they wholly abstain from Wine as he has said in these express Words and eat nothing that has Blood in it Water is their only Drink and their Food is Bread with Salt and Hyssop Farther he describes the Order and Degrees of their Governours to wit those who perform the Ecclesiastical Offices then the Ministrations of the Deacons and lastly the Episcopal Presidency over all He that desires to know these things more accurately may be therein informed from the fore-mentioned History of Philo. It is therefore apparently evident to every one that Philo writing thus did mean thereby those first Preachers of the Evangelical Doctrin and Discipline at the beginning delivered by the Apostles Epiphanius Bishop of Cyprus concerning the same Har. 29. § 5. HAving said that the Christians were at first called Nazarens as Act. 24.5.2.22 and for some time Jesseans whether from the Name of Jesse or from the Name of our Lord Jesus because they were his Disciples he adds But thou may'st find this in the Writings of PHILO in the Book by him intituled Of the Jesseans who describing their Politie and Commendations and recounting their Monastries near about the Lake Maria he relates it of no other than of Christians For he when he was in that Region called Mariotis and was by them themselves conducted to the Monastries of that place got much Profit by it For being there in the Days of Easter he saw both their Lives and how some lived without Eating all the Holy Week of Easter some Two Days and some until the Evening But all these things were done by this Man for the treating of the Subject concerning the Faith and Manners of the Christians St. Hierom concerning the same in his Book de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis PHILO the Jew Born at Alexandria of the Race of the Priests is therefore by us placed among the Ecclesiastical Writers because writing a Book of the first Church of Mark the Evangelist at Alexandria he discourseth in Praise of our People the Christians there recounting that they were not only there but also in many other Provinces and calling their Habitations Monastries Whence it appears that such was the Church of the first Believers in Christ as now the Monks endeavour and desire to be that nothing may be any one 's own that is that none claim a Propriety in any thing that there be none amongst them Rich none Poor their Patrimonies be divided among those who need that they all attend to Prayer and Psalms also to Doctrin and to Continence such as Luke relates were the first Believers at Hierusalem It is reported that under Caius Caligula he was in some Danger at Rome whither he was sent Legate for his Nation that when he came a second time to Claudius he there in the same City spake with the Apostle Peter and held Friendship with him and for this Cause also wrote in Praise of the Followers of Mark the Disciple of Peter at Alexandria A little after recounting the Works of Philo among the rest he puts in One Book concerning the Lives of our People that is concerning Apostolick Men of which we have spoken before which he intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. because they did contemplate Heavenly things and prayed continually Johannes Cassianus concerning the same lib. 2. de Institut cap. 5. IN the Beginning of the Faith there were indeed but few but those most approved Persons reckoned under the Denomination of Monks who as from Mark the Evangelist of Blessed Memory who first presided Bishop in the City of Alexandria they received their Rule of Living did not only retain those Great things which we read in the Acts of the Apostles that the Church or Crowd of Believers at first made so famous viz. The Multitude of them who believed were of one Heart and of one Soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed were his own but they had all things Common Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were Possessors of Land or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the thing which were sold and laid them down at the Feet of the Apostles and Distribution was made unto every Man according as he had need But they even built up more sublime thing upon them For retiring into the most secret parts of the Suburbs they lead a Life of so great Rigour of Abstinence that so severe a Profession of Life was an amazement to others For they applied themselves with so much Fervour to the Reading of the Divine Scriptures and to Prayer and to the Work of their Hands Day and Night that neither the Appetite or Memory of Meat unless after two or three Days did interrupt them by Hunger of the Body And they received Meat and Drink not as what they desired but what was necessary and not that neither before Sun-set that they might conjoyn the time of Light with the Studies of Spiritual Meditations but the Care of the Body to the Night and other things did they effect more sublime than these concerning which he who is not sufficiently informed by the People of the Countrey may satisfie himself in the Ecclesiastical History Sozomen concerning the same 1 Hist Eccl. c. 12. HAving spoken of the Glory of the Christian Religion by reason of the Virtue of its Professors and of the Confessors then living and of the Famous Bishop Spiridion he adds But most of all did they illustrate the Church with their Virtues and propagated the Christian Doctrin who exercised the Monastick Discipline For this kind of PHILOSOPHY coming from God with the greatest Benefit to Men despiseth indeed many Sciences and the Artifice of Logick as a matter of Curiosity and by which the Exercise of better things is supplanted nor is any thing of Advantage for a right kind of Life conferred by it and with a more natural Prudence void of Curiosity teacheth those things which remove wholly Vitiousness and effect better things but the Middle things between Vertue and Vice it reputes not among the Good but delights in only Good things and holds him for an ill Man who although he abstains from Evil yet doth no Good For it doth not make shew but exerciseth Vertue and makes no account of the Glory which is of Men resisting the Affections of the Mind with great Fortitude nor doth it yield to the Necessities of Nature nor stoop to the Infirmities of the Body but having obtain'd the Powers of a Divine Mind it looks perpetually at the Creator of all whom it worshippeth Day and Night and appeaseth with Prayers and Supplications But having begun a pure Religion with Purity of Mind and the Exercise of Good Deeds it makes light of Washings and such like Purifications For it judgeth Sins only to be Impurities and being Conquerour of those things which happen from without and as I may so say Mistress of all is not diverted from her purpose neither by the Confusion of
same Eye of my Soul above my Mind the unchangeable Light of the Lord not this vulgar and visible to all Flesh Nor was it as of the same kind greater as if it grew more and more clear than it and filled all with its Greatness This was not that but another quite another from all those Nor was it so above my Mind as Oyl above Water nor as Heaven above Earth but superior because he made me and I inferior because I was made by it He who knoweth Truth knoweth it and he who knoweth it knoweth Eternity Charity knoweth it O Eternal Truth and true Charity and dear Eternity Thou art my God for Thee do I sigh day and night And when I first knew Thee thou didst assume me or take me up that I should see it to be which I did see and my self not to be who did see And thou didst beat back my weak Sight shining vehemently upon me and I trembled with Love and Horror and found my self to be far from Thee in the Region of Dissimilitude or Unlikeness as if I heard thy Voice from on high I am the Food of grown Persons grow and thou shalt feed on me Nor shalt thou change me into thee as the Food of thy Flesh but thou shalt be changed into me And I know that for Iniquity thou dost tutor Men and makest my Soul to pine away like a Spider And I said Is Truth nothing because it is diffused neither through finite nor through infinite spaces And thou cryedst from a far Yes indeed I AM THAT I AM. And I heard as it is heard in the heart and there was no cause of doubt at all left and I could easilier doubt that I was alive than that Truth was not which is seen being understood by the things which are made 7 Confess c. 10. More to this purpose might be noted out of these and others of great Authority in the Christian Church though it may be observed that anciently the Christians as well as the Jews and Heathens were very cautious not to express the Mysteries of their Religion to the Prophane or to such as were not capable according to our Saviour's Admonition Mat. 7.6 and out of that caution and a like caution to avoid all Ostentation and secure their Humility were more sparing in their Expressions of any thing of this nature in their Writings than those of after-Ages who by degrees began to write more openly and at last to compose whole Books of what was before taught more secretly to particular Persons as they were capable to receive it but this is sufficient for the present By this Tast of the Spirit of these Holy People together with the Testimonies of such Excellent Persons as were contempory with them and well acquainted with their Manners and Exercises we may judge of the Rashness and Inconsiderateness of many of later times who have made no scruple to despise vilifie and reproach the Monastick State in general and the Impiety and Wickedness of such as have industriously endeavoured to rake up all the Dirt and raise all the Calumnies and Slanders they could against them If the Abuses and Corruptions which in later times have increased among them were such as might provoke the Indignation of Men and Judgments of God upon them must the whole State from the beginning be condemned for them If the Serpent cast out a Flood of false and Hypocritical Pretenders such as those described by Piammon before pag. 59. and Hierom pag. 65. called Sarabites and Remoboth to drown and obscure the Excellence of those who were sincere doth it become Christians to help the Serpent in that attempt There are also saith St. Austin who are false Monks and we have known such sed non periit Fraternitas Pia propter eos qui profitentur quod non sunt But the Pious Fraternity is not therefore lost because of those who profess themselves to be what they are not in Psal 132. and in divers other places he notes such a mixture among them and the Unreasonableness of those who censure all for the Miscarriages of some Should we judge of Episcopacy by the Actions of too many of that Order which might be noted even from the time of Diotrephes but especially after they became not only secure but greatly honoured by Christian Princes and Emperours or of the Reformed Churches by what hath been acted by some amongst them or even of Christianity by the Lives and Manners of too many call'd Christians how unreasonable would that be If we look into the more ancient times we shall find them admired even by Jews and Heathens and censured and condemned by none but Infidels Hereticks and Apostates Only one SYNESIVS is set up against the concurrent Judgment of all the Great Lights of the Church Athanasius Basil Nazianzen Chrysostom Ambrose Austin and innumerable more And who is this Synesius A Bishop indeed and a Learned Philosopher but as a Learned Doctor of this Church and no Friend to Enthusiasm hath observed a better Platonist than sound Christian one who lived among them and yet very ignorant of what was most considerable in them one who passeth a harsh Censure of them and yet in it gives a remarkable Testimony for them He knew indeed what every Rustick could take notice of that they practised themselves and recommended to others Temperance and Continence and great Austerities and thereof he is an unexceptionable Witness but the reason thereof he knew not and therefore calls their Way of Living Barbarous Adamantine and contrary to Humane Nature an ample Testimony rightly understood He knew their diligent Labour and Works and what was said concerning their continual Contemplation of Divine things and thereof is an undeniable Witness but how that was consistent with twisting of Reeds and making of Baskets that he could not conceive He knew that they had great regard to Motions Impulses Transports c. and thereof he is a competent Witness but what to make of them he knew not and therefore thought that they did thereby hope for the End without the Means He knew that they were very confident of their Knowledge of Divine things and thereof he is a sufficient Witness but what they were he understood not nor how they should attain any such Knowledge without Learning and Study and therefore thought they did very arrogantly assume to themselves a greater Measure of Divine Knowledge than others had And what wonder if he who did not believe all the known Articles of the Christian Faith should be no more acquainted with such Mysteries and Secrets in Spiritual things as are by the Wisdom of God hid from the Wise and Prudent but revealed unto Babes than some of our Learned Doctors are at this time Undoubtedly had those great Men mentioned before no way inferior to this in any part of Learning understood no more of these things than he did they had been of his Mind or had he understood as much as they he had
the first and continued their way of living afterward for none could be more disposed to receive the Gospel nor can any other account be with any probability given of them And Monasteries there were in Egypt before St. Antony as appears plainly by the expression of St. Athanasius in his Life c. 3. p. 6. and more fully by Socrates lib. 4. c. 23. who saith That Monasteries in Egypt had their Original from very great Antiquity but they were inlarged and much increased by a pious Man whose Name was Ammon of whom Athanasius makes mention in the Life of Antony c. 32. which Socrates also takes notice of So that the Question mentioned by St. Hierom in his Life of Paul is plainly to be understood not who were the first Monks nor who were the first Anchorets but who were the first Eremites who retired so far as into the Desart for Athanasius mentions an old Man when St. Antony began who had obliged himself to a Solitary Life from his Youth and doubtless many such there were from the beginning of Christianity but such Societies there were also of Women before St. Antony's time to one of which he commited his Sister as appears in his Life and of whom St. Athanasius gives us a noble Testimony Apolog. p. 698. to 1. But there being none of whom we have any such particular and authentick account of their Lives and Actions more ancient than St. Antony none could be more proper to begin with for Example of the Heroick Piety and Virtue of those Ancient Christians than his being written by so Eminent and Excellent a Person as St. Athanasius whose deserved Character the English Reader may peruse in Dr. Cave collected out of the Ancients And for the LIFE it self that it was written by Athanasius in Greek and soon after Translated by Evagrius into Latin is so attested by the Ancients as is beyond all question and the Agreement and Disagreement too by reason of the Liberty which Evagrius saith he took in Translating of it which is between the Greek and the Latin Copies now extant is so remarkable and all so agreeable with what is said of it or out of it by the Ancients as renders all little Cavils and pretended Doubtfulness greater Blemishes to their Writings Candor and Integrity who abuse People with such Pretences than it can be to either the Greek or Latin Copies which so mutually confirm the Truth of each other and with the concurrence of other Testimonies make such a triple cord as nothing but greater regard to Factions and Parties than to Truth and Honesty would ever attempt to break Why are not some others reckoned doubtful for which there is more colour but that one serves their turn but the other not But undoubtedly there is a certain Secret Cause of some Peoples Prejudice against this Holy Life His Heroick Virtue and Devotion is a tacit Reproach to their Laziness and Tepidity His Miracles to their Want of Grace which makes that seem incredible to them which they see nothing of among themselves and hence they catch at any thing to bring all into question as his Combats with Devils c. 7. though certainly written by St. Athanasius and cited out of him by Ruffinus Socrates and Nicephorus and the like related by others and even in our own times the Smell of Spirits c. 35. as if it was not common for foul Spirits to leave a Stink behind them or that we must deny Credit to all Relations of that kind even amongst our selves because not agreeing with our fine-spun imaginary Notions of Spirits and the use of the Sign of the Cross both recommended to others and practised by himself as if that was not the Common Practice of Christians long before his time and the triumphant Erecting of Crosses ever since Constantine's time at the least See Eusebius 's Life of Constantine l. 1. c. 28 31 40. and l. 2. c. 7. and we had bravely mended the matter by setting up instead of it the Effigies of the Dragon upon our highest Spire without and the Ensigns of the Beast over our Altars within in many of our Churches as real Emblems or Representations of our Estate and Condition as if there was indeed some Magical Enchantment in them We may argue and cavil at such things as these but where is the Virtue and Divine Power which accompanied that Holy Man If we judge by our Saviour's Rule we shall find little but empty Talkers among those who exclaim most against these things and magnifie the Active Life above the Contemplative What does their Activity produce Antony we see converted great numbers to forsake their Estates and embrace the State recommended by our Saviour to all who could receive it But how many do we see by these Orators converted from their Covetousness Vanities and Superfluities to Obedience to the positive Commands of Christ In Antony the Power and Spirit of Christianity shined gloriously even in the sight of Heathens and Infidels but our Little Morality makes our selves suspected first and then our Religion too for our sakes and gives great occasion to such as have more Wit than solid Virtue to turn Atheists and Deists and such as have some sense of Religion to turn Separatists or Dissenters Nay the very Reading of this Life hath produced more noble Convertions than all their Preachings and Writings put all together who cavil at it whereof we have particular instances in St. Augustin's Confessions l. 8. c. 6. And indeed how can they expect the Blessing of God upon their Labours who so unadvisedly oppose so considerable a part of the Doctrine of our Saviour in general and resist his Inspirations in such as consult them in their own particular cases Is this the way to prepare a People for the Lord They may do well to consider what they shall answer when they are called to account for it and be more wary in such cases that they do not obstruct the Work of God but as they ought promote it An ABSTRACT of the LIFE of St. ANTONY out of SOZOMON l. 1. c. 13. WHETHER they were Egyptians or any others who were the first Beginners of that Monastick Philosophy this is confessed of all That that Great ANTONY the Monk did excellently practice that kind of Life with proper Exercises and Actions of Diligence and Perfection whom at that time growing famous in the Desarts of Egypt the Emperour Constantine in Honour of his Vertue received into his Favour and Friendship honoured him with his Letters and desired him to write to him for what he had occasion He was an Egyptian Born of a Noble Family at a place call'd Coma which is a Village near Heraclea When he was a well-grown Youth the Lands descended to him from his Father he gave to the People of the place and selling the rest of his Estate he distributed the Price amongst the Poor For he considered that it was the part of a Student of Philosophy not only to deprive himself
to assert or own so great and noble a Principle of the Religion they profess And therefore besides my own special Obligations and concern for the Honour and Service of God and of our Holy Religion Pity to the many Souls which I perceive destitute of true Spiritual Direction and Indignation at the Baseness Folly and Madness of so many Prudentialists amongst us hath made me for some time to long for an Opportunity to bear my Testimony in the Case The Motive in my collecting the other Discourse which though written last and by the by according to its proper order is here first was to detect a Misapplication of Truth and retort his Argument against himself who had so grossly and rudely treated the Business of Fanaticism without due regard to that Sacred Principle of Religion which is pretended in it or to the most noble and heroick Professors and Observers of it But in this degenerate Age God hath not left himself without Witness but raised up some of a more generous Spirit such as Mr. Smith of Cambridge the late profound Dr. Cradoc whom I much esteemed for his Generosity as well as Judgment in Preaching up this Doctrine who told me he had Preached 20 or 30 Sermons upon it and that if we deny that we may burn our Bibles for he knew not he said what Religion would signifie without it and the Learned Mr. Matthew Scrivener who hath left us a Discourse concerning Mystical Divinity Intituled The Method and Means to a true Spiritual Life and others to say nothing of some I know now Living whose number I pray God increase and make them perfect and compleat in all Graces and Vertue to his Honour and Glory and the Happiness of this Church and Nation OF THE Antiquity Tradition and Succession of Mystical Divinity Among the GENTILES FROM THE Testimony Confession OF AN Eminent Adversary AS Adam was the common Parent of all Man-kind from the Creation so was Noah the common Parent of all Man-kind who have lived since the Flood And of Noah it is recorded that he was a just Man and perfect in his Generations and that he walked with God Gen. 6.9 And that he was 600 years Old when the Flood of Waters was upon the Earth Gen. 7.6 From whence we may reasonably believe that he could not but be well acquainted with all the Knowledge of his Ancestors And what this Walking with God doth imply we may understand from the rest of the History and the Apostles Observation Heb. 11.7 viz. not only a careful Observance of all the General Rules of Righteousness transmitted from Adam to his Posterity but a ready Obedience and Conformity to all special Declarations and Manifestations of the Will of God to him Instances of which are those Commands of God and his Obedience thereunto in Building the Ark which undoubtedly exposed him to much trouble by Questions concerning it and to various Censures Gen. 6.14 22. He did notwithstanding according to all that God commanded him so did he and in going into it with the several sorts of Creatures Gen. 7.1 5 7 9. and in going out again at the Command of God Gen. 8.16 18. In his Walking with God in this manner he could not but besides all the Knowledge which he had received from his Ancestors learn much more by the immediate Teachings of God And it is not to be questioned but as he was instructed by his Ancestors so he was careful to instruct his Family Posterity in all necessary Knowledge amongst which that of Walking with God was some of the chief And this being so I see no reason Why other Nations should not have derived their Knowledge with their Descent directly from Noah or Why we should suppose the other Branches of his Posterity to have all received their Knowledge of Divine and Sacred things especially collaterally from that of Abraham rather than directly and lineally from their common Ancestor Noah As Noah offered Sacrifice Gen. 8.20 and Abraham offered Sacrifice so we find Priests and Sacrifices among other Nations Such was MELCHIZEDECK a Priest of the most High God Gen. 14.18 And certainly it was by Revelation from God or some Divine Means that PHARAOH understood that it was because of Sarah Abraham's Wife that the Lord plagued him and his House Gen. 12.17 as we find it expressed afterward in the like Case of ABIMELECH Gen. 20.3 6. God came to Abimelech in a Dream by Night and said to him Behold thou art but a dead Man for the Woman which thou hast taken for she is a Man's Wife And another PHARAOH acknowledged Joseph to be a Man in whom was the Spirit of God Gen. 41.38 and when he raised him to the greatest Preferment in the Kingdom gave him for a Wife the Daughter of an Egyptian Priest ibid. v. 45. And Moses Married the Daughter of a Priest of Midian JETHRO Ex. 2.16 21. who was a good Man and a Worshipper of the true God as appears Ex. 18.9 10 12. And the Means then to Inquire of the Lord were common to them and to other Nations As REBEKAH Gen. 25.22 So BALAAM Numb 22.8 9 18 19 20 23.4 went to inquire of the Lord and received Answers from Him And about this time JOB is believed to have lived who was a Holy Man and offered Sacrifices and had Visions By these Instances and others that might be noted we may understand that in those ancient times it was believed in all Nations that there were Means whereby Men and Women might come to have some Acquaintance and Communication with God and what these Means were is well worth our Inquiry That the JEWS had anciently their Schools or Colleges of Prophets we may observe in the Sacred Scriptures And though what were their Institutions and their Instructions and Orders there prescribed is not in the Scripture particularly related yet in the Particulars mentioned they seem to have been much the same with what was practised by the Ancient Christian Anchorets and Coenobites If we inquire amongst other Nations of most ancient Note and Fame for Knowledge in Divine matters the Egyptians and Chaldeans are the most considerable And the Means recommended by them do so well agree with the Mystical Divinity delivered by divers Christians that some Opposers of this Divinity think they have sufficient ground to derive it from them and supposing that a Prejudice to it have taken the pains to do it If the CHALDAICK ORACLES saith one of considerable Learning Name and Place were still extant which were frequently quoted by Plotinus Jamblicus Porphyrius and Proclus who did wholly approve the Chaldaick Theology and from them in a great measure the Fragments were preserved we might more fully manifest these things yet as they are they give us sufficient ground to draw the Fundamentals of this Mystical Divinity from thence For they speak of God's being united to the Soul by the Soul 's clasping God to herself and that not by any act of the Vnderstanding
up in Judgment against such as will be found to have given occasion to Tepidity Carelessness and Neglect of the most Spiritual Exercises of Religion NOTES and OBSERVATIONS to discern Illusions from Divine Inspirations THERE is another part of the Quarrel which our Author hath to this Mystical Divinity besides that that it is unintelligible as he says viz. That it leads Persons into strange Illusions of Fancy which he takes to be a great Injury not only to those Melancholy Souls that are led through this Valley of Shades and Darkness but to the Christian Religion it self Which if true is a just Cause of Quarrel indeed But if well consider'd no greater Cause than others have against the Holy Scriptures because some wrest them to their own Destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 It is true many Persons have been impos'd upon by their own Fancies and many more by Satan transformed into an Angel of Light but must we therefore deny that there are any true Divine Illuminations Inspirations Motions or Communications It is therefore very necessary to be well considered How they may be distinguished And because O. N. in the Book which our Author answers hath a Discourse on that Subject which hath passed his Examination without any hard censure which is an implicit Approbation that may not improperly here be added FOR the discerning of such Illusions proceeding from Satan from the true Inspirations of God's Holy Spirit we affirm That many Notes and Observations there be whereby they may be known if not certainly whether Divine as to their Original where no Spirit of Prophecy or Miracles yet whether containing Truth and advancing Vertue as to the Matter and whether any way noxious and hurtful either to the Person that receives them or others And this is abundantly sufficient Now for these Notes of discerning them I need referr the Reader to no other Book then to the Doctor 's Martyr Sancta Sophia though he was pleased to take no notice of them there in the Preface from § 29. to § 35. Again in the third Treatise p. 268. from § 9. to § 22. where after directing a strict Observation to be made concerning the Person whether 1. viciously inclin'd 2. arrogant and proud or 3. curious 4. or much addicted to melancholy there are particularly cast off and marked out for Satanical Illusions among others these All such pretended Inspirations or Revelations as do invite the Person to say or do any thing contrary to the Catholick Faith Obedience Humility Peace and Unity Honesty Purity and any other Divine Vertue but especially contrary to the Catholick Faith or Obedience for instance as the attempting to make any new and seditious Reformations as likewise when the Persons obstinately believe these Revelations to be of God after they have been condemned by experienced Superiors and Directors All such I say are condemned for Satanical Illusions which cuts all the nerves of all such pretended Revelations as can any way disturb the Church's Faith or Peace and most of all of those Enthusiasms and Fanatick Frenzies which have been so common among Protestants § 14. Lastly in all these Pretensions where there is any greater difficulty of discerning the Good and Divine from the Bad and Satanical Spirit we have a judge to repair to the Governours of the Church The Spirits of the Prophets saith St. Paul are subject to the Prophets § 15. But there are other Influences and Inspirations of the same Spirit directing us also in Actions in their own nature Indifferent or of Counsel and on either side lawful and free from Sin some of which Inspirations cannot be tried or distinguished from Enthusiasm by any such way as the former which because they are much spoken of by the Mysticks and are very necessary for advancing Christians in the way of Perfection it seems requisite for the freeing these also from Mistakes to give the Reader here some account of them § 18. 1. We must know then as Sancta Sophia Tr. 1. p. 57. and others have discoursed more at large that there are two Spirits within us that is all the Regenerate the Holy Spirit and that of Corrupt Nature assisted with the Suggestions of the Devil who took a kind of Possession of us upon Adam's Fall Eph. 2.2 That this last Spirit is never totally expell'd or silenc'd in us during this Life but tempts us still Gal. 5.17 And that its Suggestions may appear many times like the Motions of God's Spirit pretending Good Ends the performing some Duty to our selves or our Neighbour our advancement in Vertue and the like That the Effect of the first of these Spirits Sanctifying Grace received in our Regeneration or justification is in its infusion ordinarily but as a small Sâ—ed 1 John 3.9 1 Pet. 1.23 Mat. 13.31 33. or spark capable of a daily growth and increase and which with the co-operation of our Free will and further Aids that are from time to time received from God works in us at length a total Reformation and Christian Perfection which so many among the Regenerate as do attain are said in a more special mannner to be Spiritual Persons and to have the Spirit of God And iâ— this sense the Apostle writes to the Corinthians 〈◊〉 Brethren could not speak unto you as to Spiritual but as 〈◊〉 Carnal and as to Babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3.1 anâ— so ver 3. For ye are yet Carnal and Walk according to Man that is ye are Babes only in Christ and iâ— in some degree Carnal and walking according to the natural Man still and not as yet entirely Spiritual And frequent mention we find in the Scriptures 〈◊〉 these several Degrees and Growths in a Regeneral Condition It being God's Pleasure that the Neâ— Man as the Old should grow by degrees and not bâ— made compleat in us all at once Mention I say of some Babes and little ones and to be fed as yet only with Milk Of strong Meat and Wisdom and higher Mysteries only to be delivered to and spoken amongst the Perfect See Heb. 5.12 13. 1 Pet. 2. 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 3.1 1.2 6. Of growing in Grace and receiving Increase from God 2 Pet. 3.18 Col. 2.19 Of the new Man being renewed day by day 2 Cor. 〈◊〉 .16 Of arriving to a perfect Man unto the measure 〈◊〉 the Stature or Age of the Fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 Of the Apostles labouring to present every 〈◊〉 perfect in Christ Jesus and that they might stand perfect and full in all the Will of God Col. 1.28 4.12 and of this Perfection still containing in it higher and higher degrees Not as if I had already attained saith the Apostle Phil. 3.12 Though therefore by this Principle of a New Life and the infusion of the habitual Grace of Charity we are already translated from the former being of corrupt Nature to a Divine being of Supernatural Grace freed at the first from the former state of Mortal Sin and from the Slavery and Captivity we suffered under its
been managed and so superficially and impertinently our Preaching been generally throughout the Nation that we have disputed one part into disbelief of the Scriptures and Infidelity another into contempt of one of the chief Principles of Christianity and generally all into Neglect and Contempt of the Examples Precepts and Counsels of greatest Perfection in the Christian Religion and together with that preached the People generally into a careless tepid state of Indifferency so that in the Country especially it is rare to meet with two or three good sensible intelligent lively Christians in a Parish And who of our principal Clergy can deny any of this And if it be all true why is it not reformed If they cannot reform all why not as much as they can Why is not the Christian Worship restored in their Cathedrals And if those be so burden'd by prophane Officers imposed upon them that they fear to expose it why do they not reform their own Families and restore it at least in their own Chappels What Account will this Glorious Church as carnal Flatterers call it give of their Neglect of Propagating the Gospel in Foreign parts at least in our own Plantations and suffering them to be such Nourseries of Scandals to the Infidels What Account of the many things fit to be done at home for the Service of their Master and fit to be considered by them jointly in a Body and promoted in Parliament which yet are neither studied nor considered nor so much as thought on by any of them no more than if they did not belong to their Care or were not of any Concern to their Master though they sit Session after Session in the Parliament But how can it be expected that they should ever extend their care to things so remote who take no more care of what doth concern them in their own Chappels and Families It is an amazing thing for one whose Eyes are open to consider these things But it fairs with collective Bodies of Men as with single Persons they are subject to the like Diseases the State of this Church is plainly a Tepid Scorbutick Latitudinarian Laodicean State quite sick of the Prudentials and has been so in a manner from the first Settlement of the Reformation And to speak freely as becomes an honest Man though there was great need of a Reformation when it was begun by Luther and long before yet hath that great Work been so ill managed with more of the Antichristian than Christian Spirit that I cannot see by any growth in Grace and Virtue that the Blessing of God hath ever been with it only he seems to have preserved these Reformations rather as Judgments and Corrections for the Obstinacy of that Church which would not reform and raised up and preserved the several Sub-divisions of Parties amongst us for the very same cause and purpose For the True Cause of all the Divisions and Separations amongst us is no other but our Scandals Abuses and Corruptions both by way of Natural Causation and by the special Judgment of God to awaken us if it be possible And though the Blessing of God the true Spiritual Christian Blessing be not upon them because he doth not favour Schisms and Divisions yet is his Protection over them as his Instruments in the Nature of a Judgment and in some things to raise an Emulation in those of the Church if they would lay it to heart and understand it For there is none of them all but there is some thing in them which may serve for Admonition and Notice of something amiss in the Church This which I have now said may be of use not only to them of the Church but also to all the several separate Parties and deserve their very serious and deep Consideration For it is not a light matter to Make a Schism or Division in any particular Church or in the Catholick Church It hath been looked upon in all Ages to be a damnable Sin and who-ever doth well consider the several weighty Admonitions in the Scriptures concerning it if he have not a benumed Conscience will not make light of it nor yield to plausible pretences there is nothing so bad but the Wit of Man and subtile Suggestions of Satan can put a colour upon it nor so good but they can mis-represent it and disparage it but it is dangerous and very imprudent to play tricks with Sacred things Any thing else may be more safely medled with in that manner This does concern them all in general and I must add a word or two more There are none of the best of them that I have yet talked with that could or would deny that their Party was much sunk in Piety and Virtue from those degrees of it which was in those before them of the same Party And this being so it concerns us all to consider well whether the Apostacy foretold be not an Apostacy in Practice as well as in Principles and Whether while we are gazing to see the Judgments of God upon it abroad it may not be found amongst us at home and we feel in a surprize upon the Nation at home what we expect to see elsewhere at Rome as was upon this City in sixty six And certain I am that there are not only Antichristian Principles amongst us all but whole Antichristian Sects and Parties which deceived by the Subtilty of Satan under the most specious appearances of the most pure and refined Christianity do undermine and enervate the true Genuine Christianity and the Power of Godliness It is one of the Devil 's most subtile Policies by abuse of Scripture and mis-application of certain Truths to impose upon People and overturn them So he began with our Saviour and so he goes on with Professors to and at this day The Holy Scriptures are abused the Honour of God is abused the Merits of Christ are abused the Guidance of the Spirit is abused the Moderation and Condescention of the Gospel is abused and whatever is most Excellent and Admirable is abused by the Subtilty of the Enemy and the supine Negligence and Inconsiderateness and Folly of Men. And woe be to them who dare presume to be the Instruments and Leaders in these Abuses and Doctrines It is certain that our Saviour gave Instructions to his Apostles for the Settling of his Church and that they accordingly in all places where there were a competent number of Converts did ordain Elders and gave Authority to others to do the like and so settled a Succession in the Church which hath continued all over the World to this day And it is certain that the State of the Jews was so corrupted in his time as provoked the Judgment of God upon them so that they are a Monument thereof all over the World to this day and yet neither He nor his Disciples did ever refuse communion with them till they were cast out and so far was he from allowing them to separate that he foretold
their being cast out of the Synagogues as part of the Persecution they were to suffer It is also certain that our Saviour did foretell that many false Prophets that is false Teachers should come in his Name and deceive many and gave great Caution not to go out or believe them and that his Apostles did the like and did with great earnestness exhort all to beware of Divisions Schisms and Separations in the Church And accordingly in all Ages for Men to take upon them the Office of Elders or Ministers of the Gospel without a Regular Ordination derived by Succession from the Apostles or to draw away people after them and engage them in Separate Parties hath been looked upon as a heinous Sin and whoever have done so have been Infamous in the Church ever since And therefore if our Dissenters did continue daily with one accord at our Temples as the primitive Christians did and did continue their Assemblies at their own Meeting-places for Instruction and Edification without any Separation from the Church provided there was nothing but true Christian Doctrine taught amongst them I do not see but they might be of very good Use and deserve not only an Indulgence but Encouragement from the Publick Authority But they who make a Trade of it to engage Separate Parties I do verily believe have much to answer for before God and those who desire to be Christians indeed had need to beware of them And this I must in justice say after all I have said concerning what is amiss amongst us that thanks be to God we have those amongst us who for good Learning for profitable Preaching and for sincere Piety Devotion and all Virtue are no way inferior to any of the Dissenters if to be equalled by any of them and yet I cannot say they are so many but there may be reason enough to receive those Labourers also into our Lord's Harvest And I heartily wish it was well considered How they may be made more serviceable in so important and needful a Work without any thing of a Separation and that they would consider Who They are who sit in Moses or rather the Apostles Seat and What our Lord doth require in that respect And now to come more particularly to the PEOPLE of that Party call'd Quakers I must first acquaint them that I have not only had several Conferences with the Principal Persons of their Party whom they call Ministers but have also sent them several Letters and Papers to their Second Days Meetings And as our Conferences have hitherto been managed in a very friendly manner so I do desire to proceed in the same manner with them also and therefore what is directed at first only to the second days Meeting I shall desire them now to receive as intended from the first for them all though I thought it most fair and decent to proceed in that order And it is as followeth To William Penn and the rest of the Friends with him at their second days Meeting in Grace-Church-Street William and the rest of the Friends with thee MY Hearts desire and Prayer to God for you all is that ye may be saved for I am perswaded that you have a Zeal of God at least many of you though not according to Knowledge in some things Nevertheless whereto ye have attained in that I desire ye may be established and that God will be graciously pleased to reveal the rest to you that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing For which purpose I come I trust by the Grace of God with a Message of Grace and Peace to you I am well satisfied that it is no meer Humane Project or Artifice that at first raised you up and hath conducted you hitherto but a Supernatural Power and that it is of the Lord some way or other as was the Separation of the Ten Tribes from Rehoboam 1 King 12. for Correction and Reformation of something amiss in this Church And therefore I dare not presume either upon my own head or by my own Ability to intermeddle in it But my Heart is inlarged towards you upon these Considerations 1. That ye do assert one of the Great and Chief Principles of the Christian Religion which I have observed to be very unworthily and even despitefully treated by too many who have gotten into or seek Preferments and Imployment in the Church without Check or Reproof and so unworthily deserted by most for fear of reproach or disgrace or hindrance in their Preferment that I have not known it generously asserted by above two or three in the Pulpit but those great Men indeed though it be plainly a Doctrine most authentickly and solemnly professed and declared in the Church of England 2. That ye do bear a good Testimony against other Abuses connived at or tolerated amongst us 3. I am moved with Pity towards you that you should have so great Causes of Offence or Scandal given you against the Holy and Established Institutions and Ordinances of Christ for the Ministerial Office for the Admission of Proselytes and for the great Solemnity of the Christian Worship which hath been so long abused with Controversies that I know very few Persons now amongst us who do rightly and compleatly understand it and even against the Person Satisfaction and Merits of Christ himself But when I consider your Notions and Sentiments concerning these things though I am well satisfied that you are under the Conduct and Energy of some Spiritual Power yet What that Spirit is and Whether One or Divers in my Judgment doth deserve very good Consideration Ye know what Spirit it was which God sent between Abimelech and the Shechemites Jud. 9.23 and what that was that was sent from the Lord to Saul 1 Sam. 6.14 and what that was that was commissioned by God in the case of Ahab 1 King 22.22 23. and what that was in the midst of the Princes of Noph Isa 19.14 which was from the Lord too And that such a Spirit hath been among some call'd Quakers is manifest both by their Actions Speeches and Writings nay the very Spirit of the Devil and of Antichrist is apparent and undeniable from the Indignities offered both in word and deed to Holy things But that is not the thing now to be considered what Spirits may have appeared among them For even among the Apostles Satan had power to enter into Judas and it is not improbable but those whom our Saviour told Ye know not what Spirit ye are of and even Peter himself when our Saviour said to him Get thee behind me Satan might not at the time be free from some Impressions of Evil Spirits That 't is likely was a Peculiarity of our Saviour's for the Prince of this World to have nothing in him But the thing to be considered is What Spirit that is which at first excited and hath now the Conduct of the whole Body of this People And not whether it be sent or commissioned from God but
Perswasion to be unprofitable and hurtful Which thing the Christians of that time seem to me to have instituted out of a generous and most fervent Ardour of Faith endeavouring to emulate the Prophetical severe Course of Life Therefore in the Acts of the Apostles which contain nothing but the perfect Truth it is shewed That all the Disciples of the Apostles selling their Possessions and Goods divided the Price among the Brethren according as every one had need that so there might not be any indigent Person amongst them For as the Word says As many as were Possessors of Lands or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet and Distribution was made unto every Man according as he had Need. After Philo has attested the very same things with these of the Therapeutae he adds thus much farther concerning them word for word saying This sort of Men indeed is diffused far and wide over the whole World For it was requisite that both Greeks and Barbarians should be partakers of so excellent a Benefit Egypt especially is full of them throughout all its Divisions but most of all about Alexandria But from all places the principal of them retire themselves into a most commodious place above the Lake Maria situate upon a little rising Hill excellently well seated both for Wholsomeness of Air and Conveniency of Abiding as into the Country of the Therapeutae Then after he has described their Houses after what manner they were built he speaks thus of the Churches they have in divers Places In every House there is a Chappel called a Semnaeum and Monasterium in which alone by themselves they perform the Mysteries of an Holy Life They bring in thither neither Meat nor Drink nor any Corporal Provisions or Necessaries but only the Law and the divine Oracles of the Prophets and Hymns and such like whereby Knowledge and Piety are increased and perfected And a little while after he says All the interval of time from Sun rising to the Evening they spend in Meditations of Philosophy For reading the Holy Scriptures they Philosophize after their Countrey way and expound Allegorically For they suppose that the Words are only Notes and Marks of some things of a Mystical Nature which are to be explained Figuratively They have Writings of some ancient Persons who have been heretofore famous Leaders of their Sect and have left them many Monuments of that Learning which consists in dark and secret Expressions which they using as original Platforms do imitate thereby that Course of Study These certainly seem to be the Words of such a Man as had heard some of our Religion expounding the Holy Scriptures And it is very likely that the Writings of those ancient Persons which he says they had were the Gospels and Writings of the Apostles and certain Expositions of the ancient Prophets of which sort many are contained both in other Epistles of Paul and also in that written to the Hebrews Afterwards Philo thus writeth concerning the New Psalms composed by them They do not only spend their time in Contemplation but they compose Songs and Hymns to the Praise of God of all sorts of Meeter and Musical Verse which they write in grave and seemly Rhymes He relates many other things of them in that Book I mentioned But I judged these fittest to be selected and pickt out in which certain Marks of Church Discipline are proposed But if any one should think what Philo here says to be in no wise proper to the Evangelical Politie but may be adapted to others besides those I have mentioned he will certainly be convinced by Philo's following Words in which if he shall duly weigh the Matter he will receive a most undoubted Testimony of this thing Now he writes thus Having first laid Temperance as a certain foundation they build thereupon the other Virtues For none of them takes either Meat or Drink before Sun-set for they hold it requisite to spend the Day in the Study of Philosophy and the Night in making necessary Provision for the Body Therefore they allot the whole Day to study but allow a very small portion of the Night for Bodily Provision Some of them forget to eat for Three Days together so great is the desire of Knowledge that possesses them But some others of them are so well pleased with and feed so richly and deliciously upon the Banquets of Wisdom which sets before them wholsome Precepts as a most sumptuous Feast that they are wont scarce to tast any necessary Food in twice that space to wit in Six Days time We suppose these Words of Philo to be evidently and without all doubt spoken concerning those of our Religion But if after all this any one shall still persist in a peremptory denyal of these things he will at length recede from his obstinate difficulty of Belief being perswaded to submit to such manifest Demonstrations as are no where to be found but in the Christian Religion composed according to the Rule of the Gospel Philo says further therefore That among these Men of whom we speak there are certain Women conversant many of which continue Virgins being old not out of Necessity like some of those amongst the Grecian Priests but voluntarily preserving their Chastity out of an ardent Affection to and Desire of Wisdom in the Embraces and Familiarity whereof they earnestly affect to spend their Lives having despised all Bodily Pleasures and desiring earnestly not a Mortal Issue but an Immortal which that Mind only that loves and is beloved of God can of it self bring forth After many other Expressions he speaks yet more plainly thus Their Expositions of Holy Writ are figurative by way of Allegories For these Men suppose the whole Law to be like a Living Creature the bare Words whereof are as it were the Body and the invisible Sense that lies hid under the Words resembles the Soul Which sence this Sect have and do make it their Religion earnestly to search into and contemplate beholding in the Words as in a Glass the admirable beauty of the Meaning There is no necessity of adding farther here an account of their Assemblies of the distinct Apartments of their Men and Women and of their several Studies and Holy Exercises now in use amongst us more especially about the Feast of our Lord's Passion when we are wont to practise them in Fastings Watchings and attentive Reading of Holy Scriptures All which the Man we have so often mentioned does relate in his Writings accurately after the same manner in which we only at this time observe them Especially he mentions the Vigils of the great Solemnity the Holy Exercises therein and the Hymns we are wont to recite And how when one has begun to sing a Psalm harmoniously and gravely the rest silently hearkening do after sing out in Chorus the latter parts only of the Verses And how throughout those Days lying in Straw upon the Ground
Liberty which was indulged to the Gentiles by reason of the Infirmity of their first Belief began by degrees to contaminate the Perfection even of that Church which was settled at Jerusalem and the Number daily increasing either of Natives or of Foreigners the Fervour of that first Faith began to cool not only those who came flowing in to the Faith of Christ but even they who were the Principal of the Church were relaxed from that Strictness For some thinking that which they saw conceded to the Gentiles by reason of their Infirmity to be lawful also for themselves believed they should suffer no Detriment if they did with their Goods and Estates retaining them in Propriety to themselves follow the Faith and Confession of Christ But others in whom the Apostolick Fervour did still abide mindful of that ancient Perfection departing from their Cities and from the Company of those who believed the Negligence of a more remiss Life to be Lawful for themselves or for the Church of God began to reside in places without the Cities and more secret or retir'd and to exercise privately and apart the things which they remembred to be instituted by the Apostles generally throughout the whole Body of the Church And so did that Discipline which we have mentioned of the Disciples who sequestred themselves from the Contagion of the rest come to a Settlement Who in process of time by degrees being separate from the Crowds of Believers because they did abstain from Marriage and withdrew themselves from the Company of their Parents and the Conversation of the World were called Monachi or Monazontes for the Strictness of their single and solitary Life Whence it follow'd that from the Communion of their Company they were called Coenobitae and their Cells and Habitations Coenobia This therefore alone was the most Ancient kind of Monks which was the prime not only in Time but also in Grace and Vertue and which continued inviolable for very many Years even to the Age of Father Paul or Antony the Footsteps whereof we even now see remaining in the strict Coenobia or Monasteries as now called Of this number of Perfect ones and as I may say fertile Root were produced after these also the Flowers and Fruits of the Holy Anchoretes or Hermites of which Profession we know those whom we a little before remembred viz. Holy Paul and Antony to have been the Principal or first Beginners Who betook themselves to the Secrets or Retirements of Solitude not as some through Pusillanimity or the Disease of Impatience but out of Design of more sublime Advancement and Divine Contemplation although the former of them is said to have gone into the Wilderness under pretence of Necessity while in the time of Persecution he avoids the Snares of his Relations Thus from that Discipline which we have mentioned proceeded another kind of Perfection the Followers of which are deservedly named Anachoretae that is Retir'd because not content with this Victory whereby they have avoided the secret Snares of the Devil among Men designing to encounter the Devils in an open Combat and manifest Conflict they fear not to enter into the vast Recesses of the Wilderness in imitation of John the Baptist who remained in the Wilderness his whole Life and of Elias and Elisha and of those whom the Apostle makes mention of thus They wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented Of whom the World was not worthy wandering in Desarts and in Mountains and in Dens and in Caves of the Earth Heb. 11.37 38. And when the Christian Religion did flourish in these two Professions of Monks but this Order also began to decline there arose up after those that worst and unfaithful kind of Monks or rather that Evil Plantation reviving grew up which by Ananias and Sapphira sprouting out in the beginning of the Church was cut down by the Apostle Peter which among the Monks was judged detestable and execrable nor by any other more used so long as the Fear of that strict Sentence remained with them fixed in the Memory of the Faithful with which the Blessed Apostle not suffering the afore-said Leaders of that New Crime to be cured with any Penitence or any Satisfaction did cut off the pernicious Sprout with sudden Death But that Example whereby with Apostolical Severity it was punished in Ananias and Sapphira being through long Inconsiderateness and the oblitering nature of Time by degrees substracted from the Contemplation of some there arose that sort of the Sarabites who from thence that they did sequester themselves from the Congregation of the Coenobites and did separately provide for their own Occasions in the propriety of the Egyptian Language were named Sarabites proceeding out of the Number of those whom we mentioned before who choose rather to simulate the Evangelical Perfection than to embrace it in Truth and Reality being provok'd with an Emulation or by the Commendation of those who preferred the compleat Nudity of Christ before all the Riches of the World For these while either with a weak Mind they affect a Matter of the highest Virtue or are by Necessity compelled to come to this Prosession while they are eager only to be reckoned under the Name of Monks without any Emulation of their Studies or Endeavours they do not at all seek after the Discipline of the Coenobites nor are they subject to the Will and Ordering of the Seniors or Superiors nor being instructed by their Traditions do they learn to overcome their own Wills or receive any Rule of Discretion by a regular Erudition but renouncing the World in outward Appearance that is to the sight of Men they either continue in their Houses under the Priviledge of this Name obliged to the same Occupations or building Cells for themselves and calling them Monasteries they abide there in their own Power and Liberty not at all submitting to the Evangelical Precepts viz. that they be imployed in no Solicitude for daily Food in no Distractions of Family Concerns which they only use without Infidel doubting who being set free from all the Goods of this World do so subject themselves to the Presidents of the Monasteries that they do not so much as own themselves to be Lords of themselves But they who declining as we said the Strictness of the Monastery reside two or three together in Cells not content to be govern'd by the Care and Government of the Abbot but principally procuring this for themselves that being set free from the Yoke of the Superiors they may have the Liberty of exercising their own Wills and of going out and gading where or doing what they please even more in their daily Works than those who live in the Monasteries are indeed consumed and wasted Day and Night but not with the same Faith and the same Purpose of Mind For this they do not that they may subject or commit the Fruit or Product of their Labour to the Judgment of the Steward but that
that after he came to maturity of Thinking and Judging he became as he found reason in many things of a different Judgment from the Notions and Sentiments he had first received by which it appeared that his Religion was the Religion of his Judgment and not of his Education And being no Ecclesiastick but a Man of a Civil Employment he stood fair to be looked upon as an Indifferent Judge and not as an Advocate or Party as Clergy-men generally are reputed by some and by consequence his Writings upon such Subjects besides the weight of his Reason would have a double Weight of Authority if we take in his Example too above others to make them successful upon such as have received prejudice from the Scandalous Practices of too many Professors and Preachers of the Christian Religion which hath been a principal Cause of Atheism heretofore and of Deism at present and of the Contempt of the Clergy and more effectual and prevalent than any of those which have been assigned in Print though by Scandalous I intend here nothing but Zeal for Preferments and a cold Indifferency in Matters of Religion For as it hath been rightly observed When Vertue fails in the Priests Faith will fail in the People be their Preaching what it will Now by how much greater was the Advantage that the Writings of this Man had above others to have done Service in this Cause so much the greater was the Gratification which these Wicked Spirits received in the Suppression of them I know nothing so sordid that ever appeared in his Life But that this hath been ordered by the Malice and Subtilty of those Wicked Spirits who had gotten Advantage against Him or his Family however some particular Dispositions in Persons might make it more feasible as I verily believe so I am well satisfied he would not at all have doubted had he been living and to have spoken his Judgment in a like Case He and I both before he died had had Experience enough to satisfie us concerning such matters And I wish his and all other Families who are fallen into any such Snare may consider well of it and be well advised how to recover themselves out of it if it may be Many such have I known and though the Burden be sealed upon some and the Decree fixed yet in others there seemed to be a Door open if Opportunity was not neglected Mens Belief or Disbelief will not alter the Truth of things But Disbelief of things that are true is often the Cause of great Vnhappiness and they who disbelieve such things as these are not the less obnoxious to their Malice but more secure in their Power So much as this is not impertinent to be said concerning the Malice and Subtlety of the Evil Spirits before a Discourse of the Gracious Conduct of the Good And I think my self specially obliged to declare my Sentiments of both upon any just Occasion And indeed I confess the Preface was not written so much for the sake of the Book as the Book Published for the sake of the Preface as an Occasion to write on that Subject which I thought my self obliged to do as an Act of Penitence for an Vnhappy Miscarriage whereby my Enemy got that Advantage against me which I mentioned before and shall here repeat in the Words then Printed as followeth I must not here forbear upon this Occasion to add not my Opinion but my own certain Knowledge upon great and long and in some respects in a great measure woful Experience in an Humble Confession of my Fault to give Glory to God Testimony to his Truth and Warning to Men. I have had Experience of this Divine Conduct and of the Blessings and Curses attending Obedience and Disobedience to it so that I have plainly perceived that the Conduct of the Children of Israel out of Egypt through the Wilderness into the Promised Land was a visible Manifestation or Representation of the Secret Spiritual Conduct of Souls out of Slavery under the Powers of Darkness through the Wilderness of this World into the Land of Rest and the very same thing in Action and Representation which is delivered by way of Doctrine and Admonition in the Book of Ecclesiasticus iv 11 20. and vi 18 31. The Crosses Disappointments and Afflictions which I have gone through have been very grievous and many of them known to the World though nothing hath appeared in my Life to which they could be imputed by others as a Cause in any respect I must therefore declare that while I did act in a ready Compliance with that Conduct I not only had great Peace and Serenity of Mind but all things went strangely prosperous and successful with me and I had extraordinary Answers to my Prayers not only for my self but for others also But whenever I have done contrary I always had trouble in my Mind and what I did was either blasted or unsuccessful and often of such evil Consequence as I did not foresee This I have found so by great and long Experience and in some of the great Businesses of my Life wherein I acted not only upon my own Reason and Judgment but also upon the Advice and Persuasions of very considerable Persons And after considerable Experience of this I was once so unhappy in my Disobedience to this Conduct upon a special Occasion having none to advise with and yielding too much to the Sentiments of our Anti-enthusiasts which was a Temptation to me that as I have special reason to believe it was like the Sin of Adam to me an Inlet unto all the Vnhappiness that hath since befallen me and my Family And I have been as it were turned back into the Wilderness ever since The Things wherein I had this Conduct were not matter of Duty in themselves or not in the particular Circumstances but either were such as were in Humane appearance so indifferent that I might have used my Liberty or the Conduct was much different from the Wisdom of the World And though I cannot say whether the Afflictions I have suffer'd were so ordered as a Punishment for my Miscarriage yet I am assur'd they were a Consequence thereof at least such as we often fall into when we neglect the Good Counsel of our Friends And they have been such as I am persuaded it is my Duty upon this Occasion to make this publick Penitential Confession whatever Prejudice I may suffer thereby from Men If I can but thereby obtain the Favour of God and benefit Men I shall accept that as part of my Punishment For the Certainty of this I can truly affirm That I had immediately upon my Miscarriage as sensible Notice of the Evils which have since befallen me as I can have of any thing by any sense I have as plain as if a Sentence had been pronounced against me And what I have suffered hath had Two several Marks as exactly agreeable to my Miscarriage as the print of a Seal upon the Wax
to the Seal it self I cannot say but other Sins or Miscarriages might be Ingredients in this Case but I know full well that this was the Inlet unto all those Evils which I am satisfy'd had been prevented had I continued at that time in the way I was in And it often recalls to my mind part of the Eighty first Psalm and other Passages of the Old Testament which have been fulfilled in my Case and therefore I have great reason upon such an Occasion to confess my Fault that I may have other more comfortable Passages made good to me hereafter And here I cannot but remember that I scarce knew the Man at that time to confult with in these things who was not more likely to have put me out of the way than to have directed me aright how to proceed in it And this I note for the sake of such Spiritual Guides as are consulted in such Cases If they be not very careful and considerate to avoid the Common Errors on both sides and neither incourage nor discourage the Attendance to such Impulses and Impressions c. in general but carefully endeavour to distinguish and to direct aright they may bring great Trouble upon those who consult them as I have known some do and perhaps greater upon themselves when they are call'd to give Account of their Stewardship either here or hereafter Thus far was printed before to which I must now add Whether these things as perhaps some others were not permitted to befall me for Admonition to others I know not but this I know by Experience in others and even while this is Printing that there is great need of Good Admonition For I find by divers such Experiences that God is pleased at this time to give some sensible Notices of his Conduct to many who are in some sort in the Case of Samuel 1 Sam. 3.7 who then did not know the Lord neither was the Word of the Lord yet revealed to him and when they come to the Priest who should be as Eli to them to direct them how to behave themselves are by him put quite out of the Way and either dismissed to the Physician to be cured of Melancholy or advised to some cheerful innocent Conversation or to mind their Business in their Callings or to reject the Impressions they feel as Fancies and vain Fears and Scruples And many Cases there are wherein some of these Directions might be proper but there are many others wherein they are all quite out of the Way and wherein great Faults have been to my knowledge and I doubt are daily committed by Learned and otherwise able and good Men partly through Ignorance in these Matters or common Prejudice against them partly for fear of incouraging what they see many abuse to their own hurt and to the Scandal of others and partly for fear of bringing upon themselves the Censure and Reproach of inclination to Fanaticism or Enthusiasm and thereby at once the Grace and special Favour of God is rejected the poor Soul greatly disappointed at least if no worse happen to it and the Director must be accountable for both But to make a matter of so great Importance the more plain it may not be amiss to propose an instance or two of some Cases A Person wants an Employment and an Employment is offered but the Person hath strong Impressions either not to accept it or not to continue it being otherwise supplyed for the present and thereupon repairs to some noted Divine for Advice The Divine considers that the Person needs an Employment and upon Examination can discover nothing unlawful in the Employment nor unfit for the Person and thereupon confidently adviseth to reject the Impression and embrace and continue the Employment Such Advice as this proves in the event to one unsuccessful all his time to another his Ruine and Vndoing as to his Temporal Estate to another the Occasion of the Loss of his Life and to another the hazard if not loss of his Soul and all this by such Means and Occasions as could not be foreseen or discovered by any Mortal but are plainly seen and foreseen by some kind invisible Friends concerned for us Again a young Woman who is not at all proud if we will believe her only she desires to be like other-Folks but she finds something within her that tells her or suggests that she 'll be damned if she wear such a Dress Hereupon she goes for Advice to a Divine He being more cautious in such cases tells her that since she may both lawfully and decently wear another meaner or plainer she should have a care that she doth not reject such Motions in her Mind For many times things which are not damnable Sins in themselves may be Occasions and Inlets to such as are and Hindrances of Graces and so produce such unhappy consequence at last But not liking this Advice away she goes to another of greater note and he tells her that since that Dress is not unlawful it cannot be a Damnable Sin to wear it and therefore whatever it was it could not be the Spirit of God that did so fright her but she must have a care of such things lest she run into Fanaticism and I know not what And this she likes and follows till the tricking up of her Natural Beauty proves a Snare to her self and others the kind Impressions which she formerly had upon occasion cease her Devotion grows cool and she relapseth again into the common Course of the World and what will be the end of it God knows What I have had experience of in my self and my own Family partly for want of due regard to such Notices and too much yielding to Motives of Moral Prudence and partly by such unhappy Resolutions of Cases by others would be too long to relate particularly I have had no less than four Sons undone in this City all as likely Youths as any and all after their disappointments by their Behaviour gaining the Favour and Kindness of all they conversed with and in the placing of them spared neither Cost nor Pains nor Care and took the best Advice I could have at first made choice of such for Masters as I expected to act upon Principles of Religion afterward such as I expected Friendship at least Moral Honesty and Humanity from them but was disappointed in all And I know assuredly that all did proceed from such Causes as I have in general mentioned already and had notice of it in general before It is a great Vnhappiness to this Church and Nation at this time that we have so few of any considerable Experience in these things especially among those who should be Guides to others And it is their Great Sin and without due Repentance will prove Damnation to many that they have been so bug-beared by a fluttering Sadducean Atheistical Humour and base prudential Compliance of some of greater Name than genuine Christian Vertue as to be ashamed or afraid
and ridiculous to the invisible adverse Powers who are not a little gratified with the spectacle of it It puts a Slight and Contempt upon the great and noble Examples of our Saviour and the Ancient and most Heroick Christians but spreads the Devil's Snares and decoys Men into them promotes Christian Idolatry which is Covetousness to be as effectually destructive as any of the Jews ever was or any of Papists can be and tempts the World to believe that either Earthly-mindedness or to mind Earthly things is consistent with Christianity or that they are no Christians and do not themselves believe what they Preach unto others But to speak a little more distinctly there are two things to be consider'd in our English Clergy what they have originally from Christ and what they have originally from Man From Christ they have Authority to preach the Gospel to teach and instruct the People to administer the Sacraments and offer to God the solemn Prayers of the Church to admonish correct and execute Ecclesiastical Discipline where there is occasion and to receive the Oblations of the People for maintenance of themselves and for Pious Uses and a right to all the Respect and Submission which is due to the Ministers of Christ in so Holy an Imployment And from Man they have Houses and Lands and Revenues and Titles and Honours and Civil Power and Authority and Charges and Incumbrances And these are some good and useful and some evil pernicious inconsistent with their Christian State and to be plain Antichristian The Houses Lands and Revenues may be of good use if they be used as they should be but the rest are Antichristian under pretence of Honouring Degrading and under pretence of enlarging their Power with what they had not debasing and abridging what they had and subtilly enslaving the Ministers of Christ to be Servants of Men and not the outward Man only but their very Minds and Spirits And here lies the very Mystery of Iniquity They are deprived of one part of their Christian Authority and their Hands bound under pretence of State and Grandure by having Chancellors like the Grandees of the World They are subjected to the State by their Acceptance of their Honours and Dignities from thence the very Temptation that was offer'd by the Devil to our Saviour and a betraying of the Rights of the Church of Christ And the Papal Enchroachments and Usurpations being transferred to the Crown and all Ecclesiastical Preferments coming from the King this is first a Bait to allure Ambitious Minds and then an Enchantment upon them that they dare not displease the Creator of their Grandure though for the Service of their true Lord and Master and the Saviour of their Souls So that we are like to have a continual Succession of Flatterers of Princes instead of faithful Monitors as become the Servants of the great God to be and Nurseries of false Loyalty instead of true Piety and Devotion to God and of Instruments of incessant Dissentions between Prince and People instead of Healers of our Breaches a just Judgment or deserved consequence of Sacriledge and Usurpation upon the Church of Christ And here if I be not much mistaken lyeth the Root of all the Vnhappiness of this Nation and at this time in particular The Providence of God hath not at any time been wanting to us but we have been always wanting to our Duty to Him and to our own true Interest And though all have been wanting yet the beginning of this deficiency hath been in them who should have better attended to and wisely consider'd the Motions of Providence and been the first active vigorous Movers to the rest to have corresponded with it But alas they attended more to the Motions of Men and to please them or at least not displease them for their own Advancement or Security and this is call'd Prudence forsooth And sohave we lost a most favourable Opportunity put into our hands When Men turn from God to Men for Counsel or Assistance or Advancement that Divine Power which doth ordinarily accompany the Ordinances and Orders of God doth usually depart from them though chosen or regularly commissioned by him as it did from Saul And then they are ready to fly to any mean things for support or safety The Church of England hath been in Bondage under the Civil Power ever since it was discharged from the Roman Usurpations which were not totally abolished but too much reserved to another Master and a Slavish Spirit hath ever since possessed it It did quietly acquiess in the greatest Sacriledge that ever was committed It contentedly suffer'd the most solemn part of its Liturgy composed by English Bishops and as was declared by Act of Parliament by the aid of the Holy Ghost to be dismember'd disorder'd and defac'd and the Christian Sacrifice abolished by Foreigners and a Factious Party which have ever since been Thorns in their Sides without the concurrence of the English Clergy The true Christian Discipline they never had the Courage to attempt to restore though an Office was prepar'd for a Memorial with a Wish to have it restor'd from the beginning which King Charles II. observing upon an Ash-Wednesday ask'd Why do they not restore it Who hinders ' em And for the Worship of God we have ordinarily only Mattens and Vespers and that too only on the Lord's-Day and in that too the Prayers short and deficient either to excite or to express the Devotions of the People where there is any and besides all this what we have commonly read with so little Devotion as gives Scandal to many and no little disturbance to others And our very Sacraments and most Holy Things no less than Holy-Days are scandalously prophaned Baptism which is the Solemnity of our engaging in the Christian Covenant not only permitted but even forced upon such as do not desire it either for themselves or their Children but bring their Infant Children either for fear of the Apparator or out of Custom to be like their Neighbours without any sense or understanding of so much of the Christian Religion as was required anciently of Catechumens before they were admitted to Baptism And that other Sacrament the Holy Memorials of our Saviour's Passion which from the rising of the Sun to the setting of it that is all over the World hath in all Assemblies of Christians for the solemn Worship of God till the last Age been presented before God as a solemn Recognition of our Redemption by Christ and Subjection to him as our Lord hath been not only most shamefully neglected and so treated both in Sermons from the Pulpit and in Printed Books that it appears few amongst us rightly understand it at this day but most horribly profan'd not only by common admittance of all that will to it but even forcing the most wicked and profane Officers to it upon the Penalty of losing their Places And so unhappily have some of our Controversies with Papists and Fanaticks
principally to be considered and they are to take care of the Dissenters If we consider the Great things belonging to the Charge of the Governours of this Church both severally in their particular Diocesses the State of the Clergy and People there and joyntly to them all as one Body viz. The Court and the Nobility The Vniversities The Parliament so far as Religion is concerned there The Prisons which might be made Schools of Virtue but are now Nourseries of all Vice and Wickedness and Condemned Persons there for whose Assistance they of the Roman Communion imploy the ablest and best qualified of their Clergy and we the most ordinary though they are not a few who are every Year Executed in this City and throughout the Nation The Foreign Plantations and the Propagation of the Christian Religion by that Means abroad for our Neglect of which the Monks and Jesuits and Quakers and such as we call Phanaticks will rise up in Judgment against them and the Dissenters at home for they also belong to their Care to remove all just Occasions give all reasonable Satisfaction and to use all truly Christian Means to reduce them If all these besides divers others which cannot presently be thought on be considered What Account can be given that may reasonably pass with a considerate Mortal Man of any of these and What Account then can be given of all to the Immortal All-seeing Righteous God These are Generals of each of which a particular and clear Account must be given by every one of that Order what sense he hath had of his Duty in that respect and what Care and Endeavours he hath used in discharge thereof To these I will add but one or two Particulars of Occurrences in this Reign One of a Bill for Suppression of Vice and Debauchery drawn indeed at their Request but after it had been perused and perfected not only by able Counsel but by all the Judges then in Town particularly the Lord Chief Justice Polexsin the Lord Chief Baron Atkyns Mr. Justice Dolbin Baron Letchmare and I think one or two more and fair written out put into their hands and a Motion made by the Bishop of Chester to bring it into the House and granted by the Lords and yet stifled and suppressed in their hands Another a Needful and Hopeful Reformation begun by the Authority and Encouragement of the QUEEN and not only vigorously prosecuted here in Middlesex but in a hopeful way in many other Cities and Counties all over the Nation and this stopped first by a Combination of Middlesex Justices I need say no more but at last more effectually in a Judicature of Equity in the Presence of no less than seven of our Reverend Prelates by two wicked Men the one Speaker and the other a Member of Parliament the * Mr. Ralph Hartley who is still a Sufferer between a Succession of City Magistrates and a Combination of Surry Justices and some other persons and shamefully oppressed by them Justice of the Peace who had been most diligent and other persons concerned in the Promotion of that Good Work checked vilified and abused without any just cause to the discouragement of the Execution of the Laws and Contempt of Her Majesty's Authority and all in the Presence of those Bishops who came on purpose to countenance the Cause of Reformation were satisfied of the Iniquity of the Proceedings against it and yet not one of them ever appeared after in it to any purpose more than in one little printed Discourse in Vindication of the Gentleman so abused as aforesaid And what Account can be given of these things It is a great Truth That neither King nor Parliament nor Bishops of themselves and their own Motion have done any one Act that I know of worthy of the Name of Christian And where lyeth the Fault of all this but at their door who instead of Admonishing and Exciting and Animating to due Returns of true Gratitude in Fact to God for his admirable Providence have by their Neglect and the consequences of it provoked the Favours of Providence to withdraw and to leave us to our selves and to eat the Fruit of our own doings And whence comes this Neglect of so many so obliged but from a common Defect of Good Education at the Universities and the Enchantment of their Preferments But is not this Great Uncharitableness may our Grave Prudential Gentlemen say thus to lay open to the World the Nakedness of our Governours and of the Church Doubtless as great as for a Physician to prescribe a bitter Potion to a tender Patient or a Chirurgeon to cut or burn after tryal of more gentle means what is found otherwise incurable It is that they at whose door lyeth the Root of all our Evil may give Glory to God by taking Shame to themselves and giving Good Example of Humiliation and Reformation to others But if they will not I hope the despised Quakers will be so wise as to accept the Honour of beginning the Example For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God But Who call'd You to this Office may our Prudentialists say By what Authority dost Thou this and Who gave Thee this Authority He who gave me Eyes to see and a Heart to be sensible of it and a Mind to be Faithful to Him who call'd me and led me by his Hand to his Holy Service not for filthy Lucre's sake not to make a Trade of it not to seek the World in the Church but to serve Him in the Service of all Men in the best manner I can FINIS