eyes Eares and Tongue p. 174 SECT IX Of outward moderation and modestie to be used in abstinences and Apparell p. 189 SECT X. The connexion of what hath passed with what followes concerning the Seven Capitall Sins p. 201 SECT XI Of Pride the first deadly or Capitall Sin. p. 203 SECT XII Of Anger a Second Capitall Sin its Concomitants and Remedies p. 219 SECT XIII Of the deadly sin of Envy its nature and Remedies p. 233 SECT XIV Of the Capitall Sin Covetousnesse p. 244 SECT XV. Of Luxurie and Vncleannesse p. 254 SECT XVI Of Gluttonie its sinfullnesse and Cure. p. 265 SECT XVII Of Slothfullnesse the last Capitall Sin. p. 277 SECT XVIII The Conclusion of this Second Part with some short advices relating to what hath been said therein p. 288 The Third Part. Treating of the Unitive Way of the devout Soule with God. SECT I. Of the Nature of true Vnion with God and of Mysticall Theologie and of the Abuses and due Vse thereof p. 297 SECT II. That this Vnion consisteth chiefly in the true knowledge of God and Love experimentall and reciprocall p. 304 SECT III. Of the excesse of Vnitive Love of God in Extasies and Raptures with their abuses and uses noted p. 309 SECT IV. Of the Vnion of the Soule with God by Divine Contemplation and Meditation with some instances of particular Subjects for this latter p. 317 SECT V. Of the Vnion we have with God in Prayer habituall and actuall as the proper matter of Worshippe p. 328 SECT VI. Of the defects incident to the Act of Praying and their Remedies p. 334 SECT VII Of the due use of Publique and Private Prayer p. 342 SECT VIII Of the severall sorts of Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall Supramentall Extemporarie Formed or fixed as allso of Singing of Psalmes p. 350 SECT IX Of Vnion and Communion with God in the Holy Eucharist or Lords Supper to which certain instructions are premised p. 359 SECT X. Of the difficulties and dangers in receiving the Holy Communion here discussed p. 367 SECT XI Other impediments and scruples observed against Communicating especially with their proper Remedies p. 378 SECT XII A brief recapitulation of what hath been treated of before with advices and directions concerning the interruption and recoverie of actuall Communion with God and of Consolations p. 387 THE Methode and Means TO TRUE SPIRITUALL LIFE The First Part Treating of Spirituall Illumination SECT 1. Previous advice concerning the Necessity Reasonablenesse and Vsefulnesse of being truly Religious 1. THERE being three principall Stages as I may so speak which every true Christian is to passe over in his travail towards that Sabbath of Blessednesse hoped for hereafter and aspired to it may seem both very methodicall and profitable to that great end to prepare the way thither by cleering up the defaced Characters written by Gods own finger on the tables of Mans heart concerning the sense of God and Religion towards him in generall that such a fundamentall perswasion being well received the edification in our most holy faith may be more firme absolute and better advanced 2. For what may we call Religion speaking here more practically than artificially but a thorow conviction of a Supream Being and Power able to save and destroy everlastingly inferring a strong and just obligation upon all creatures especially Man to pay the debt of veneration and obedience to that God from whom he received his present being and to whom he owes his subsistence and upon whom depends his future state of happinesse or misery 3. But may it not here allso be said Who hath believed our report and to whom hath the Arme of the Lord been revealed too many obstinately refusing any better guidance or conduct of their Lives but such as may favour their degenerous and dangerous humour of gratifying their sensuall appetites hurrying them to a liberty inconsistent with that whereby we are made free to God by Christ Jesus For his service being perfect freedome ' when we are dedicated to him in Baptisme we renounce the servitude and turpitude of the world and enter our selves Apprentices to learne and doe the will of God by Religion the Art of all Arts God at the same time Indenting and Covenanting with Believers so faithfully serving him when their times come out by death in this world to give them a more noble and desireable freedome by making them Citizens in Hierusalem which is above the Mother of us all than which the heart of man can desire no greater or better event of all his labours and services in the world nor so good nor great remuneration 4. Who would not then sometimes retire into the chamber of his heart and seriously consider these things And who considering these things would not apply himselfe to this so necessary so divine and beneficiall a work shall we see so many Artists of this world strive to excell one another not only for lucre sake but esteem of men in their severall professions and trades and shall we be cold indifferent and carelesse in this of Religion the glory of all How many have become poor infamous
miserable and perished finally merely for want of Religion better informing and governing them And how many on the other side hath Religion celebrated and immortalized above all other arts sciences or heroick Feats in the world How many pittifull persons in the eye of the world for birth parts education possessions and the like admired by the world have outshin'd men even in this world in true honour whom yet the world has accounted most renowned and happy and after this life have perpetuated their names longer and propagated them farther than the wisest of the worlds Philosophers and the noblest Princes and Potentates thereof And yet how few are there who contend so zealously for this as the other 5. For what are all arts or sciences or powers or pleasures or profits unsanctified or unseasoned by Religion but so many instruments of wickednesses cousenages and villanies And what are all humane Societies and Polities but so many shops of injustice deceits and uncontroulable rapine and spoil without Religion influencing the conscience and regulating the Actions of Men For without this no such Lawes can be enacted which may secure either the persons of men from violence or their properties from injuries And the advantage that some irreligious persons make to themselves by contemning Religious Rules tends directly to the ruine of the Common body or innumerable particular persons For one man having no sense or conscience of God and the fear due to him corrupts wines and other drinks with some benefit to himselfe and great prejudice to the bodies of many more others falsyfie stuffes silks and cloaths and deceive the wearer others counterfeit lawfull money contrary to the Standard and bring dammage to their neighbours and often losse of life and goods to themselves Others defraud in weights and measures others emboldened by gainfull successe in unjust practices cast off wholly the very vizor of Conscience and Religion and with open face rob and spoile their neighbour and in conclusion bring confusion to themselves 6. These are indeed lamentable consequences of an irreligious mind but how much more to be lamented and avoided are the corruptions and wasts made upon the Inward man by the want of Religion How hereupon doe as well monstrous as pernicious dogmes invade the understanding and mislead it into many idle foolish false and absurd paradoxes And these prevailing how are the affections set at liberty to run into all manner of sensualities and sophisticate the powers of the Soule more criminall in the account of God than corrupting the Kings coin or defacing maliciously his Image can be with men more prejudicial to man himselfe than outward blindnesse of the eyes mutilation of members or lamenesse of limbs as our Saviour teaches when he tells us it is better to goe to heaven without a right eye or right hand than having such iutegrity of bodily parts to be cast into hell for want of true Religion But because such as want Religion are least of all sensible of such remote and inevident evills preached against wanters of Religion it may not be inconvenient to bring down the Appeal against them to their senses and outward observations which may inform us what havock irreligion makes upon mens persons and outward conditions bringing their wits into suspicion of weakness who to appear somebody in dogmatizing are constrained to take up the opposing the received principles of Religion an extraordinary subject drawing mens ears to listen after such a vain Philosopher whom otherwayes no man would regard talking and walking according to the known Rules of sobriety and piety through the defects of reason ayming at no greater glory than those obscure and pittifull fellowes of little or no place or power considerable who to acquire somewhat of a name provoke and set upon invincible Champions or choose to perish by a Royal hand 7. And must not the portion of reason be very weak and low in him who undertakes the oppugning that which so many before him have attempted without any other event than their own infamy and stupidity after a wilfull opposing the once approved truth For so impregnable is the Rock of Religion that it could never be master'd considerably by any assaults nor so far sunck or lost to the view and approbation of men by the leaden weights of mens ratiocinations but it buoy'd it self up above all such enemies and triumphed over them while the names and memory of its adversaries rotted and their own deeds contrary to Religion oppress'd them in their vices and confounded them So that delighting not to know God but holding the truth in unrighteousnesse stupendous infatuations have seized upon many of their mindes and disturbed their affections that not only contrary to that they call Religion but to that we and they both call Nature they have corrupted and abused themselves so that such things as they would not understand in processe of time they cannot and those actions which seemed unreasonable and brutish once to themselves become their supreme perfections in which they glory and perhaps perish 8. These mischiefs then foreseen and the contrary benefits of Religion discerned and believed put me upon the designe of S. Paul desiring men to suffer a word of Exhortation that they would be reconciled to Reason sometimes magnified by them in word but not so often allowed of in practice to God and to Religion and to Christ Jesus bringing salvation unto all men whereby they can only be happy And that they would not here expect demonstrations to compell them to come into the Faith nor eloquence to perswade them not pretended to here but the simplicitie of the truth and the power of Godlinesse and the tranquillity of minde and conscience no otherwayes to be attained and the unspeakable happinesse believed and expected hereafter may suffice to awaken divers to enquire seriously whether these things be so as good Bereans which will easily appear to every unprejudiced minde under this great advantage above worldly doctrines that none of these have so much as dar'd to promise so great future blessings in a world to come nor have any made good such fair promises of present happinesse in this world which notwithstanding so many have been charmed with and unhappily trusted to and been deluded by 9. But yet I would not be here so understood as if I intended to insist upon the Principles of Christian Religion but supposing that to be the truest and most perfect and also the Scriptures to be the word of Life and of God and Rule of Faith and holy worship and Christ the true Messias that was to come into the world and that there shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust yet I held it requisite speaking of Illumination to instance in the principal heads of Christian Knowledge and Faith whereby Religion doth furnish the minds of believers which either not at all are to be found in other books or so uncertainly and obscurely as the full assurance of them
to know To whome therefore should I betake my selfe for help and succour but to thee O Lord who alone canst open the eyes of him that is borne blinde and who art the Father of Lights from whome cometh every good and perfect gift and givest to all men liberally and upbraidest not And how should we come unto thee but through Jesus Christ who is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption In him therefore coming unto thee I pray thee to give me wisdome that sitteth by thy Throne and reject me not from thy Children For I thy servant and son of thy handmaid am a feeble person and of short time and too young and weak for the understanding of judgement and thy Lawes O send her out of thy holy heavens and from the throne of thy glorie that being present she may labour with me that I may know what is pleasing unto thee and what is that good and acceptable will of God. For hardly do we guesse aright of the things that are upon earth and with labour doe we finde the things that are before us but the things that are in heaven who hath searched out but by thy Spirit which searcheth all things even the hidden things of God. I am a stranger and a Pilgrim upon earth O hide not thy Commandments from me that so having a sound and saving knowledge of thee and of my selfe and mine own wayes of my errours and my negligences and ignorances of mine infirmities and emptinesses and so diffident in and disliking my selfe I may apply my selfe to thee lay hold on thy strength partake of thy fullnesse and freenesse and have a sincere faith in thee a fervent love of thee and holy life before thee and professing thee outwardly may believe thee inwardly and serve thee in all good works in all godly conversation and honesty and persevere therein through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen The Second Part. OF THE PURGATIVE PART OF RELIGION SECT 1. That Action and good Works must be added to true Knowledge and Believing And of the distinction of Sins to be purged 1. AS Light was at the first Creation produced by God as an Introduction to his Six-dayes workes so hath he continued that light to all his Creatures but especially Man the greatest Artist of all other to the better discharge of those Acts and Offices assigned him in the few dayes of his labour in this World. And according to his gift in workes of Nature hath he provided a proportionable light of Understanding and Faith to give him Means Rule and Opportunity to work the work of God and that especially upon his own soule to the end it may draw near unto God both in likenesse of perfection and fruition of blessednesse For the Image of God defaced by our Apostacie having contracted many and monstrous deformities the great businesse we are to be imployed about is how to refashion our selves to that Grand Patern which became visible to us by the Incarnation of Christ the brightnesse of Gods glorie and the expresse Image of his Father So that as we see it is with Statuaries who are to make an accurate Image out of a rude and naturall stone taken out of the Quarrie what light is necessarie what judgement what diligence by little and little to chip and hew away all irregular parts and roughnesse till the intended forme riseth out of it so must it be with every good Christian to whom God hath given his Light to work by and Instruments to work with and matter to work upon his own soule over-grown and mishapen and wholly out of order and rule as taken out of the common rock of Nature 2. God therefore hath set up his Holy Word amongst us as the Greater Light to rule the Day according to whose Illumination we should direct and rule all our actions and not contrary to our Saviours advice put it under a Bed or under a Bushell that is not under the bed of slothfulnesse and lazinesse nor under the bushell of worldlinesse and secular businesses and traffickings whereby men are wont to make use of the Scripture the better to advance worldly profits as hypocrites doe or sweetly to flatter themselves that they know much as if the gifts of God to us were service done to him and he were so well satisfied with the talents committed to our trust that he would never require any thing from us or perhaps some lipp-service whereby with religious Discourse we move others to think well of us were to be good and faithfull servants to him though we remained unfruitfull as if he that gives aym to another should perswade himselfe that he had hit the mark himselfe But the Holy Scriptures quite contradict this and that often as St. James 1. 22. Not the hearers of the Law are justified before God but the doers And St. Paul Rom. 2. 13. speaking the same thing Which we must not so understand as if the Law of Moses were here only commended but the Law of Christ obedience to whom is no lesse necessary to our justification and salvation than the workes of Moses his Law were once necessary to him that would live by them For this is the Doctrine of Christ himselfe Luke 12. 47. He that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes And so where he saith John 8. 19. If ye had not known me ye had had no sin comparatively but now ye say We know therefore your sin remaineth For at the day of Judgement as Gerson observeth it shall not so much be demanded of us how much we know how well skill'd we are in the Scriptures what notable Disputers and Arguers we have been out of them nor how many good Sermons we have heard nor how many Chapters we have read or how often but as the forme of proceeding in that Great Day contained in the Scriptures assures us Matt. 25. 34 36 c. what good workes we have done in the true faith we professe and what good fruits the tree of knowledge of Good and Evill hath produced And in our spirituall warfare it will not suffice to beat the Drum or sound as it were the Trumpet to stir up others to fight that good fight appointed by Christ against flesh and blood and spirituall wickednesses unless as St. Paul exhorteth we quit our selves likemen in Christs Camp. 3. Applying then our selves to so Divine and necessary a work before we can doe what is required we must judge what is amisse and being now about to purge our selves from filthinesse of flesh and spirit as St. Paul speaks 2 Corin. 7. 1. we are first of all to be throughly perswaded of those spots and blemishes which are to be cleansed from the soule and those scales which are to be taken off our Eyes and those infirmities and distempers our souls naturally labour under For we see not if we lament not our rude and polluted naturall state our defects
eares so that if Christ should tell us that it was his Bodie we may as reasonably denie that he doth say what in trueth he doth say For the Eye is a lesse fallible sense than the Ear as Philosophers agree And whereas it is said We cannot see substances themselves but onely Accidents it matters not whether that Opinion be true or false being we see as much of those bodies and their substances as of any substance in the world and no more is needfull 8. Seventhly The sacred Symboles are called the Bodie and Blood of Christ because we should understand the dignity and efficacie and strait conjunction between them and Christ and Christ and us who thereby receive him as our Food 9. Lastly The meanes whereby we so receive Christ in this Blessed Sacrament is Faith as is truely and generally said but not alltogether as some may understand and conceive For Faith as in our Sanctification so in our Justification doth work and no otherwise doth it make us worthie and happie Communicants For it layes the foundation of all our Religion and becoming lively by love and Charitie gives life to all our spirituall performances and consequently renders them effectuall to us So that we must believe first according to the true Catholique Faith in generall then specially the nature ends and uses of this Sacrament Lastly we must have a comfortable perswasion of the goodnesse of God in accepting us in the Sacrament and his dispensations towards us but there must allso be joyned herewith 1. Discerning the Lords Body and that not to be it properly which we see but that which is invisible and spiritually taken 2. That we judge our selves by examination and humiliation of our selves that by rashnesse of approach we be not condemned of the Lord. 3. Invocation of Gods mercie for past sins and of his assisting Grace for preventing the like future failings and falls as we have been formerly subject to 4. To have no malice nor notorious hatred in our hearts but Charitie to all men especially towards them with whome we communicate 5. That we be void of all purpose or designe of committing over again any of those sinnes which we finde in our selves upon due enquity and examination but rather have a sincere how weak soever it may be desire and purpose of living more agreeably to Gods holy Will in all things 6. That we have a good hope through Gods Grace which some miscall Faith that we shall live according to our Vow in Baptisme of old made and there renewed and ratified and that this hope begets a care and conscience of our wayes hereafter lest we by relapsing into former errours dissolve that happie Union and conjunction obtained in this Blessed Sacrament with the Father and the Son. SECT X. Of the Difficulties and dangers in receiving the Holie Communion which are here discussed 1. WE are told in the Office of our Church for the celebration of the Communion That as the benefits are great if with a true penitent heart and a lively Faith we receive that Holy Sacrament so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily for then are we guiltie of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ we eat and drink our own damnation not considering the Lords Body we kindle Gods wrath against us we provoke him to plague us with divers Diseases and sundry kindes of Death All which seems to be drawn from the words of Saint Paul 1 Corin. 11. ver 27. Whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And ver 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himselfe not discerning the Lords Bodie which Speeches it behoveth straitly to understand aright lest by violence used in wresting them to too favourable a sense we occasion the profanation of those Holy Mysteries by rudenesse and presumption of unbelieving and impenitent comers unto it or we so straiten the way to Gods holy Table that Believers and they none of the worst rank should be disheartened and discouraged from approaching to it The genuine sense therefore and importance of those Sayings are faithfully to be unfolded for the better informing of the Judgement and directing and satisfying the Conscience of the cordiall Christian and sincere For it is most certain upon too frequent experience that an horrible abuse is made of the opinion of the Holinesse of the Sacrament and Doctrine of Saint Paul and allso of the Church even now recited and that by worldly and loose men who believing in grosse the sacrednesse of the Communion alledge that for a sufficient cause to excuse themselves from receiving of it when God knowes they have little apprehension either of the Holinesse of that or their unholinesse or unfitnesse pretending more scrupulousnesse and warinesse than others and than the Word of God requires absolutely at their hands though it is granted that divers finde themselves so entangled between the consciousnesse of their own unworthinesse and perswasion of the worthinesse of that that they are unwillingly obstructed in drawing nigh thus unto Christ so mercifully offered to them For whose sake I have prepared these following instructions leaving others to be condemned for their falsenesse and hypocrisie in sacred things by their own consciences and that very judgement which is pretended to be feared in so abstaining 2. First then It is to be granted and supposed by all ingenuous as well as pious Christians that it is in it selfe incredible and a great injurie done to the wisdome and goodnesse of Christ instituting this holy Sacrament to imagine that he should so mock the greatest number of true though weak Believers as to ordain such a Sacrament and to such great ends and propound so great benefits and leave so many gracious and kinde invitations and exhortations to come to him there present and in readinesse to satisfie the hungrie Soule with goodnesse and to feast him with the fat and sweet of his own Table and yet withall cloth that precious Ordinance with so many severe circumstances and clogge it with so many dangerous difficult and heavie Conditions as very few should dare to come at it or be the better for it 3. Secondly There is to be observed a very great difference between Worthy Communicating and due or Fit communicating and that both these are vulgarly and Fallaciously contained in that one word Worthie which hath a double sense For he properly is said to be worthy who is equall in qualifications of Vertue and Graces to the worth and merits of that holy Sacrament and in this acceptation no man may be said to be worthy no not the best prepared and holiest man. Another sense of Worthinesse is that we call'd Fitnesse whereby how unworthy soever a Soule may be of that Sacrament he may be reputed worthy and come acceptably and fruitfully and so that willfully in such cases to absent himselfe may turne to his own
of himselfe that infallibly he shall be saved while he remains very deficient in the common and known duties of a true Christian mistaking the true notion and office of Faith which is not so much to teach us what we are our selves but what God is and what is his Will and what our dutie is to him and the effects of obedience and holy life prescribed by him So that justifying and saving faith is Godliness in the power of it and Godlinesse in the power of which St. Paul speakes is a Confluence of all Christian Graces and Vertues the principall of which are reckoned up by St. Peter where he counselleth 2 Epist 1 5 6. to Adde to faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly kindenesse and to brotherly kindnesse Charitie And having profited so far as to be possessed of such Graces to strive as the same Apostle hath it to abound in the same which having competently attained unto gives the best assurance of the good purpose of our heavenly Father to give us the Kingdome promised to them that believe 4. But the presumptuous and preposterous faith whereby men are prone to phansie themselves into the highest favour of God before they have passed through the discipline of Faith which is laboursome and uneasie to Flesh is that which leadeth men into blindnesse of minde and perhaps perdition in the midst of strong perswasions of the contrary our Saviour Christ teaching us so much where he saith Luke 17. 7. Which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he is come from the field Goe and sit down to meat And will not rather say unto him Make ready wherewith I may suppe and gird thy selfe and serve me and afterward thou shalt eat and drink Which teaches us that it sufficeth not presently to take up our rest of assurance of our salvation by faith speciall so soon as we are called home to God from the wide and wild conversation in the field of this world but must yet farther attend the service God hath for us to doe and then to expect his farther favour of an eternall rest 5. And because amongst various acceptations in holy Scripture of the word Faith it is sometimes used for the Grace of faith and sometimes for the works and fruits of faith every prudent and pious Christian must be very carefull that he puts not such a fallacie upon himselfe as to inferre to himselfe the whole vertue of faith taken in its full latitude upon some particular branch thereof found in him crouding all duties of pietie into one and that rather a preparation unto true religious life than the principall part of it such as knowing and believing and the meanes thereunto tending reading and hearing of Gods holy word For being well initiated in those necessarie principles and helps of devotion there so to stop or in them to improve that acts of faith hope and charitie should be neglected overthrowes the whole design of faith it selfe whereof no small part is to confesse our sins to repent heartily and thorowly to attend to good works and acts of mercie to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance and not to think to commute with God that when he requires private or publique worship we should think it as well and perhaps better to read certain Chapters in the Bible or to be present and heare a Sermon and when God calls to performe good deeds of Charitie in visiting the sick and being at charges for the relief of the poor to exceed in reading and praying supposing such cheaper parts of splendid profession will answer all obligations to God and our necessitous neighbour Whereas it is one principall point of true Christian Illumination by faith to understand what it teacheth us by the Apostle saying Coloss 4. 12. Stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God to the effecting whereof Faith is ordained and given us by God as a tool and Engine not as the work it selfe 6. And therefore the ancient and more experienced Father we read of handsomely and truely reproved the mistakes of three well inclined novices in the sounder part of Piety when the First declaring the course of his Life said with expectation of applause I have got the Old and New Testament by heart Then said the Old man thou hast poured out many words into the air intending he should understand that all that was to very small purpose without proportionable acts of holinesse And the Second said I have wrote over all the Old and New Testament with mine own hand Then said the ancient Father thou hast filled thy windowes with store of paper And the third glorying that the grasse grew on his hearth implying how much cold and hunger he had suffered was answered by the same person Then hast thou driven away hospitality intimating that no man abounding in some good duties must perswade himselfe that he shall thereby make compensation for such defects in other graces willfully neglected being better informed from St. Paul that knowledge and the Scriptures themselves were entrusted with us by God that the man of God may be perfect and thorowly furnished unto all Good workes 2 Tim. 3. 17. And as Davids practice was to have an eye to all Gods commands without exception or limitation Psal 119. 6. 7. Against this if it chances to be objected what vulgarly is said that there is no perfection in this world we may answer without great difficulty That perfection there is in the Scriptures themselves and Christian Religion above what is to be found in any other Authours Sciences or Religions There is a perfection of integritie or of parts which St. Paul to Philemon ver 6. calleth Communication of faith becoming effectuall by the acknowledging of every good thing so that not one vertue or dutie prescribed to a true Christian must be wanting to the true believer however the degrees of those vertues may be and generally are imperfect And yet again having in some degree been initiated into all Christian vertues we are not there to rest as if we had alreadie attained the end of Religion but must prosecute those mean yet good beginnings till we arrive to that pitch which God hath not revealed unto us that he will accept to our justification and salvation but only have a sound firme and comfortable Hope of the Favour of God which some are pleased in these last ages to call Faith justifying But faith properly so called hath for its object truth and that as relating to all men but Hope hath for its object Good and that as pertaining to particular persons of which nature is the perswasion we have of the foresaid Good as truely belonging unto us and thereby as St. John speaks 1 Epist 3. 19. We assure our hearts before him SECT IV. That Faith and not naturall Reason improved is the only
reward of Good and Evill done now in the body is another article of our faith not demonstrable by the wisdome of this world but discerned by Revelation 15. To this likewise appertains the knowledge which Faith teacheth us of the Second coming of Christ in glorie and Justice to be the Great Judge of Quick and Dead bringing his reward with him so that they who have done good shall goe into life eternall and they that have done evill into everlasting fire 16. Lastly as the nerve and bond of our Faith we are by Gods Holy Word taught assuredly that God hath two Cities or Societies in this world of his own Constitution and not framed by the will or power of Man. The one is that Civill Government wherein God hath set his Delegates to maintain order and unitie by the due administration of Justice to whom men are to be subject as the Ministers of God sent to those ends The other is the Church of Christ or companie of true Believers of whom Christ is the supreme Head From whom the whole bodie fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the bodie unto the edifying it selfe in love Ephes 4. 16. And it being impossible that Faith it selfe should subsist long the Church being dissolved and it not being possible the Church should not be dissolved where there is no order of Superiour and Inferiour nor possible that such order should be preserved without subjection and obedience the Catholique Church is to be believed to be holy and obeyed as our Guide and Governour and so is every particular Church managed by lawfully succeeding Pastours to be reverenced and obeyed untill such time that they or it be convicted of some grosse errour and defection from Christ and not only till all exceptions made against them be resolved to our mindes So that enviously and proudly to oppose that Hierarchy instituted by Christ or the precepts delivered by them for the conservation of the Bodie in faith and worship of God is to resist God and not man and to make themselves obnoxious for officiousnesse without authority received of God to shame and perdition 5. And this Abstract of knowledge given us by God in his Revealed Word I held very requisite to premise as the grounds of our Christian faith and as so many instances of his singular favour to his Elect ones in discovering unto them such mysteries as the Princes of this world were and are ignorant of and we might walke worthy of such light given us And to these of a speculative nature might we adde those of the practicall order whereby God doth teach us above the doctrines of men not only not to commit such things which are dishonest unjust unreasonable filthy and the like but not so much as to desire them and that inward concupiscence of evill is a sin condemned by God however tolerated by humane Lawes either because they doe not actually break the peace of the Common-wealth or because such close iniquities cannot come under the cognizance of humane judicature But God searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and judges the inward motions of the soule as our faith tells us The summe of which knowledge is given us by St. Paul Rom. 7. 7. when as learned as he was he tells us I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet So that from hence we may discerne the truth of what David saith Psal 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule The Testimonie of the Lord is sure making wise the simple And again v. 8. The Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes And what David saith there and elsewhere Solomon in his Book of Proverbs more fully confirmeth and especially in the first Chapter as in the beginning giving us the Subject of the ensuing Treatise To know wisdome and instruction To perceive words of understanding to receive the instruction of wisdome justice and judgement and equitie To give subtilty to the simple to the young man knowledge and discretion So foolish are they and ignorant who out of mistaken greatnesse and Gallantry and presumption of knowledge falsely so called are prone to despise the Revelations of Allmighty God and establish their own imaginations serviceable to their Lusts and scandalous manners falling thereby under the just censure of the wisest of Men Prov. 1. 7. Fools despise wisdome and instruction the reason whereof is because it is their enemie in the unrighteous and unreasonable courses they choose to themselves verifying what our Saviour Christ saith John 9. 41. of the haughty Pharisees If ye were blinde i. e. through unaffected and involuntarie ignorance ye should have no sin but now ye say We see therefore your sin remaineth SECT V. Of the Grace and Act of Faith leading to Illumination and of the difficulties and means of believing 1. NOW we proceed to the second sense of Faith mentioned before and that is the Grace or Gift or both by which we believe or the next disposition of the minde towards Illumination For as it is in nature so likewise is it in the case of Religion To him that is naturally blinde and discerneth nothing exteriour objects are in themselves as visible as they are to him who hath the perfect use of his eyes and seeth all things duly offered to his sight but the indisposition of the organe hindereth the exercise of the same So we finde that what is presented alike to all mens understanding and faith hath not the like effect upon men to apprehend or believe what is spiritually discerned 2. One reason whereof may well be that which our Catechisme directed by Gods holy Word assures us of viz. that we were borne in sin of which state blindnesse is a principall part So that as it seemed an incredible thing to the Jewes John the 9th that Christ should open the eyes of him that was borne blinde may it seem one of the greatest difficulties to us that being so naturally ignorant and averse to spirituall things we should be cured of so great a maladie But the resolution of this doubt is given us by Christ himselfe in the same Chapter v. 39. saying For judgement am I come into this world that they who see not might see and that they who see might be blinde Christ therefore calleth himself the light of the world John 5. 8. yea and more than so John 1. 9. according to the testimonie given of him by John the Baptist He was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world that is all men that come into the world and are enlightened by him only they are enlightened 3. And when it so falls out that men are not the better for the light offered to them and shining before them a reason thereof is to be fetched from themselves and the depravation of their own will and
obstinacie and obduratenesse in their naturall state according to Christs own judgement of the world John 5. v. 40. Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life So that as it is written by Sulpitius Severus in the life of St. Martine that being endued with a marvellous gift or faculty of curing sick and impotent persons The blinde and lame and decrepit who got their living by begging were affraid of him and would not come near him lest being cured of such their defects and impotencies they should lose their livelihood In like manner many getting a miserable and beggarly livelihood by serving and complying with the world and so being blinde and crippled in an heavenly sense refuse that light and life and renovation which Christ bringeth with him An instance whereof we have in the ministrie of St. Paul preaching to the Athenians prepossessed and captivated with worldly wisdome and thereupon saying Thou bringest strange things to our eares In their judgements more strange than true And though it be Mannah it selfe and that dropt down from heaven for their edification and comfort men out of their scepticalnesse and curiositie will question it and perhaps in time loath it as the Israelites that bread from heaven there being generally too little agreement between the notions of half-sighted naturall reason and delectations of our senses naturall and the divine Revelations and more spirituall prescriptions given us by Religion though naturall reason not counterfeited nor corrupted by baser allayes of vitious men may passe also as Gods true coyne But that pure Gold it is not which the Holy Ghost counselleth us to buy Revel 3 18. that we may be rich and wherewith we may get white raiment that we may be clothed that the shame of our nakednesse doe not appear and get that eye-salve that we may see which is the word of God. For the knowledge or illumination which we have from thence and that which we have from the Holy Spirit differ no otherwise than that money a man carries about him or that which the Tradesman hath present in his Bank and that which he hath in his Books which must put him sometimes to trouble to fetch in The manner of which fetching in is by the Holy Spirit also opening the heart that we may as the Disciples going to Emaus after Christs Resurrection understand the Scriptures untill which time that will be found too true which the Prophet Hosea Cap. 8. 12. complains of in Gods behalf I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing 4. But if we should enquire faithfully into the grounds of such incredulitie and prejudice against Religion we may finde them too often in the corrupt manners of men influencing the understanding with mistakes and grosse errours which yet some to cover with shew of greatest candour in judging and ingenuity have wished they could believe the things Christianity requires of them But if reality and common integritie be not also laid aside here how easie a thing is it to reconcile them to the truth For does not their own prime reason and of all civilized People tell them that nothing truely humane is more naturall to Man than to be of some Religion And yet if they be men but of indifferent reading and observation they shall finde that there is no Religion nor ever like to be all whose Principles are obvious to all competent understandings And so consequently that men to avoid the barbaritie of Atheisme must believe more than nature can compell them unto by her philosophicall demonstrations or fall into an absurditie little inferiour to Atheisme That every man should frame his own Religion and be so far religious as he thinks fit and no farther and which must necessarily follow call his freak and humour his reason and judgement So that it is scarce so true that a man cannot believe the mysteries of Religion as that he will not and he will not because he dares not for fear of the worst Or let it be that he cannot when St. Paul if he be but so far believed saith of some 2 Corinth 4. 4. The God of this world who that is I suppose is well known hath blinded the mindes of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them vain and vitious men having by their presumed wit and evill lives tempted evill Spirits themselves and drawn them to be accessaries to their infatuations For as every good and perfect gift cometh from above from the Father of lights as St. James tells us Chap. 1. 17. So doth everie notorious errour and wickednesse proceed from the Prince of darknesse who ruleth in the Childeren of Disobedience they being called children of Disobedience in Scripture who obey not the Gospell nor believe it reasonably propounded 5. But it may seem strange and worth our wondering How the same effect of blindnesse of minde should be ascribed to God and also to the Devill in Scripture as John 12. 4. speaking of God out of the Prophet Isaias He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts c. This is in truth a Scholasticall difficultie which belongs to another place to which I may referre it but here I would have it observed that as Judges or Princes are said to put Malefactours to death when they doe it not themselves but deliver them over to the Executioner whose office it is so God upon just provocation delivering great Sinners to the Devill may be said to be a cause of their hardnesse and blindnesse when it is caused directly by Satan only and themselves But the true light of Faith and life of Grace doth most properly appertain to God as it is said 2 Corinth 4. 7. By grace ye are saved through faith it is the gift of God. The reason whereof is That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us And this key of knowledge which is also of the Kingdome of God did Christ deliver to his Apostles by vertue of which God assisting Lydia's heart was opened as we read Acts 16. 14. And so necessary is the assistance of God in this case that he seems to keep this key by his own side and not at all times to lend it to his Ministers no not the Apostles Nor did Christ himselfe who as God had the command of mens mindes allwayes succeed in his teaching and exhortation but by I know not what deep providence suffered his labours to be frustrated by the incredulity of men But this we may say falls out by divine dispensation that God may be all in all in the beginning continuing and consummation of every good work and to repell that spirit of presumption whereby too prosperous Labourers in Gods Harvest or Vineyard might be prone to attribute much more to themselves than
Christ continueth his wonted method to reveal such things to the ignorant and Babes which is commonly denied to the wise noble and Great ones in the world untill such time as the simple and unlearned shall proceed so far as to forget whence themselves derive that understanding they have for then suddainly it degenerates into folly and men priding themselves and transgressing the limits of modesty humility and subjection to which they are called become insolent and contumacious towards them that are over them in the Lord. For scarce can it be imagined that God like the foolish workman should pull down with one hand what he buildeth with another or as the wise Man saith Ecclesiasticus 15. 20. give any man licence to sin which he should doe if he allowed fruitfull Hagar to contemne her Mistresse Sarah not losing her dominion for want of what was given and that by God himselfe to Hagar And it is but too common to all presumers of gifts exempting themselves from the ordinarie method of Commander and Souldier Leader and Follower Teacher and Schollar what was mutinously uttered and murmuringly against Moses by Mirian and Aaron Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses hath he not also spoken by us Numbers 12. 2. Revelations may be and are given unto men but not to such as are the worse for them nor to them through whom the Church of God fares the worse But most probably such egregious abilities are given by the subtil and Evill Spirit who if men that are evill may give Good gifts unto their Children as Christ implyeth Matth. 7. 11. may also doe the same to his Children Children of pride of minde and disobedience of life being of the same nature and complexion with himselfe 2. S. Paul therefore sayes 1 Cor. 12. 7. The Spirit that is the truly divine is given to every man to profit withall And this profit is manifestly the profiting of the whole bodie of the Church of Christ the advancing of that and the thriving in Faith and Charity So that whatever knowledge as singular and admirable as it may seem to short-sighted Christians who cannot see afar off may be pretended prejudiciall to the Body of Christ largely taken and to the glory of God in generall but swelling the mindes of some particular persons is far from an edifying faith or knowledge whatever specious effect may be offer'd to the world thereby causing admiration 3. But notwithstanding such frequent mistakes scandalous to the prudent as insnaring to the simple such a Faith there is and such an inward Light many times is given and added by God unto the naturall perspicacity of man that the effect is wonderfull upon the minde and life of the simple above the Learned For the naturall man believes because he knows but the truely spirituall knowes because he believes and his belief is directed by a superiour power agreeably to that saying of the Auncient supposed to be in the Prophet Isaiah Vnlesse ye believe ye shall not understand For seeing a promptitude and preparednesse in the minde to receive all impresses from him without disputings or suspicions of errour he will not suffer such honest and devout simplicitie to want his influence disposing thereunto so that there should be no room or ground left for the faith of God to stand on the wisdome of men and subtile ratiocinations of sophisticall heads For many are the Mysteries of faith not intelligible and yet Credible divinely which may be compared to well composed and well performed Musick which as the common observation teacheth us is most sweet and pleasing in the next room or at a competent distance and yet we see few can content themselves so but must needs be pressing contrary to their own interest into the companie of them who make it and be viewing curiously and perhaps touching the Instruments which yield it though they have no skill in them But the honest and faithfull spirit perswaded of the necessity of things to be believed and conscious of its own infirmitie in making out the intrigues of Religion acquiesces with Humility and Charitie in the things propounded without endlesse discussions which render them lesse credible many times and bring lesse satisfaction than before For the more a man argues the more he may 4. I have not a little wonder'd at the expression and comparison apt enough to signifie the vertue of an easie Faith and the unhappinesse of curious enquirers into matters of Religion without faith It was of one who had the least measure of Christian faith of any of his age as his works declare intending to give a new scheme or modell of Philosophie and Religion both infinitely ambitious of applause and disciples to whom he promised great notions and them more rationall than former Ages or any Country but England had been acquainted with but with so foul failleur in his first principles which he begged and would with no patience suffer to be questioned as scarce any unlucky Sophister was subject to And surely suspecting that what he taught might be as coursely handled as he doth Scripture and the very Creeds of the Church i. e. with monstrous boldnesse he would divert men from such attempts by such a fine similitude as is very serviceable in other Cases As it is with him that is to take physicall Pills for the health of his body if he takes them into his mouth and considering of them will needs chew them before he swallowes them he will rather spit them out of his mouth as vehemently disagreeing to his palate than use them to his health In like manner he who having delivered to him by good and skilfull instructers the wholesome principles of spirituall life and salvation shall as it were grinde and chew them by his natural Reason to prove what manner of things they are before he will receive them by Faith will perhaps never take them down but cast them out again and with them more than them the greatest part of all Religion which before he disliked not If this comparison ever fitted any man it did the Authour 5. But Reason as the Renowned Romane Lawyer of old told us The greatest in the world is that which makes for Religion and if men would but reflect upon their ever doubting Wit and whither it at length hurries them they would never trust it so far nor give it so much rope and such loose reins as they doe For as is said there being nothing more agreeable to Reason than to acknowledge a Deitie it more strongly followes he should be worshipped And if a man should be free to take his choice amongst the great variety offering it selfe to a man methinks out of naturall reason he should preferre the Christian Religion with all its circumstances and difficulties before any other in like manner considered and examined And so I should think if by education having only common reason to guide him he were indifferent he should choose that which was revealed
or deserve amputation from the Body of Christ of which such perfection and conjunction make us members 2. Thus far onely if the phanaticall strains found in Mysticall Theologie of contrarie Extremes had proceeded not onely innocencie but honour allso had been due unto it But we finde the Moderne advancers of it to have scandalously corrupted it by affectation of excesses in Stile and big Language and facts agreeable to them whereas Bonaventure writing on that Subject thus simply describes it in his Prologue to it It is the extension of love towards God by the desire of love And a little after he saith It is such whereby the religious Soule leaving humane Wisdome the curiousnesse of unprofitable knowledge and the sophistry of argumentations and Opinions by the Ascent of love rises up to the Fountain of all by desiring in which onely she finds trueth insomuch that the simple Laick being in the School of God may receive this wisdome from God himselfe immediately by the affection of love which no naturall Philosopher nor secular Master nor humane Intelligence can attain to Neither is the description of this Unitive Way given by Gerson in his Mysticall Theologie to be rejected where more soberly than divers of late dayes affect to speak He saith Mysticall Divinitie is an experimentall Knowledge had of God by the conjunction with God by spirituall affection But we cannot allow of such great swelling words and ecstaticall practices answerable thereunto wrapping mens Soules in a Cloud of reall Ignorance in the midst of their pursuit of supreame Knowledge and suffering them to fall into direct profanenesse of words and deeds while they have a strong and vain emulation and affectation of sublimest Devotion and Pietie which to passe over the many exorbitancies in this kinde found amongst such as are known by the name of Phanatiques a great pretender to Devotion Horstius in a Latine Book which he calls The Paradise of the Soule hath fallen into there speaking in this manner pag. 59. Trulie Lord if what is not possible I were owner of any thing which thou wantedst I would willingly yield all to thee and give it thee Yea if I could be God I would not for this onely that thou mightest be God and have no Peer Which with us is no better than a piece of fond Devotion and implicite Blasphemie proceeding from an illimited affectation of strange and monstrous expressions familiar with such like Mysticall Divines carefully to be avoided and shunned as the bane of true and favourie Religion towards God whereby the Devill sets Christians as once he did Christ on the Pinacle as it were of the Temple that he may the more easily cast them down headlong But the heart of a true Believer being well-grounded in Faith and setled in love to God is capable of some singular and extraordinarie sense of Gods goodnesse and the wisdome which cometh from above with a true spirituall ardour towards God and desire of Union with him which may be said to consist in these three things First A Cleerenesse then Soundnesse lastly Acquiescence in the Will and Wayes of God. Whereby the Soule having in some competent manner escaped the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2. cleaveth so stedfastly to the Lord or is joyned to him as it is 1 Corin 6. 17. that it becomes one Spirit not by transmutation of nature or substance but by assimilation in Holinesse and plenarie subjection of the will of Man to the Will of God that so God may be all in all Which is more corporally expressed by Saint Paul Ephes 5. where he saith of true Believers We are members of his Bodie of his Flesh and of his Bones Not by transubstantiation of Natures but transformation and renewing of the minde as is said Rom. 12. 2. So that as Saint Paul speaks Galat. 2. 20. The life which a Christian so transformed out of himselfe and conformed unto Christ liveth he liveth not but Christ liveth in him by the faith and love of Christ a state of Grace bordering nere upon Glory it selfe In which Mysticall Language great care is to be used least a Believer be so far drawn away from the solid foundation and edifying knowledge that his Religion should end in aery speculations and notions and these in bold denominations given himselfe And lastly Spirituall life or walking with God as did Enoch untill a translation be made from hence nerer to the presence and fruition of God. 3. Therefore to prevent Delusions incident to high flyers in Divinitie in this kinde Our speculations must be measured by our love to God reciprocated upon the sense of Gods love wherewith he first loved us And lest even this love should prove a fondnesse the sincerity of it is to be proved by the practice of a mans life answering in Puritie and degree the fervour pretended of love Not denying that where such intimate conjunction there is between God and the Soule certain tacite and inward signatures thereof are made to it invisible to the world and sensible only to its selfe but not so as therein to acquiesce without all sollicitude as if such were allreadie in Heaven but with constant contentions about these two principall Points 4. First How they should continue in that good state to which they have allreadie attained which is no otherwise brought to passe than by the meanes whereby it was attained as naturall Bodies subsist by the same Elements of which they doe consist And secondly because to rest satisfied with what a man hath without designe held up of proceeding is the next way to lose what he hath and to fall backward and to decay It is necessary ever to be pressing forward that the Tide may allwayes be rising in grace least upon willfull remission and slacknesse the Soule be by degrees left emptie and dry For it is the Character of Heaven given by Saint John Revelat. 14. That they rest from their labours which belongs not to any not the highest in this life that they should cease to doe good untill that Sabbath above shall be enter'd into and celebrated And yet even of the blessed there we read Revelat. 4. 8. That they rest not day and night to act according to that state where there is Union with God indissoluble and Communion to satiety without surfeit on one hand or wearinesse on the other A resemblance whereof is to be obtained even in this life by those who by diligent attendance on spirituall Duties here and denying the world doe as Gregory saith Hom. 34. on the Gospells burne with the flames of lofty Contemplation breathing onely with desire of their Creatour and coveting nothing farther in this world are nourished with the sole love of Eternitie They contemne all earthly things and in their mindes transcend all temporary things They love and burne and in that heat they rest quiet they burne by loving and by their speech inflame others allso and whome by their words they touch they instantly
proper Cause of Christian Illumination being taken for the things revealed whereof some principall Heads are here given 1. IT is a common and usefull distinction of Faith by the Learned not difficult to be understood by the unlearned into the matter or articles of our Faith propounded to our assent by God himselfe in his Word and the Gift and Grace of Faith enabling us to believe things so revealed and necessary to our Salvation It will be therefore very expedient for the better informing every plain and sincere capacity to make some recitall of those things our Faith Christian is founded upon and which we are to believe and that principally by Revelation and not wholly to be silent herein any more than St. Luke was in writing his Gospell Luke 1. 1. For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order those things which are most surely believed amongst us because severall formes and phrases may help towards the same sense and end of believing and illumination 2. And here first of all is to be considered and believed the great Prerogative of Christian Religion above all other discoveries made to Man when our Saviour Christ in St. Matthew saith Ch. 11. v. 25. I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and revealed them to babes Not that Christ maligned the knowledge of these things to others but that he admired the priviledges conferred by God upon his mean flock And what these things are and how and to whom revealed St. Paul certifies us 1 Corinth 2. 6 7 8 saying Howbeit we speak wisdome among them that are perfect yet not the wisdome of this world which cometh to naught but we speak the wisdome of God in a mysterie even the hidden wisdome which God ordained before the world to our glory For God hath revealed them by his Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God. Meaning hereby to teach us that whatever knowledge man may attain to in the search of the mysteries of Nature Revelation is absolutely necessarie to the knowledge of the deep things of Gods counsell and pleasure concerning his own Nature and Being and our service of him and salvation by him discovery should be made unto us some other way than by our natural reason darkened by our own apostasie and infatuations So that the whole Bible may be called one entire book of divine Revelations the Jew having received many things from God which were denied unto the Gentiles and the Christian having received from God more clear dispensations and sublime than were granted unto the Jew for he beheld things as in a glasse darkly but the other face to face that is the very things themselves and not the darker shadowes which were to flee away at the rising of the Sun of righteousnesse which is by the Apostle called the Mysterie of Christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit Whereupon St. Peter 1 Ep. 1. 5. tells us of Gods Elect that they are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation readie to be revealed in the last times which last times were the same of which the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks that in the last dayes God hath spoken unto us by his Son and those last dayes were the dayes of the Gospell revealing the mysteries of Godlinesse unto us and not these last dayes phansied by some 3. Now notwithstanding innumerable are the divine documents and notices extraordinarily deliver'd through the New Testament and more especially there be a fair Catalogue given us Heb. 11. of the singular vertues and uses of Faith in revealing divine things yet because we now speak chiefly to babes in Christ or St. Johns Little children it may not be amisse to assist the weaker without offence of the stronger in giving some speciall instances whereby the knowledge of a green Christian is either actually improved or improveable to a greater degree than can readily be found in aliens from Christ 4. There have been in former years some leading men in the Reformation and learned who have collected ten severall and considerable grounds in which all Religions concurre and this was the ingenious contrivance of Bibliander since which divers with tolerable designe but I fear with no good event at all but rather the contrary have in these very late years written about Naturall Religion and the Reasonablenesse of Christian Faith manifested by naturall Light hoping it may be to begett a better opinion in many rank Rationalists of Christian Religion but perhaps they considered not what evill consequence followes from hence viz. that the very first principle of our Christian faith is hereby weakened and more slighted as judged from hence not to be so necessary as commonly is received For Revelations divine and that these writings we call Scriptures are divinely revealed is the most fundamentall part of our Religion which to make credible by sundrie Topicks of reason have been alwaies the practice of the Ancients as it is still of the moderne not illaudable but to offer demonstrations and those such upon which they would constrain belief of that first principle is to cause the whole fabrick of Christian faith to rest on that tottering and unstable foundation and of divine to dilute our faith into humane perswasion all superiour articles of our faith having no stronger stay than such a bottome will allow them 5. And I must confesse for my part I am so far from being pleased with the pretended Golden sayings of Pythagoras or the divine sentences of Plato Seneca and especially that moderner vapourer or rather vapour it selfe Hierocles and such as Eunapius presents unto us that they rather turne my stomach at their aemulation of Christian perfection thereby to lessen the value of Christian Religion it selfe than draw me to affecting or admiring them For St. Paul 2 Corinth 1. 14. tells us 't is By faith we stand and again that our faith it selfe should not stand in the wisdome of men but in the power of God. And it will be found by experience that humane reason thus coming officiously to the aid of divine Faith unable to satisfie the doubting minde about the doctrine proper to Faith will in the end prove so sawcie and domineering as to give law to faith and like Ivie which clings to the tree for a subsistence will weaken it and suck out the heart of it in time Herein therefore consisteth the very soule or as scholasticall men speak the very formall reason of Christian faith illuminating otherwise than the humane Lights of this world that we believe what we have not seen by sence nor learned by experience viz. That the Scriptures we now are possessed of are the Revelations which God hath given us for our instruction and direction in the knowledge of him and holy conversation
Command of Christ in generall which to apportion to every mans capacitie belonged to his Ministers So that a generall Rule prescribed by the Church concerning the same ought not securely to be interpreted and applied by every mans single and private opinion that he hath of his sufficiencie or insufficiencie to practise the same but may better be committed to the judgement of others and by them dispensed For some are too rigorous to themselves and others the greater number too partiall and indulgent and therefore safer and more reasonable it is to denie our selves that naturall and dear Judicature which every man is fond of and to committ our selves and especially our Senses to the wisdome of others not repugnant to greater Autority 5. But that which is most of all to be avoided is the intemperance and excesse which Art addeth to Nature which is that we may call Luxurie specially to be consider'd hereafter Surely it is too much for a good Christian to be allwaies full within and allwayes warme without and allwayes at ease and to fence our selves by all care and sollicitude against all ordinary incommodations and inconveniences so esteemed by flesh and blood the Scripture pronouncing them rather miserable than happie by the Prophet Amos 6. 1 Woe be to them that are at ease in Sion i. e. under no hardship or molestation rather drudging infinitely to gratifie Back Belly Eyes Eares and Palate with all Delectables contemning the simple sufficiencie and salubritie of Nature and exciting Lusts of all sorts by inventions strange and new to a greater rampantnesse than corrupt Nature it selfe disposed to Nay to that excesse of Fashion and Folly doe men strive to arrive that to attain praise and admiration or but estimation for their Vanities they can suffer more pain and run greater hazards of mischiefing their Bodies than they doe who for Heaven sake I mean the strait Gate of Austerities leading thither suffer willingly bodily incommodations and by affected nakednesses of Back Brest and Armes shew themselves more hardy for Fansie and Fashion-sake than the Plowman or Carter If a man should prescribe this for Gods sake which is done so frequently for the Worlds sake he should be judged very unreasonable if not superstitious allso And yet St. Paul saith Rom. 12. 2. Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minde And Saint Peter saith 1 Pet. 1. 14. As obedient Children not fashioning your selves according to your former lusts in your ignorance Ignorance and not skill cunning and not Art being according to him the Parent of superfluities and vanities worldly For witnesse Experience witnesse Saint Paul 1 Corin. 7. 31. The fashion of this world passeth away Before some can get well into a Fashion it weares out And if it would last a Mortall for ever i. e. as long as a man lives it were scarce worth the striving for especially with greater contention than men doe to be conformed to the meannesse and meeknesse of Christ so that by changing of this vile Body we may at length be fashioned like unto his glorious Body as Saint Paul speakes Philip 3. 21. 6. Surely something of this nature was aymed at by Saint Paul to Timothy 1 Epist 2. 9. prescribing That Women adorne themselves in modest Apparell with shamefastnesse and sobrietye not with broidered hair or gold or pearls or costly array but which becometh Women professing the Gospell with good works And Saint Peter 1 Epist 3. 3. speaking of the same Subject sayth whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair or of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparell but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price How doth this Doctrine of St. Peter crosse and confound the Apologies of the Advocates of outward lightnesse in Apparell and Behaviour The Wisdome yea the Religion of this World argueth this It matters not much what habit a Man or Woman uses nor what fashion they follow in outward Dresses and Ornaments provided they have good hearts towards God and be upright and innocent and true and devout in the main Duties of Religion But Saint Peter plainly saies doe not that but see to this And whose sense of Scripture is so narrow as to imagine that it intended none but Women here and not effeminated Men And who doth not see that if it had sufficed to regard the inward man only and the heart of Christians that these wise and holy Apostles would never have urged the gravitie and sobriety in wearing Hair and using Apparell and Gold and Silver thereby disobliging wavering or green Converts and by such indifferent severities deterring them from submitting to the uneasie Gospell of Christ But more blameable are such affected Artifices about the Bodie in men of greater mindes and designes than Women and most of all in Persons devoted to holy functions and ministrations some of whome we may suspect to have a worse end than the Pharisees in their religious Offices viz. to be seen of men and to covet rather to be seen and admired by Women for the spruceness of their Habits to the lothing of their improper affectations by sober Persons and contempt of their Character and capacitie spirituall appearing to commend themselves to mens Eyes rather than their Consciences which was Saint Pauls choice and practice 7. Nature and Infirmities are sometimes justly alledged for the vindication of such from lightnesse in such modishnesse which sometimes may be true and 't were to be wished were never otherwise but that Nature or Distempers require such curiousnesse as is upon such pretences taken up who can say or that all such ends could not be satisfied as well by artlesse supplements Neither would men betake themselves to that wretched Topick for refuge taken from the absolute nature of things in themselves no wayes sinfull and that there is nothing unclean in it selfe whereas all such things are to be judged by the circumstances of Persons Sexes Places Offices Age Time and such like all which to confound with such an universall argument is absurd enough to themselves at the first appearance But Religion heretofore never made Nature Judge in such cases as this unlesse in St. Paul's sense demanding 1 Corinth 11. 14. Doth not nature it selfe teach you that if a man hath long hair it is a shame unto him And may not this be extended farther allso were it not that greatnesse strength and numbers concerned are in a readinesse to oppresse such Discourses and the Authour of them The times were in my memorie when the Puritanes preached loudly for short Hair but whether they changed their Opinions and Notes when they perceived the Bishops likewise required the same of their Clergie or whether the Faction conquering and prospering thought it time to lay that Fashion down and be the first
to us SECT III. Of the excesse of Vnitive Love of God in Extasies and Raptures with their abuses and uses noted 1. ALthough the principall designe in this Unitive Tractate be not to fill the Brain with gallant Speculations and gay Notions of Union with God yet because it seemeth necessary to a competent understanding of the Love wherewith God doth love us and of that whereby we love God to take in the Extent of it it will not be amisse to consider the doctrine and use of Extasies and Raptures too much famed by some and no lesse defamed by others For as supream Illuminations by Faith and Contemplation ordinarie do receive their Crown and summitie by extraordinarie Revelations and Visions God may and doth sometimes impart to his Servants so may it be that the top of spirituall Affections and Love seraphicall may touch the bottome of extraordinary Extasies and Raptures which are certain transportations of the Soule above the pitch of common Love though sincere sound faithfull and saving For in trueth I scarce read of any Religion except we make some factions Religions in which instances of wonderfull nature to this purpose are not found excepting the Mother faction of late For others issuing from them have gloried much of such elevations and transportations And Histories and Relations very credible assure us that of old amongst the Heathen and at this day amongst the Mahometans certain devout Persons in their way receive after some Ceremonies used to that end supernaturall impressions and Inspirations extaticall And why not Since it is very probable that all Religions tending either remotely or immediately to the worship of a Deity whereby some honour at large and blindly is given unto the only true God above what Atheists ascribe to the same and that according to the most probable Philosophie about Spirits there are divers kinds of them some purer others impurer some most malitious and mischievous others lesse noxious that God the most Wise just and infinite dispenser of all things and disposer may give way to Spirits to enter into and cooperate with zealous Persons in their simple yet intense devotion to a Deity and manage them according to the merits and manner of their Profession So that in very trueth faithfull and unerring judgement of a sound Religion cannot be made from such possessions and transportations but on the contrary rather that not the reality but purity and divinenesse of such Extasies are to be estimated from the reasonablenesse trueth and holinesse of the Religion professed by such Enthusiasts Onely this may be well granted that such Persons by such Enthusiasmes are competently characterized for select Persons in their Professions whether Idolatrous Hereticall or Orthodox 2. Or may we not say as there is one Fire necessary for the Cook to make his Vessels boyl over for Extasies are certain ebullitions of the spirit of a Man and another Fire requisite to the Smith to temper and fashion his Mettall and another to the Founder for his service so severall loves giving severall heats those severall heats have severall effects upon divers Subjects which they work on Certainly though true and modest Believers should not live or carrie themselves so towards God as if they would oblige him to extraordinarie Inspirations or Motions to be granted them so should the modestest of all demean themselves in their Religion as thereby they should be more susceptible of supererogated Gifts or measure running over as the Gospell speakes from God. Of which impartments I doe verily believe the professours of that Faction who are Enemies to all prescribed disciplining shall never be partakers pretending their Divinity is too spirituall to trouble themselves with such Exercises and they must goe the nearest way to Christ destructive of all bodily reverence decencie and due veneration which consists in select outward formes and fashions distinguishing to the sense divine from naturall morall or civill services as is most requisite 3. But as to Extasies of which we now speak as they are such which God vouchsafes to cause to the eminently constant and servent in his service and worship so may we not argue a certainty of Gods valuing those Vessels he so fills as more honourable or holy than some others from which he with-holds such gifts though where he so conferrs them and they are not delusions of idle and Evill Spirits imitating divine no doubt but there is some good degree of holinesse preceding not common to all true Believers For still we must look on them as gifts to profit withall and not as Graces whereby men actually have profited And the profit which succeeds thereupon is rather of others than themselves For such they are described to be that in them sometime the reason is taken away from them who suffer them and sometime their senses I scarce know what to judge of that saying of Antonie the Great undoubtedly eminently devout whatever Moderne Censurers may judge which Cassian in Collat relates That no man arrives at the perfection of Prayer who in Prayer understands what he sayes which possibly might give occasion to moderner Authours to invent such a kinde of Prayer which they call Supramentall that is such which is above Intelligence but this I may presume to say that if any whose Office it is to be the Voice of the People to God in Publique who then especially should together with him offer a reasonable Sacrifice to God should affect or willfully fall into such extaticall formes of speaking that neither he should understand himselfe nor should be understood by others he must be owing to some other Spirit for such his gifts than that of God. 4. And for privation of Senses in Extasies some Instances may be given very credible during such translations of minde which I dare neither rashly applaud nor condemn But whether this was the case of that holy man Elpidius of whome the Auncients write I know not that he was wont to stand whole Nights in Prayer and praising God in Psalmes not in recitation of Creeds and Ave Maries with such stedfastnesse that being once stung with a Scorpion he changed not his posture Which might be ascribed to an holy pertinacie against sense not without sense But if evill Spirits entring into and possessing Vessells of dishonour and impious drown the senses for that time there is no incrediblenesse that the good Spirit of Grace and Peace may overcome all sensations externall Was it not so with Saint Paul when as we read 2 Corinth 12. he was wrapt up into the third Heaven whether in the body or out of the body he knew not And 't is most apparent that some Epilepticall distempers bereave men both of sense and Reason And it is related to us by Bodin Theatr. Naturoe lib. 4. that in Germanie divers men are wont to cast themselves by Witchcraft into Extasies in such manner that for the time they feel no pain by blowes pinchings or burnings but returning to their common senses
in the Spirit so are we to walk in the Spirit according to St. Paul Galat. 5. 25. For by Baptisme saith the same Apostle Eph. 2. 10. we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good workes which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them and especially calling all good Souldiers of Christ Jesus as Joshuah did the chief of the Children of Israel to set their feet on the necks of the Canaanitish Princes to trample upon those seven Capitall Sins which not only fight against our Soules themselves but are leaders on of others to assault and spoil us And from hence have we led the Soule to the top of Pisgah by the Unitive Way of Contemplation and Love and Acquiescence in God to have a certain foretaste of the fruit of that Land of Promise we long after and expect by the conjunction the Soule hath with God which we finde not so extravagant a Notion straining the simpler Doctrine of Faith and Christ to a sense offensive to Eares not throughly opened to the Mysteries of Religion but a smattering thereof was had by Auncient Philosophers as appears by the disquisitions between Porphyrie and Jamblichus of the Egyptian Mysteries where great things are spoken of the Anagogicall way of conversing with the gods by elevation of the understanding through true knowledge of God and that Theurgicall Vnion i. e. as I understand his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that divinely operative conjunction whereby a man hath Communion with God but all this he swelleth with being blinded and carried away with Egyptian darknesse indeed leading to horrible superstitions to attain such Perfections whereas the light of the Gospell and Doctrine of Christ with infinite lesse superstition and more perspicuitie puritie and simplicitie conducteth to that Ascent of the Soule and resting in God which makes us like unto him and Perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect Matth. 5. with allowances for the infirmities of Flesh and blood and mutablenesse we are subject unto being as St. Peter saith partakers of the Divine Nature 2. For though the words of Saint Paul 2 Corinth 2. 14. Now thanks be to God which allwayes causeth us to triumph in Christ have their true sense yet that I suppose is of the state of a Christian which is firme and sure resting upon this Foundation The Lord knoweth who are his and he will never leave his chosen ones untill they totally forsake him if that may be said But as to the actuall and continuall possession by satisfaction in him and spirituall sensations the Christian is mutable here and that which not without great difficulty and industry is for some time attained unto is in a short time and suddenly interrupted and hid from the eyes to the great dismaying of the devout Soule so that great care is to be taken as well to hold that comfortable communion with God as to acquire it and to recover it intermitted as once to have attained it For as the Sheet let down from Heaven by the four Corners to Saint Peter Acts 12. wherein he saw in a Vision all manner of Fare his Appetite could long for was as suddenly again taken up into Heaven so is it with the delectations which the Spirit feeleth let down from Heaven to its wonderfull content they are suddenly taken away up into Heaven again And when we imagine our selves in the third Heaven with Saint Paul we unexpectedly feel a Thorne in the flesh to humble us lest we should be exalted above measure For Paradise here would be the greatest temptation to fall again into sin So that as we read of Abraham the Elect of God and taken by his Providence out of his own Countrie and Kindred signifying the state of Nature to us was led into the Land of Promise and shown it but had no Inheritance in it for the present no not so much as to set his foot Acts 7. So hath the religious Soule no footing firme here though by Faith and Affection it hath before its eyes the promised Possession 3. It is therefore one principall Rule of rightly using what we have at any time attained to in Consolations the fruit of Union with God but not incessant or inseparable from it to understand so much lest finding our selves frustrated of our expectations we call in question the state it selfe we are in and bring unprofitable confusions upon our selves For as the Apostle saith Coloss 3. 3. We are dead and our life is hid with Christ When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we allso appear with him in glory The time will come but is not yet come that we should see what is better now hid and kept with Christ till such time as the second fullnesse of time shall come and Christ too when our life will be manifested It may be that a loving Father towards an obsequious and dutifull Child may sometimes shew him the Grand Deed whereby he hath settled a great Estate upon him yea may carrie him out and shew him the Lands Houses Mines and Timber on them which he purposes to give him but none of these are at all necessarie to the main end it selfe but onely to his encouragement to persevere in his dutie No more is necessarie to a certainty of Salvation an assurance of Salvation or such extraordinary arguments thereof as being denied us we should fall into despondencie and sluggishnesse of Spirit or be weak-handed in Gods service 4. For secondly God may hereby have a gracious and wise designe to wean the fond minde from sensible Delectations whereby it should take up short of the ultimate end of all God himselfe seeking its will and content rather than Gods to which the more truely spirituall a man is so much more he is intent above all things and lesse mindes intermediate consolations which the lesse they are contended for the oftener they happen 5. Thirdly The Patience and constancie of the faithfull Servant of God by submission to his fatherly wisdome and pleasure in such Dispensation is exercised and manifested And that he doth not serve God nor follow Christ meerly for the Loaves which he miraculously feeds some with but for his own sake We all know the beginning middle and Conclusion of holy Job's life how religious and prosperous he was at the same time before God and how miserable he was by the same Providence remaining all that while invincible in his resolutions of adhering to God and perserving in his wonted righteousnesse whereby he declared that his Pietie was not built upon the fluid Elements of this World nor the sensible comforts pertaining to the service of God but the intrinsick excellencie of Religion it selfe carrying its Reward with it And so as Saint James speakes we know the end of him and such his patience and faith For so it pleaseth God himselfe to give an account of the hardship brought upon his own People travailing fourtie yeares in the desolate Wildernesse viz.