are manifest After the President seems to have made a sufficient Discourse so as that his Applications successfully hit what he aim'd at and the Attention of the Auditours perceive his meaning they all give an Humm thereby signifying that they are pleased and choose for the future to put his Advice in Execution After this he rises up and sings an Hymn in Praise of God which is either of his own or some ancient Poets composure for their Poets have left them Measures and Songs of all sorts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trimetres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Introits or Processional 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laudatory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrifical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Altar-Songs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stationary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Choiral with Stanza's of various Measures some of which are us'd with their Faces turn'd from and others with their Faces turn'd towards the Altar After whom the others according to their Orders in a very decent manner do also sing the rest hearing with deep Silence except when the last Lines or the short after-Hymns are to be sung for then they all sing out both Men and Women When every Precentor has finish'd his Hymn the Juniors bring in the Table as was just above-mentioned upon which they have all their Holy Loaf of Bread leavened with Salt and Hyssop mingled together They have Hyssop in the Hall-Loaf out of Reverence to their Holy Table in the Church-Porch for on this Table they have Loaves and Salt without Sauces the Loaves unleaven'd and the Salt unmix'd For 't was fitting that the simplest and purest things should be allotted to the Principal part of the Sacra as the Reward of the Ministration and that others should imitate the same and abstain from those Loaves that their betters may have them as their Prerogative After Supper they keep a Holy Vigil all Night They keep the Vigil thus They all rise together and in the middle of the Hall make two Choirs one of Men and the other of Women each choosing their Eminentest person for Musick for a Precentor and then they sing some Hymns made in the Praise of God with variety of Measures and Stanza's sometimes singing all together and sometimes alternately with peculiar Gestures and dancing about as those who are struck with a Divine Fury Sometimes they sing Processional sometimes Stational Hymns altering their Postures with respect to the Altar as they see occasion Then when each of them has been separately and by themselves entertain'd just as though they had been drinking some Divine Wine they both mingle together and make one Choir in imitation of the Choir at the Red-Sea upon the account of the Miracles wrought there which exceeded the Thought and Hope of the Israelites and made them all in one Company exult as though they were beside themselves and sing Eucharistical Hymns to God their Deliverer the Prophet Moses being the Mens Precentor and Miram the Prophetess Precentress to the Women The Choir of the Therapeuts and Therapeutesses is just like it singing with different Notes for the treeble Voice of the Women mingled with the Base of the Men makes a lovely and truly Musical Harmony Their Thoughts are truly fine their Words are fine and their Choiristers are comely in short the Thoughts the Expressions and Choiristers are all pious and devout After they have continu'd their Holy Transport till the Morning they do 〈◊〉 feel their Heads disorder'd or their Eyes heavy but they are more wakeful than they came and as soon as they see the Sun rise with their Eyes and their whole Body towards the East and their Hands lifted up towards Heaven they pray for Lightsomness of Mind and Truth and Rational Quick-sightedness After these Prayers every one of them retreat to their own Oratories to cultivate and traffick in their usual Philosophy Since therefore the Therapeuts have embrac'd the Theory of Nature and liv'd together with one Soul and were Citizens both of Heaven and Earth and were truly commended and conformed to the Father and Maker of all things by Vertue which procur'd them that Friendship which is the truest Honour do thou by applying thy Mind to a Prosecution of Vertue which is better than all Prosperity reach the Top and Perfection of Felicity The Judgment and Observations of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea in his Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 16. and other Ancient Writers concerning Philo's Book of the Therapeuts and that they were Christians MARK the Evangelift going into Egypt is reported to have been the first Publisher there of the Gospel he had written and to have settled Churches in the very City of Alexandria And furthermore that so great a Multitude both of Men and Women who there embraced the Faith of Christ professed from the very beginning so severe and so Philosophical a Course of Live that Philo vouchsafed in his Writings to relate their Converse their Assemblies their Eating and Drinking together and their whole manner of Living It is reported that this Philo in the times of Claudius came to be familiarly acquainted with Peter at Rome who then Preached the Word of God there neither is this unlikely For that Work of his of which we speak being by him elaborated a long time after does manifestly contain all the Ecclesiastical Rules which are to this present observed among us And seeing he describes evidently the Lives of the Ascetae amongst us he does make it sufficiently perspicuous that he did not only see but also very much approve of and admire the Apostolical Men of his time who being as it is probable originally Jews upon that account did then observe in a great measure the Judaical Rites and Customs First of all therefore in that Book which he intituled Of Contemplative Life or Of Suppliants having professed that he would insert nothing disagreeable to Truth or of his own Head into that Account which he was about to give he says That the Men were called Therapeutae and the Women that were conversant among them Therapeutriae And he adjoyns the reason of that Appellation either because like Physicians they healed the Minds of those that resorted to them curing them of their vitious Affections or because they worshipped the Deity with a pure and sincere Service and Adoration Further whether Philo himself gave them this Name devising an Appellation agreeable to the Manners and Dispositions of Men or whether they were really so called from the beginning the Name of Christians not being every where spread and diffused it is not necessary positively to affirm or contend about it But he attests that in the first place they part with their Goods saying That as soon as they betake themselves to this course of Philosophizing they put over their Wealth and Possessions to their Relations Then casting away all Care of Wordly matters they leave the Cities and make their Abode in Gardens and solitary Places well knowing the Conversing with Men of a different and disagreeing
heal'd many wounded Persons and others that were wounded in their Understandings And many Greeks desir'd to touch the Old Man believing they should be benefitted thereby By this means there were as many Christians in a few Days as us'd to be made in a whole Year Some Persons thought the Crowd was too troublesome to him and therefore kept Persons from pressing upon him But he was not disturb'd with them and said to them The People are not more in Number than those Devils with which I have contended in the Mountain When he went away we went before him 43. And as we were just at the Gate as it were a Woman cry'd out O Man of God pray tarry a little for my Daughter is grievously troubled with a Devil Tarry I pray thee lest I also fall into some danger by running after thee When the Old Man heard her he willingly tarry'd at our Entreaty so the Woman drew near and the Maid fell upon the Ground and when Antony had pray'd and mention'd Christ the Maid rose up very well for the Unclean Spirit was gone out of her and the Maid bless'd God and all the Spectators gave Thanks and St. Antony himself also was very glad and return'd to his own abode in the Mount He was also very prudent and which is very strange though illiterate he was a very piercing and judicious Man 44. Once there came to him Two Greek Philosophers with a design to try him now at that time he was in the outer part of the Mountain St. Antony perceiv'd what kind of Men they were by their Looks and spoke thus to them by an Interpreter O ye Philosophers Why did you trouble your selves to come to such a simple Fellow But they reply'd That he was not so but very prudent If ye come to a silly Fellow said Antony your Labour is lost and to no purpose But if ye think otherwise become such as I am for we should imitate all things that are fair and commendable Had I come to you I would have imitated you Since therefore ye come to me become such Men as I am for I am a Christian But they admiring withdrew for they saw the Devils dreading Antony 45. Others also met him there thinking to scoff at him because he had not learnt to read Said Antony pray answer me one Question Which think ye is first the Mind or the Alphabet Whether of the two is the Authour and cause of the other the Mind of Letters or Letters of the Mind They answered The Mind is first and the Inventer of Letters Well then saith Antony Whoso has a sound Mind stands in no need of Letters Which Answer astonish'd them and all that were with them so they went away admiring to see so much Understanding in a private Man for though he grew Old in the Desart yet he was not Savage in his Carriage like a Mountaineer but he was Courteous and Civil His Mind and Discourse was season'd with Divine Salt so that none envy'd him but all that visited him took delight in him 46. After this some Pretenders to Wisdom among the Greeks came to him and demanded of him an account of his Christian Belief and made offers to dispute subtilly with him about the Divine Cross in order to mock him St. Antony having paus'd a while and pity'd their Ignorance spoke very well to them by an Interpreter to this Effect Which of the Two is more laudable to confess a Cross or to charge those whom ye call Gods with Adulteries and Sodomies For our Confession is a sign of Manliness and Contempt of Death but yours are the Passions of Lasciviousness Which is better to say That the Wisdom of God was not chang'd but for the sake of Salvation and Beneficence to Men assum'd an Humane Body that by Communion with the Humane Race he might make Men partake of a Divine and Intellectual Nature or To liken the Deity to Irrational Beings and so worship four-footed Creatures and creeping things and Statues of Men For these are the Adorations of your Wise Men. Moreover How dare ye deride us who say That Christ did appear a Man when ye deriving the Soul from the Divine Mind say That it wandred and lapsed from Heaven into the Body and I wish it did not pass not only into an Humane Body but into four-footed and creeping Creatures Our Faith saith That Christ came for the Salvation of Men but ye erring say The Soul is not generated We consider the Power and Philanthropy of God because this was not impossible with God But ye saying That the Soul is the Image of the Mind yet attribute Lapses to it and fable it to be changeable and by consequence introduce the Mind as changeable by the Soul for such as was the Image such must that of which 't is the Image necessarily be But when ye have such Thoughts as these concerning the Mind pray consider that ye blaspheme the Father of the Mind himself And as for the Cross What can ye say of it When ye see wicked Men ensnare us ye see we are ready to endure the Cross and to contemn Death whensoever or wheresoever forc'd upon us Alas the Fables of the Rovings of Osiris and Isis and the Treachery of Typho and the Flight of Saturn and Gormandizings of Children and of Paracide What are these Yet these are your wise Contrivances and mighty Foundations But moreover How comes it to pass that when ye despise the Cross ye don't admire the Resurrection since those who speak of one have also writ of the other or Why are ye when ye remember the Cross silent of the Dead rais'd the Blind who had their Sight restor'd the Sick of the Palsie who were heal'd and the Lepers that were cleans'd and the walking a Foot on the Sea and other Signs and Wonders which shew Christ not to be meer Man but God also Truly to my mind ye do your selves wrong and have not read our Writings with Sincerity But pray read and see that the things which Jesus did shew Him to be God pilgrimaging upon Earth for the Souls of Men But pray tell us of your great Signs 47. What can ye plead for Irrational Gods and their Savageness Ye may if ye please fly to shelter by Allegorising Let Proserpine be the Earth Vulcan's Lameness the Fire Juno the Air Apollo the Sun Diana the Moon and Neptune the Sea But nevertheless this does not make it any more the Worship of God This is to serve the Creatures more than the Creatour for ye have compacted these Stories out of the Consideration of the Creation's being Beautiful These Works should be admir'd but they should not have been made Gods for by this means ye have given the Architect's Honour to the things that he Built which is just like paying that Honour to the House which is due to the Builder or the mis-placing the General 's Honour on the Common Souldiers Come answer me these Questions that
Arch-Bishop says Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Bishop c. and at each is sung the Hymn Come Holy Ghost c. And in the Exhortation in the Commination this is mentioned as one of the Conditions of our Pardon viz. If we will be ordered by the Governance of his Holy Spirit And in the Articles of Religion Art 17. are mentioned together Godly Persons and such as feel in themselves the Working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying c. To this Authority of the Church I will subjoyn the Judgment of one of her Sons who though at first it seems he was carried away with the common Prejudice of the Age yet afterward upon better consideration extricated himself and recover'd a better Judgment and has in few words said what is much to the purpose That God himself affords his Intimacies and Converses to the better Souls which are prepar'd for it I confess the proud and phantastick Pretences of many of the conceited Melancholists in this Age to Divine Communion have prejudiced divers intelligent Persons against the Belief of any such happy Vouchsafement so that they conclude the Doctrine of Immediate Communion with the Deity in this Life to be but an high-flown Notion of warm Imagination and over-luscious Self-Flattery and I acknowledge I have my self had Thoughts of this nature supposing Communion with God to be nothing else but the Exercise of Vertue and that Peace and those Comforts which naturally result from it But I have considered since That God's more near and immediate imparting himself to the Soul that is prepar'd for that Happiness by Divine Love Humility and Resignation in the way of a Vital Touch and Sense is a thing possible in it self and will be a great part of our Heaven That Glory is begun in Grace and God is pleased to give some excellent Souls the happy Antepast That holy Men in ancient times have sought and gloried in this Enjoyment and never complain so sorely as when it was with-held and interrupted That the Expressions of Scripture run infinitely this way and the best of modern good Men do from their own Experience attest it That this spiritualizeth Religion and renders its Enjoyments more comfortable and delicious That it keeps the Soul under a vivid sense of God and is a grand Security against Temptation That it holds it steddy amidst the Flatteries of a prosperous State and gives it the most grounded Anchorage and Support amidst the Waves of an adverse Condition That 't is the noblest Encouragement to Vertue and the highest Assurance of an happy Immortality I say I considered these weighty Things and wonder'd at the Carelessness and Prejudice of Thoughts that occasion'd my suspecting the Reality of so glorious a Priviledge I saw how little Reason there is in denying Matters of inward Sense because our selves do not feel them or cannot form an Apprehension of them in our Minds I am convinc'd that things of gust and relish must be judged by the sentient and vital Faculties and not by the noetical Exercises of speculative Vnderstandings And upon the whole I believe infinitely that the Divine Spirit affords its sensible Presence and immediate Beatifick Touch to some Rare Souls who are divested of carnal Self and mundane Pleasures abstracted from the Body by Prayer and Holy Meditation spiritual in their Desires and calm in their Affections devout Lovers of God and Vertue and tenderly affectionate to all the World sincere in their Aims and circumspect in their Actions inlarged in their Souls and clear in their Minds These I think are the Dispositions that are requisite to fit us for Divine Communion And God transacts not in this near way but with prepared Spirits who are thus disposed for the Manifestation of his Presence and his Influence and such I believe he never fails to bless with these happy fore tasts of Glory But for those that are Passionate and Conceited Turbulent and Notional Confident and Immodest Imperious and Malicious that doat upon Trifles and run fiercely into the ways of a Sect that are lifted up in the Apprehension of the glorious Prerogatives of themselves and their Party and scorn all the World besides for such I say be their Pretensions what they will to Divine Communion Illapses and Discoveries I believe them not their Fancies abuse them or they would us For what Communion hath Light with Darkness or the Spirit of the Holy One with those whose Genius and Ways are so unlike Him But the other Excellent Souls I described will as certainly be visited by the Divine Presence and Converse as the Chrystalline Streams are with the Beams of Light or the fitly prepared Earth whose Seed is in it self will be actuated by the Spirit of Nature There is a late Writer of no mean Learning and Parts and Authority too among those of his own Party who reckons the Despising of the Holy Spirit and his Operations now to be a Sin of the same Nature with the Apostacy of the Jews by Idolatry of old and afterwards by rejecting of our Saviour at his coming and yet in detestation of Enthusiasm utterly abandons all Impulses and Motions to Things and Actions which are not acknowledged Duties in themselves evidenced by the Word of Truth c. under the Name of Irrational Impressions and violent Inclinations and what some Men intend by Impulses he says he knows not Indeed they who reject all such things reject they know not what And did they thereby only hurt themselves it might be thought a just Punishment but such confident Assertions in Print may not only be hurtful to Men but also injurious to the Wisdom and Goodness of God which is not to be limited by Mens Conceits The Jews heretofore had the Favour to inquire of God and receive Answers and Direction in their special Exigences and if the Christians are not allowed that Favour now it may be thought that the State of Christians is inferior to that of the Jews then in a Matter of great Importance or that the Christians now are as the latter Jews were fallen from the Integrity of the true Christian State Nor can I conceive any reason why Christians should not have some such Means for this purpose as the ancient Jews had but that every Christian ought to have a Divine Oracle in his own Breast by the Residence of the Spirit of God there if we were indeed such as our Profession doth require and oblige us to be that is truly Spiritual and Heavenly-minded It doth therefore concern us to inquire whether the Fault be not in our selves if God doth not answer us as it was with Saul when God was departed from him rather than to dishonour our Profession by arguing against the Truth to cover our Shame and since the Lord's Ear is not heavy that it cannot hear whether our Sins have not interposed between our God and us that he will not hear Certainly we often need a Wisdom more than
they add that if he be put in Authority over others he never will abuse it to the Prejudice of those who are under him and neither exceed the rest in Apparel nor any other ambitious Pomp that he will always love the Truth and severely reprove Lyars and that he will keep his Hands and Soul pure from all Theft and unjust Gain and that he will not conceal any Mysteries or Secrets of their Religion from his Companions nor reveal them to any Strangers although he should be threaten'd thereto by Death Adding moreover that he will never deliver any Doctrin save that which he hath received and diligently preserve the Books as well as the Names of those from whom they received it These Protestations they oblige those to take solemnly who enter into their Order to the end to fortifie them against all Vices Those of the Society who transgress notoriously they thrust out of their Company And who-ever is so punished for the most part dieth a miserable Death for it being not lawful for him to eat with any Stranger he is reduced to feed on Grass like Beasts and so he perisheth through Famine For which cause oftentimes they are moved with Compassion to receive many into their Order again when ready by Famine to yield up the Ghost judging them to have endured Penance enough for their Offences who with Famine were almost brought to Death's door They are very severe and just in their Judgments and to decide any Matter there is never fewer of them than an Hundred and that which is by them agreed upon is irrevocable Next after God they reverence their Law-giver insomuch that if any one revile him they forthwith condemn him to Death They take it for a great Duty to obey their Elders and what is appointed by many so that if Ten of them sit together no Man of them must speak without he be licensed thereto by â—â—â—e of the Company They account it a great â—â—â—ivility to be in the midst of the Assembly or on their right hand And they are more severe than any other Jews in observing the Sabbath for they do not only abstain from dressing Meat which they dress the Evening before that Day but also they may not remove any Vessel out of its place nor satisfie the Necessities of Nature Upon other Days they dig a Pit a foot deep in the Ground with the Hatchet which as we before said every one at his Entrance into their Order hath given him and then covering themselves diligently with their Garment as if they feared to be Irreverent to the Light of Heaven in that Pit they ease themselves and then cover their Ordure with the Earth they took out of the Pit and this they do in the most secret places And though this purging of their Bodies be natural yet do they by washing purifie themselves after it as after great Uncleanness Furthermore amongst themselves they are divided into Four Orders according to the time which they have continu'd this Exercise of Life and they that are Juniors bear such respect to their Seniors that if they do but touch one of them they are obliged to purifie themselves as though they had touched a Stranger They are long liv'd so that most of them live an Hundred Years which I judge is by reason of their well-ordered Diet and their Temperance They contemn Adversity and by Constancy and Fortitude triumph over Torments They preferr an honourable Death before Life The Wars which the Jews made against the Romans shew'd what invinsible Courage and Hardiness they have in all things for they suffered the Breaking of the Members of their Bodies Fire and Sword and all kind of Tortures rather than be brought to speak the least Word against their Law-giver or to eat Meats forbidden They could not be forced to any of these neither would they entreat the Torturers nor shew any Sorrow amidst their Torments Yea in the midst of their Pains they scoffed at their Tormentors and joyfully yielded up their Souls as though they hoped to pass to a better Life For it is an Opinion amongst them That the Body is mortal and corruptible but the Souls remain ever immortal and being of a most pure and etherial Substance wrap themselves in Bodies as in Prisons being drawn thereunto by some natural Inclination But when they are delivered out of these carnal Bonds then presently as freed from a long Bondage they joyfully mount into the Air. And of the Good Souls they say as did the Grecians that they live beyond the Ocean in a place of Pleasure where they are never molested with Rain nor Snow nor Heat but have always a sweet and pleasant Air. But the Wicked Souls as they say go into a Place very tempestuous where there is always Winter Weather always Lamentations of those who for ever are to be punished For I judge that the Greeks are of this Opinion when they say there is an Isle for the Virtuous whom they call Heroes and Half-Gods and that the Souls of the Wicked go to a Place in Hell where it is feigned that some are tormented as Sysiphus Tantalus Ixion and Titius Those Esseans also believe that they are created Immortal that they may be induced to Vertue and averted from Vice that the Good are rendred better in this Life by the Hope of being Happy after Death and that the Wicked who imagin they can hide their Evil Actions in this World are punished for them in the other with Eternal Torments This is the Esseans Opinion touching the Excellence of the Soul from which we see very few of those depart who have once embraced it There are also some among them who promise to foretell things to come which Faculty is obtained as well by the Study of Holy Books and Ancient Prophecies as by the Care they take of sanctifying themselves And their Predictions seldom fail They are at least Four Thousand in Number who have neither Wives nor Slaves supposing that Women are the occasion of Injustice and Slaves do cause Insurrections and living apart by themselves they serve one another and chuse out certain upright Men among the Priests to gather the Fruits and Revenues of the Land to the end they may be maintained and nourished thereby In a Word they follow the same Course of Life that they do who are called Plisti among the Danes There is another sort of Esseans agreeing with the former both in Apparel Diet and kind of Life and Observance of the same Laws and Ordinances only they differ in the Matter of Marriage Affirming that to abstain from Marriage tends to abolish Man-kind For say they if all Men should follow this Opinion presently all Man-kind would perish Notwithstanding these People use such Moderation that for Three Years space they observe the Women they intend to Marry and then if they appear sound enough to bear Children they Marry them None of them lye with their Wives when they are with Child to shew
and that both these have the Nature of their different Spring and Fountain for from Falshood flow numerous and divers Idea's or kinds of Evils but from Truth a great Abundance of both Humane and Divine Goods The manner of their Feasting is thus For Seven Weeks together they assemble together which they do not only out of Respect to the Number Seven but also to the Power of it for they know it to be a chast and Virgin Number This Festival is a Preparatory to the greatest Feast viz. Pentecost so called for its belonging to the Number Fifty which is the most Holy and Natural Number because of the Power of a right-angled Triangle which is the Principle of the Production of all things When they are met together array'd in White as soon as the Ephemereuts for that is the Name they call their Beadles by give the Sign all of them before they sit down to eat standing in a very decent Order with all Gravity do with their Eyes and Hands lifted up to Heaven their Eyes because they have been taught to see things so worthy of Veneration their Hands to signifie that they are not guilty of Eating any Food before out of pretence of Necessity pray to God that their Banquetting may please Him and be according to his Mind or according to understanding The Seniors sit down according to their Admissions for they don't reckon those who have liv'd many Years and are very Ancient the Seniors there but on the contrary they look upon them as Young Children if they have but lately been enamour'd with that way of Living but they count those who began betime in the Flower of their Age to betake themselves to the Contemplative part of Philosophy which indeed is the best and Divinest part their Seniors though their Youth be not yet expir'd The Women also are at the Feast with them many of which are very Ancient and Virgins out of pure Love to Purity not out of Necessity as some of the Priestesses amongst the Greeks who live so upon that Account rather than out of free Choice No these live so because of a true Zeal for and desire of Wisdom for having a fervent desire to live by Wisdom they make no account of Bodily Pleasures neither do they desire Mortal but Immortal Off-springs which only a Soul that truly loves God is able to bring forth out of its self for 't is God who has shed into it the Intellectual Rayes of the Father by which 't will be able to contemplate the Decrees of Wisdom When they sit together the Men sit on the Right hand and the Women on the Left If any one supposes that softer Seats than ordinary though not so costly were prepared for such Noble Virtuous Exercisers of Vertue let him know that they have cheap sort of Carpets made of some Leaves and Barks of Trees that grow there on which they lean a little for they remit something of the hard way of Living that the Lacedoemonians use though in all respects they study Frugality and have a strong Antipathy against the Philtres of Pleasure They are not waited upon by Slaves for they look upon the keeping of Servants to be a Custom against Nature for she made and brought forth all Men free But the Iniquity and unreasonable Covetings of those who have affected Inequality the Ring-leader of all Mischief have brought Camps into the World and set the stronger Men on Fire to exert their Strength against the Weak Here as I said is no Servant but Free-Men give all necessary Attendance which they do heartily and with all readiness even to the Prevention of Request for the Juniors of the Company which are appointed from Meal to Meal do with all Diligence serve those who have arrived to a great pitch of Vertue just as Natural Sons do with great Pleasure and Emulation serve their Parents reckoning these their common Parents to be nearer related to them than their Parents by Blood since nothing is nearer than Integrity to those who have right Minds Those that wait come with their Garments loose about them lest there should be the least Appearance of Servility amongst them at this Feast I know some will laugh at the Hearing of this but they are such as do those things for which they ought to weep and lament At those Feasts no Wine is brought in but only very clear Water cold Water for the most and warm Water for the Tenderest of the Old Men. Their Table is pure from all Bloody Creatures Loaves are their Meat and Salt is their Sauce The most dainty of them indeed make it more palatable with Hyssop for Right Reason charges them like Priests to sacrifice Sacrifices without Wine and to live upon them for Wine is an incentive of Folly and chargable Dishes provoke Lust which is the most Insatiable of all Beasts And so much for the First part After the Guests are sat in the Orders forementioned the Waiters do stand decently in Order ready to serve There is no Drink brought but every one calls for it as he wants it and which is more than any thing already mentioned no one dares Belch or fetch his Breath indecently But some body either offers a Query upon some place of the Holy Scriptures or solves something propos'd by another without any Solicitude about the manner of the Solution for not one amongst them desires Fame by fine Speaking But every one loves to see another more exact and when they see him so not to envy him though they are not so accute themselves They have all the like Desire to learn Sometimes one of them takes more time when he teaches repeating and dwelling upon what he says that he may imprint his Notions on their Souls for many times the Mind of the Auditors being not able to keep pace with the Interpretation of one that speaks too closely or too fast falls short of comprehending what is said the rest look with their Faces upright upon him who speaks in one and the same Posture and give Notice of their Understanding and Comprehending what they hear by a Nod or a Look They discover their Commendation by the continued Cheerfulness of their Aspect but a Doubt is signify'd by a stiller Motion of the Head and their Right hand 's little Finger The Juniors also that wait give no less Attention than those that sit at Table Their Expositions of the Holy Scriptures are Allegorical Hints for the whole Constitution of their Law seems to them like an Animal in which the literal Expressions are the Body and the invisible Sense infolded in the Words the Mind wherein the Reasonable Soul begins distinctly to consider the Properties thereof as through the Perspective of the Names after it having beheld the admirable Beauties of the Notions and unveil'd the Symbols has brought to light the deeper or more recondite Sense to those who from a small hint are capable of tracing obscure Truths by the Light of those that
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
into the Carnal part cap. 17. v. Col. 9. cap. 26. Abbot Daniel concerning the triple State of Souls Cass Coll. 4. cap. 19. ACcording to the Doctrin of the Scripture there are Three States of Souls the first Carnal the second Animal the third Spiritual which we read thus noted-out by the Apostle for concerning the Carnal it is said I have given you Milk to drink not Meat for then ye were not able neither yet indeed are ye for ye are yet Carnal 1 Cor. 3. And again While there is among you Emulation and Contention are ye not Carnal ibid. Concerning the Animal it is thus mentioned The Animal Man perceives not the things of the Spirit of God it is Foolishness to him 1 Cor. 2. But of the Spiritual But the Spiritual judgeth all things but is judged of none ibid. And again Ye who are Spiritual instruct those who are of that sort in a Spirit of Gentleness Gal. 6. And therefore we must be diligent that when by our Renunciation we have ceased to be Carnal that is have begun to separate our selves from the Conversation of Worldly People and to cease from that manifest Pollution of the Flesh we strive presently with all our Might to acquire the Spiritual State lest flattering our selves because we seem according to the outward Man to have renounced the World or to have forsaken the Contagions of Carnal Fornications as if by this we had gotten the top of Perfection we should thenceforth become more remiss toward the Emundation of other Passions and more slothful and being detained between both not be able to attain to the degree of Spiritual Profit supposing that it is abundantly sufficient for us for Perfection that in the outward Man we seem separated from the Conversation and Delights of this World or that we are set free from Carnal Corruption and Mixture And so being found in that Tepid State which is reckoned the Worst we shall understand that we are to be vomited out of the Mouth of the Lord according to his Sentence saying I would thou wert Hot or Cold but because thou art now Tepid or Lukewarm I will begin to spue thee out of my Mouth Rev. 3.15 c. Abbot Isaac concerning PRAYER Cass Col. 9. THE End of every Monk and Perfection of his Heart tends to a continual and uninterrupted Perseverance in Prayer and as far as is permitted to Humane Frailty strives after an unmoveable Tranquility and perpetual Purity of Mind For the Enjoyment of which we unweariedly seek and continually exercise as well Labour of the Body as Contrition of Spirit And there is between these a certain reciprocal and inseparable Conjunction For as the Structure of all Virtues doth tend to the Perfection of Prayer so unless all these be bound and compacted together by the toping of it they can by no means hold out firm and stable For as without them cannot this perpetual and continual Tranquility of Prayer of which we speak be acquired and perfected so neither can those Virtues which prepare for it without the Continuance of it be accomplished Wherefore neither can we rightly treat of the Effect of Prayer or enter to the principal End of it which is accomplished by the Employment of all Virtues by a hasty Discourse unless first all these things which for the obtaining of it are either to be cut off or to be prepared be in order enumerated and discussed and according to the Instruction of the Parable in the Gospel those things which belong to the Building of that Spiritual and more sublime Tower be counted and diligently prepared for it Which notwithstanding will neither profit being prepared nor rightly admit those high topings of Perfection to be built upon them unless first all refuse of Vices being cast out and all dead rubbish of Passions dug up the most firm Foundations of Simplicity and Humility be laid upon the sound and solid Earth of our Heart that Evangelical Rock upon which this Tower to be built with the Employments of all the Spiritual Virtues may be both unmoveably established and raised up to the highest Heavens by the Consistence of its own Firmness cap. 2. And therefore that the Prayer be made with that Fervour and Purity it ought these things are by all means to be observed First The Solicitude of Earthly things in general is to be cut off Next not only the Care but not so much as the Memory of any Business or Cause is to be admitted Detractions idle Talk much Talk Jestings are likewise also to be cut off Anger above all things or the Perturbation of Sadness are to be throughly rooted out The pernicious Food of Carnal Concupiscence and the Love of Money is to be plucked up by the Roots and these and the like Vices which are visible even to the Eyes of Men being cut off and wholly thrust out and such a cleansing of the Rubbish which is perfected in the Purity of Simplicity or Singleness of Heart and Innocence first made the unshaken Foundations of a profound Humility which may bear a Tower reaching to the Heavens are first to be laid then is the Superstruction of Spiritual Virtues to be built upon it and from all Discourse or Reasoning and light Wandering is the Mind to be restrained that so it may by degrees be elevated to God and to Spiritual Intuition For what-ever our Soul conceives before the Hour of Prayer of necessity it will occur to us while we pray by intrusion of our Remembrance Wherefore such as we would be found while we Pray such ought we to prepare our selves to be before the time of Prayer For from the precedent State is the Mind formed in Prayer c. cap. 3. The Quality of the Soul is not unfitly compared to a light Feather which if it be not spoiled by some wet from without happening to it by the levity of its own Substance with the help of a gentle Breath is as it were naturally raised up on high and to the Heavens But if it be aggravated with the Accession of any wet it is not only not raised up to any Aerial Flights by its natural Mobility but will be depressed down to the very Earth by the weight of the Wet received So also our Mind if it be not aggravated with contracted Vices and Worldly Cares or corrupted with the Humour of noxious Lust being lifted up as with the natural Advantage of its Purity will with the least Breath of Spiritual Meditation be elevated on high and forsaking low and Earthly things will be transported to those which are Heavenly and invisible So that we are very properly admonished by our Lord's Precepts See that your Hearts be not at any time over-charged with Gluttony Drunkenness and the Cares of the World Luk. 21.34 And therefore if we would our Prayers should pierce not only the Heavens but what are above the Heavens let us take Care to raise our Mind purged from all Earthly Corruptions and cleansed from
instead of many of two Eminent Bishops Men of greatest Reputation both for Learning and Virtue St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Austin Bishop of Hippo But first to begin with St. Gregory Nazianzen it will not be amiss to add here to those before his Character of the Holy Monks of his time St. Gregory Nazianzen concerning the Lives and Exercises of MONKS in his time Orat. 9. to Julian the Comptroller of the Customs upon the Discharge of the Monks MY Speech presents to you the Poor the whole Choir of Priests the Choir of Philosophers Monks who are tied down by no Band who possess only their Bodies nor them wholly have nothing for Coesar but all for God Hymns Prayers Watchings Tears a Possession not to be seized on viz. to be dead to the World alive to Christ to have killed the Flesh to have drawn the Soul from the Body Sparing these or rather purely restoring to God the Worshippers and Disciples of God and Contemplators of Coelestial things the first Fruits of our kind the Pillar the Crown of Faith the precious Pearls the Stones of that Temple whose Foundation and Corner Stone is Christ the noble Accomplishments of the Church most nobly indeed both for them and for thy self and for us all hast thou taken Care And such Riches should I rather wish thee from us than Treasure of much Gold and Silver now appearing and after a little while not being at all But what he observed in them he else-where expresseth more copiously as with great Approbation Applause and even Admiration in these Particulars Watchings Fastings Prayers Tears brawny Knees knocking 's of the Breast deep Sighs nocturnal Stations travel of the Soul to God soft Weepings at Prayers a Medicine of Compunction to those who hear it Singing Glorifying Meditating on the Law of the Lord day and night carrying Exaltations of God in their Mouths And also those noble Testimonials and Indications of a Life according to God silent Preachers Hair foul and uncombed Feet naked and like the Apostles wearing nothing dead decent Shaving Rayment reproving Arrogance a Girdle becoming an undeck'd Body keeping the Coat from hanging loose but so as though it did not gird it an even Pace an unwandering Eye a pleasing sort or rather powerful way of Smiling which checks the Excess of Laughter Discourse guided by Reason Silence more venerable than Speech Commendations seasoned with Salt not to flatter but to excite to Proficience a sort of Reproving more defirable than Praise a Mean in Compunction and Relaxation and a Mixture and Temperature of both Lenity with Authority and Authority with Modesty so that neither is debased but rather recommended by the other due Measures of Converse and Retirement of Converse to help others of Retirement to get insight into the Mysteries of the Spirit a Converse preserving Solitude or Recollection in Society and Retirement retaining Brotherly-kindness and Charity in Solitude And which are yet Greater and Sublimer things than these Riches in Poverty Possession in Pilgrimage Glory in Disgrace Power in Weakness Fruitfulness in Celebacie if Divine Off-springs be better than what have beginning from the Flesh They are such as live deliciously by refusing Delights and Mean for the sake of Heavenly things have nothing in the World and yet are above the World who are out of the Flesh and yet in the Flesh Whose Portion is the Lord who are Poor for the sake of a Kingdom and Kings for their Poverty These my Wealth and Banquets while present made me exult for Joy and if absent stopp'd the brisk Circulation of my Blood Thus far his Character of these Holy Men And now for a Tast of his Contemplation of which we have a Touch here where he sets out the End of Retirement to get Insight into the Mysteries of the Spirit St. Gregory Nazianzen concerning Divine Contemplation Orat. 42. I Will Stand saith the admirable Habakkuk upon my Watch and I with him to day upon the Power and Speculation given me by the Holy Ghost and will contemplate and know what is shewed and what is spoken to me I being to speak of the great Sacrifice and of the greatest of Days cannot but have recourse to God Here will I begin and purge ye me your Mind and Hearing and Understanding who-ever relish these things for as much as a Speech of God is Divine so shall ye depart with a Savour of things which do not fade God Was always and Is and Shall be or rather Is always For Was and Shall be are fragments of Time with us and of a fading Nature But he always Is and so doth he name Himself speaking to Moses in the Mount For he containing All in Himself hath a Being neither beginning nor ceasing as a certain Ocean of Essence immense and boundless exceeding all conception both of Time and Nature represented with the Mind alone and that but very faintly and obscurely not from what are in Him but from what are about Him one Conception being collected after another into some one Image of the Truth flying before it be laid-hold-on and running away before it be apprehended illustrating only the Principal part of us and that purified as the Lightning strikes the Sight without remaining that as it seems to me he may with what is comprehensible draw us to Himself for what is altogether incomprehensible is neither hoped nor attempted and with what is incomprehensible may become admired being admired may be the more desired being desired may purifie us and purifying make us Dei-form or God-like and these things perfected he may as with Familiars converse with us God to God's united and made known c. To make this remarkable Discourse the more plain and intelligible it may be fit and necessary to add some brief Notes out of the Greek Commentators Nicetas and Psellus upon it The Sense of the Prophet's Words is this I will keep my Mind Pure and Intire from all Worldly Care and will fly into a certain Security very firm and as a Thought raised on high and thence will I observe what God will speak to me c. Nicetas n. 1. Stand signifies Firmness and Constancy and a State unmoved and unmoveable to meaner things Speculate an accurate and agreeable Contemplation and Knowledge and that Impetus or Earnestness wherewith the Mind is carried to those things which come to our Knowledge For so he who doth emerge out of the Grossness of corporal things at first goes the middle way which is called Animal but afterward the more sublime which is called Spiritual Psell The Watch or Guard is the Manner of every ones Soul according to which he doth receive Divine Visions in a certain proportion For if any one shall raise himself by higher Contemplation he will err He calls it Power because every Soul raised up to a Divine Simplicity and conversing immediately with Divine Visions themselves useth those kind of Sights freely and according to this Power condescending to the Capacity of his
Auditors c. He calls it Speculation because the Soul doth not measure Divine Visions by the Will but by the Intellective Faculty and Measure of its Purgation Psell 9. What the Sun is in Sensibles that God is in Intellectuals For as It doth illuminate the visible World He doth in like manner the Invisible Moreover as It makes those who look upon it bright so He makes them Divine and Deiform Nicetas The Presence of Spiritual Light and Divine Splendor converts the Mind of those who are judg'd worthy of such a Glory and Contemplation from many and various Opinions and Imaginations to that which truly is that is to God c. Nicetas For what the Eye is in the Body this the Mind is in the Soul As therefore to behold the Lightning when it breaks out there is need of good Eyes so also for this that we may be illustrated by the Contemplation of God is required a Pure and Sound Mind For as in a Looking-Glass sordid and impure the Form of a Face cannot be represented so neither in a foul and unclean Mind the Splendor of God Ni. Whoever knowing that they are only Mind have pasled the bulk and grossness of the Body and have purged their Mind from the Stain of Vices and rendered it fit and meet for the Reception of the First or chief Mind and Creator of all things God is united to them For when the Mind is Pure and Incorrupt he doth converse with the Mind without any thing intervening and by it hath Communion with the Soul as again by this he is joyned to the Body But he is united not as He is but as We are capable of that Union And hence at last he becomes known Nor can any one otherwise know God unless he open his Soul to Him and receive him in it Psellus God doth so much become known to Men as he is familiarly joyned to them who by Vertue are joyned to Him For according as is their Ascent he doth descend And how much Man doth approach to God so much also doth God become known to Man imparting the Knowledge of himself according to the proportion of Purity that is in every one See whether the Spiritual and Divine Gradation will raise us For from the Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature as from the first step of a Ladder we are raised to Admiration of him as to the second step again from Admiration we ascend to more earnest Desire then from Desire are we raised up to Purgation and from hence further to Likeness with God and lastly we arrive to converse familiarly with God and know Him more perfectly by Vnion Then when we are made Deiform doth the true and natural God converse familiarly with those who by Grace are call'd Gods infusing the Divine Fulgers of his Knowledge in us as every one is purified Nicetas To be made God is to be partaker of Divine Illumination but not to pass into the Divine Essence Since we are set in the Confines between God and Matter if we decline to Matter we are Gross and Material if we tend toward God we are call'd Divine and thereupon Gods Nicetas St. Austin concerning the same THE Life of the Body is the Soul the Life of the Soul is God The Spirit of God dwells in the Soul and by the Soul in the Body that our Bodies also may be the Temple of the Holy Spirit whom we have from God Ser. 18. de verb. Apost c. 6. It is not unreasonable to say That the Incorporeal Soul is so illuminated with the Incorporeal Light of the Simple or pure Wisdom of God as the Body of the Air is illuminated with the Corporeal Light and as the Air grows dark upon the departure of that Light 11 de Civ Dei c. 10. Minds are to Souls as their Senses but of Sciences whatever things are most certain they are such as are those things which are illustrated or shined upon by the Sun that they may be seen as the Earth and all Earthly things But God is he who doth illustrate but I Reason am so in Mind as the Aspect is in the Eyes The Eye of the Soul is the Mind pure from all stain of the Body that is remote and purged from all desires of Mortal things c. 1 Soliloq c. 6. It is a great and very rare thing with the Intenseness of the Mind to transcend all Creature corporeal or incorporeal being considered and found mutable and to approach to that unchangeable Substance of God and there learn from Him that none but he made all Nature which is not Himself For so God speaks with Man not by any corporal Creature sounding in corporal Ears c. but he speaks by the very Truth it self if one be fit to hear with the Mind not with the Body 11 de C. D. 2. v. ibid. Coq When the Soul sees that singular and true Beauty it will the more love it But unless it fix on it its Eye with a mighty Love and decline not any whether from beholding it it cannot remain in that most Blessed Vision 1 Solil c. 7. One thing there is that I can prescribe thee I know no more That these sensible things are wholly to be forsaken and that we must greatly beware while we act this Body that our Wings which we need have intire and perfect be not hindered by any of their Birdlime that we may fly away from this Darkness to that Light c. Therefore when thou shalt be such that nothing of Earthly things doth at all delight thee believe me in that moment in the same point of time thou shalt see what thou desirest c. 1 Soliloq c. 14. Thou dost desire to see and imbrace Wisdom as it were naked without any thing of covering so as she doth not suffer herself except to very few and her most choice Lovers c. It is a certain ineffable and incomprehensible Light of Minds that vulgar Light c. ibid. c. 13. Confide constantly in God and as much as thou canst commit thy self intirely to Him Do not be willing to be as it were thine own but profess thy self to be a Servant of the most Gracious and Bountiful Lord. For so will he not cease to raise thee to Himself and will permit nothing to befall thee but what shall profit thee though thou knowest it not 1 Soliloq 14. Hear me my God hear me after that manner of thine known to very few Command I beseech thee whatever thou wilt but heal and open my Ears that I may hear thy Voice Heal and open my Eyes that I may see thy Becks Say to me which way I shall look that I may behold Thee c. 1 Soliloq c. 1. Being admonished to return to my self I entred into my most inward parts thou being my Leader and I could do it because thou wast become my Helper I entred and I discerned with the Eye of my Soul such as it was above the
encumbred with it any longer His Moveables he also Sold and gave the Money to the Poor 3. And having reserv'd some small matter for his Sister the next time he went to Church he heard our Lord say in the Gospel Matt. 6.34 Take no thought for the Morrow And therefore without any more delay he e'en went out immediately and distributed that too among the Poor And having given her in Charge to some experienc'd and trusty Virgins to be Educated in their Cloysters he betook himself to an Ascetick Life without doors keeping a very close eye upon himself and leading a very rigid and absteinous Life for at that time there scarcely were any settled Monasteries in Egypt neither did any Monk live in a remote Wilderness But whoever had a mind to order himself very severely exercis'd himself in some solitary Place not far from his own Town At this time there was an Old Man in a neighbouring Village that had obliged himself to a solitary Life from his Youth St. Antony having observ'd him was inflam'd with Emulation and at first continu'd alone in some place or other that was hard by the Village And where-ever he heard of any studious and zealous Courter of Vertue like a provident Bee he would be sure to go and find him out never returning to his own Abode till he had seen him and could bring something back with him which might serve for part of a Viaticum to bear up his Spirit in his Progress to Heaven After he had continu'd thus some time he squar'd his Mind with such exactness as to resolve never to return again to the Place where his Ancestors Seat was nor so much as to bear the secular Concerns of his Relations in his Memory any longer that he might intirely apply his Mind and Affections to a vigorous Assiduity in Asceticks And therefore he wrought with his own Hands because 't is written 2 Thess 3.10 Let not the Idle eat Part of what he got by his Labour he subsisted on himself and part of it he gave to the Poor He Prayed continually because he had learnt that we ought to pray incessantly in private He attended so diligently to the Scriptures when read that nothing fell to the ground from him but he held it so fast that his Mind was as good as a Library to him For the sake of his Demeanour he was belov'd by all He submitted with great readiness to all virtuous Persons whom he visited He would with great diligence by himself mark every virtuous Person 's Vertue for which he was peculiarly Eminent and stamp them upon himself In one he would observe an Obligingness of Carriage in another an unwearied Fervour in Prayer in a third Calmness of Spirit in a fourth great Condescention and Charity He would very affectionately eye this Person 's great Sprightliness Vigilance and moderate use of Sleep and another Man's Affability Delight in the Scriptures and Readiness in Conferences on Spiritual Subjects Here he admir'd one for his Fortitude Magnanimity Patience and Courage there another for his Fastings hard Lyings upon the Ground and other such like Arts of subduing the Body But principally and above all he would seal on his Heart and Soul that Piety and vehement Affection for Christ and stream of mutual Love which was very obvious and legible in them all Thus he us'd constantly to go back to his own Cell always fraught with such useful Observations as these making himself the Repository of all those Excellencies he could spy in others whence he was wont to elicit and display them in a bright and exemplary Conversation All the Contest he had with those of the same Age with himself was to be second to none of them in Christian Discipline In which sort of Victories he behaved himself so modestly that no body fretted at him for Envy but rather on the contrary took delight in taking Notice of him insomuch that the whole Neighbourhood that had any regard for Vertue and all with whom he convers'd observing his Goodness us'd to call him Theophiles or God's Friend The Elder calling him Son and the Younger Brother 4. But the Devil who is envious and hates every thing that is commendable could not endure to see such a noble Purpose in so young a Person but made it his Endeavour to thwart all his Designs to his Disadvantage At first he strove to bring him off of his Ascetick Course of Life by throwing into his Mind a Remembrance of his Estate of the Nearness of his Relations and a Solicitude for them a Love of Money and Desire of Glory great Varieties of Pleasure and other such Recommendations of the Methods of the World as also Thoughts of the Ruggedness of Vertue and how much Labour it costs a Man to obtain it and to mention no more of the Weakness of his Body and the long Remainder of his Life In short the Devil rais'd a great deal of dust in his Thoughts that by bemudding and disordering his Mind he might make St. Antony let go his Design But as soon as the Enemy saw himself too weak to foyl St. Antony's Resolution and quite contrariwise that he himself was emasculated by the Holy Man's Steddiness supplanted by a mighty Faith and fall'n by reason of his continual and earnest Prayers he assum'd a new Boldness and Confidence in those Weapons which he knows every Man carries about him in his own Flesh against himself for here he mostly lies in Ambush against the Souls of the Young Accordingly he renews his Assault against the Youth Night and Day attacking him with great Turbulence insomuch that standers by could easily discern a Combat between them for the Devil threw filthy Thoughts into his Mind and the Young Man routed them out as fast by Prayers the Adversary us'd his Policies to make his Body dissolute and rebellious on the other hand St. Antony fortify'd his Soul and us'd his Body hardly and kept it under by Faith and Fastings and Tears and earnest Addresses to God But still the Devil though worsted was very hardy and appeared to him in the Shape of a Woman represented Beautiful in all respects only to impose upon St. Antony But Antony by placing the noble Extract of his Spirit and intellectual Power in a clear view before himself quench'd this Firebrand of Deceit Nevertheless the Devil would yet be hinting the Softness and Affectingness of this Pleasure on the other hand Antony like an enraged and exasperated Person by revolving in his Mind God's Menaces of Fire and the Toyl of those Furrows which the never-dying Worm ploughs in the Consciences of the Damn'd escap'd free without being hurt or so much as sing'd by his Temptations All which dash'd the Enemy mightily out of countenance for he that once thought of being equal with God himself was now slighted and baulk'd by a Young Man and he that generally vaunts and vapours so insolently over Flesh and Blood was now over-thrown by a Man
concluded they were Devils and being afraid they call'd to St. Antony but he heeded the Devils more than them and whereas they expected to have seen him dead they heard him saying Let God arise and his Enemies be scattered Let them vanish as the Smoak vanisheth As the Wax melteth before the Fire so Sinners shall perish from the Presence of God And again All Nations compassed me round about but in the Name of the Lord I stav'd them off 13. Thus did he lead Twenty Years in private Exercise never stirring out or seen by any one But at last many others desiring to imitate his Ascetick Life and other Acquaintance coming to him and breaking open the Door by force Antony came out of the Castle as out of an inaccessible Sanctuary being matriculated a Member of the Heavenly Jerusalem and become full of God The Spectators when he came out were in an Amaze to see his Body that had been so belabour'd by Devils in the same shape in which it was before his Retirement The Temper of his Soul was very pure neither clouded by Sadness nor shattered by Voluptuousness Neither Laughter nor Melancholy held him in their Chains The sight of the Multitude did not disturb him nor their Praises make him vain But he was intirely smooth and regular steered by Reason and Revelation and fixed in the primitive State of Nature Our Lord healed many Sick Persons by him He also cleansed many that were possessed comforted many that were grieved and reconciled many that were fallen out charging them all to prefer none of the Things of this World before the Love of Christ discoursing and exhorting them to be mindful of future Goods and of the great Philanthropy of God who spared not his own Son but gave Him up for us all He perswaded many to chuse a solitary Life and by this means there came to be many Monasteries in the Mountains So that now the Desarts were turned into a City by Monks that left their Estates and Houses and entred themselves Members of the Heavenly City 14. Once he had an Occasion to pass over the Trench of the Arsenoites to see some of his Brethren Monks which Trench was very full of Crocodiles but St. Antony and all that were with him by the pure Vertue of Prayer went over unhurt When he returned to his Monastery he obliged himself to very severe and youth-like Enterprizes By his Conferences he would be continually encreasing the Fervour of other Monks and exciting many others to the Love of Exercise and by the magnetism of his Discourses many more Monasteries were erected all looking upon him as their Father 15. One Day among the rest as he was walking out he told the other of his Brethren Monks who came to him with a desire to hear him in the Egyptian Language that the Holy Scriptures are sufficient for Instruction But nevertheless 't is decent for us to confirm one another in the Faith by Exhortation and to chear and anoint each other's Spirits by mutual Discourses Wherefore do ye my Sons bring your Father what ye know and I who am your Elder will communicate to you what I know by Experience But besure in a peculiar manner to take care to be communicative and unanimous and that now ye have begun ye don't grow slack nor faint in your Warsare nor say with your selves We have laid out so much item so much Time upon Exercise But rather as beginning every day let us inlarge our Resolution for the Life of Man altogether is very short if we compare it with future Ages All our Time is nothing to Eternal Life Every thing else is Sold for its Value and like is Exchanged for like But the Promise we have of Eternal Life is a cheap Purchase For 't is writ The Days of our Life are Seventy Years and if by great Strength we reach Fourscore or more they are but Labour and Sorrow Now if we spend Eighty Years in Exercise we shall not reign an Hundred Years for it but instead of an Hundred we shall reign for ever and ever Again After we have contended on Earth our Inheritance will not be upon Earth but we hold Promises of Heaven Again After we have laid aside a Mortal Body we are cloathed with an Immortal One Wherefore Children let us not faint neither let us think we lay out much Time for God or do any great Matters for the Sufferings of this present Life are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed Neither let us think that we have parted with great Possessions for the whole Earth is very small with respect to Heaven For just as one who parts with a Mite for an Hundred Broad Pieces So were any one Lord of all the Earth and parted with it for Heaven he parts with a Mite and receives an Hundred-fold But if all the Earth is not worth Heaven then certainly he who leaves a few Acres for it does in a manner leave nothing at all If therefore any of us parts with a Mansion or with Gold he should neither vaunt nor despond But we should rather consider that if we don't leave them for the Sake of Vertue yet afterwards when we Die we often leave them to whom we would not as the Preacher has minded us Shall we not therefore leave it for the sake of Vertue to inherit a Kingdom Let us have a Thirst after true Possessions for What does it signifie to possess those things which we cannot carry away with us Let us rather acquire those Goods which will follow us into the other World such as are Wisdom Justice Sobriety Fortitude Spiritual Prudence Charity Love of Wordly Poverty Faith in Christ Freedom from Anger Delight in Hospitality if we possess these we shall find they will procure us a Mansion in the Land of the Meek These things duly considered no Person can be Negligent especially if he consider that he is the Lord's Servant and ought to serve Him Since therefore every one is his Servant no one should dare to say I do not work to day for I wrought yesterday or by measuring the time past to be idle for the time to come But every day a true Disciple of Christ will shew the same Readiness of Mind that as 't is written he may please his Lord and not run a risque in the Concerns of his Soul So also let us every day persevere in Exercise knowing that if we are Negligent one day we shall not be pardoned for it because we did well the day before No God is offended with such Negligence as we read in Ezekiel So also Judas by one Night's Impiety lost the Fruits of his time past Let us therefore Children adhere to Exercise and not suffer our Spirits to be bejaded for herein the Lord is our Fellow-Labourer as 't is written The Lord co-operates for Good with every one that wills and works Good Now in order to our not being Negligent there is a
Prince of the Power of the Air for here 't is that the Enemy exerts his Power in Fighting and attempting to stop those who pass thorow for this Reason he the more earnestly exhorts Christians Eph. 6.13 Take ye the whole Armour of God that the Enemy having no Evil thing to say of you he may be ashamed But we when we had been inform'd of this remembred the Apostle Whether in the Body I know not or out of the Body I know not God knows St. Paul was wrapt up as far as the Third Heaven and heard unutterable Words But Antony saw himself going up into the Air and contended till he was free 38. He had also another particular Favour for as he was sitting on the Mount in a Praying posture of Soul and perhaps gravelled with some doubt relating to himself for not long before he had been conferring with some who had been conversant with him about the State of his Soul and what place it should have after this Life in the Night-time so that we may truly say he was one of those Blessed Men who are taught of God one call'd to him from on high and said Antony Rise go forth and look So he went out for he knew whom he ought to obey and saw a certain terrible tall deformed Personage standing and reaching up to the Clouds and as it were winged Creatures ascending and him stretching out his Hands and some of them he saw stop'd by him and others flying beyond and above him and those that pass'd them carried higher still without the least Solicitude upon these the Tall Person gnash'd his Teeth but over those that fell he rejoyc'd And the Voice said unto Antony Consider on what thou hast seen And his Understanding being open'd he perceiv'd that 't was the Enemy of Souls who envies the Faithful and seizes on and hinders the Passage of those who are accountable to him but that he is not able to seize on those who were not perswaded by him for they get out of his reach Being minded by such a Sight again he strove the more to make a Proficiency in his Holy Purposes 39. But I must do him Justice by acquainting you that he did not tell of these things willingly But being he was long at his Prayers and admiring with himself those that were with him would be importunately asking him so that he was forc'd as a Father who could not hide them from his Children to tell them Besides too he knew the Purity of his own Conscience and that the Declaration of them would be profitable for them for hereby he shewed the Blessed Fruit of Perseverance in Exercise and that in great Difficulties God condescends to tender Consolation to his Servants even by Visions I might also tell you how Patient he was under Afflictions and how Humble of Soul and how that Frame of Spirit made him revere the Canons of the Church with a peculiar Tenderness of Disposition and how willing he was that every Clergy-Man should be preserr'd before him for he was not asham'd to bow the Head before Bishops and Priests And when-ever a Deacon came to him to be benefitted by him he discours'd usefully to him But he would resign the Exercise of the Ministry by Prayer to him not being asham'd to learn himself for oft-times he propos'd Questions and condescended to give Ear to all that convers'd with him and own'd himself benefitted if any one spoke any thing that was useful 40. There was much and wonderful Comeliness in his Face If he was present with a great many Monks and any one seem'd uneasie that he might have a full View of him though he did not know them before yet passing by the rest he would run to him as though he were drew by the Person 's Eyes He did not excell others in the heighth or breadth of his Body but in the Constitution of his Morals and the Purity of his Soul for his Soul being free from tumult he always had his outward Senses free from Disorders so that his Countenance derived Chearfulness from his Soul and the Temper of it was discernable from the Motions of his Body as 't is written Prov. 15.13 A glad Heart makes a cheerful Countenance But a sorrowful one makes it sad Thus Jacob discerned Laban to have some treacherous Design in his Mind and said unto the Women Gen. 31. Is not the Face of your Father toward me as yesterday and the day before Thus Samuel knew David For he had cheering Eyes and Teeth white as Milk Thus also Antony was known for he never look'd disturb'd because his Soul was always at Peace His Mind was constantly in a rejoycing Posture and therefore he never had a louring Look He was also very admirable and strict as to his Faith and Piety 41. He would never hold Correspondence with the Meletian Schismaticks because he knew their Wickedness and Apostacy from the Faith nor with the Manichees nor with any other Hereticks in a Friendly manner any otherwise than to advise them to turn to Piety for he judg'd their Friendship and Conversation to tend to the Mischief and Destruction of the Soul He abominated the Heresie of the Arians and charg'd all not to go near them or to hold with their wicked Tenets Some of the Areiomanites having once came to see him as soon as he perceiv'd what they were he chas'd them out of the Mount alledging their Discourses to be worse than Poyson And when the Arians told a Lye as though he were of the same Judgment with them he express'd great Indignation against Arius and being sent for by the Bishops and all the Brethren he declar'd against them in Alexandria telling them that this was the last Heresie and the fore-runner of Anti-Christ and he added That the Son of God was not a Creature made of the things that are not but the invisible Word and Wisdom of the Father's Essence Wherefore 't is impious to say there was a time when he was not for He was always the Word co-existent with the Father Wherefore have ye no communication with the Arians for Light hath no fellowship with the Darkness For ye who are pious are Christians but they who impiously say that the Son and Word of God who is of the Father is a Creature differ not at all from Heathens who serve the Creature more than God who created them But do ye believe that all the Creation groans against them because they reckon the Lord and Creatour of all things by whom all things that were made were made a Creature 42. So publickly did all the People see that Heresie which so opposes Christ anathematis'd by this great Man and therefore abominated them And all of the City ran together to see Antony The Greeks also and those that were called their Priests came to the Temple saying We desire to see the Man of God for all call'd him so Also the Lord cleans'd many that were Possess'd by him and
be cut off from their Root are dry'd up and wither away p. 11. Is not this the very Doctrine of our Saviour The True Light which lighteth every Man who cometh into the World of being born of God and abiding in the Vine It cannot by any means be that one and the same Person should apply himself to Pleasures to the Body to the getting of Riches and also to God And is not this also the very Doctrine of our Saviour Ye cannot serve God and Mammon But he goes on For he who is given to Pleasures the same will also be careful for the Body but he who is careful for the Body he will also study to get Riches and he who studies to get Riches will necessarily be Vnjust But he who is Vnjust is both impious toward God and unjust toward Men and therefore although he sacrifice whole Hecatombs he is but the more impious and far from God and all Religion and deliberately Sacrilegious Wherefore it behoveth to avoid every voluptuary Person as impious and sacrilegious p. 12. You cannot well say that he is a happy Man who relies upon Friends or Children or any transitory and fading thing for all these are instable things But to rely upon ones self and upon God that only is firm and stable p. 12. A wise Man sent hither Naked will naked or stript of all invoke Him who sent him for God hears him only who is not incumbred with Impertinences p. 9. A Divine Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solidly joyns us to God For like must necessarily be joyned with like p. 9. The same which I have said of Pythagoras may in effect be said of SOCRATES also both as to the Disposition of his Mind as to his Travels for acquiring of Knowledge and as to his Principles from the Observations and Confessions of such as were no Friends to Mystick Theology They were Scholars in the same Schools and received the Tradition of the same Doctrine as did Plato also from thence and from them so that I may dispatch this in a few Observations of what is known and confessed concerning him That he had as clear Notions as any touching God his Nature Unity and other Sacred Mysteries which he could never have attained unto but by some borrowed Tradition c. That he asserted That Virtue is neither by Nature nor by Teaching but by Divine Inspiration and that all true Knowledge of God comes by Divine Infusion and called God his Tutor That while Man is subject to and under the Impression of Corporal Images sensible Forms and terrene Affections he is not rightly disposed for Divine Contemplation which requires a Mind defecated c. That Divine things and Mysteries cannot be comprehended but by a refined Judgment by such as have their Souls abstracted from all Corporal Images Impressions and Affections and therefore Men should be very intent on getting a Reformed Life that the Mind being exonerated of its depressing Lusts might by a natural Vigour lift up it self to Eternals and by that Purity of Intelligence contemplate the Nature of that Eternal Incommunicable Light where the Causes of all created Natures live in Stability v. Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 8. c. 3. And as to his own Life That he instituted his whole Life even from his Childhood by the assistance of his Divine Inspiration which he called a Daemon a Voice a Sign And that Plato reports of him that he stood a whole day without any alteration in the same posture his Mind being abstracted with pure Contemplation and that Favorinus in A. Gellius saith that he did this often And now to return to our principal Author and the Words of PLATO in him which are these Being often in the Depth of Contemplation my Body being left behind I seemed to enjoy the Chief Good with incredible pleasure Wherefore I stood as it were astonished finding my self to be a part of the upper World and to have obtained Immortality with the clearest Light which cannot be expressed with Words nor heard with Ears nor understood by the Thoughts of Men and then he describes the Sadness he felt at the decay of that glorious Light and the pleasure which returned with his former Extasies The Words are At last my Intellect being wearied with this Contemplation fell back into phantasie and then that Light failing I became somewhat sad But again having left my Body returning thither again I perceived my Mind abounding with Light and that flowing then into the Body then raised above it Nor of Plato himself doth our Author take any more notice then of that one passage but of the later Platonists Plotinus Jamblicus Porphrygius and Proclus who as he saith out of Psellus did wholly approve of the Chaldaick Theology he gives us some larger Tasts and particularly The short account of Plotinus his Hypothesis is this That the Soul of Man being immersed in the Body suffers very much by reason of its Vnion with it by which means it is drawn to the Affections of the Body and to a Conversation with Sensible things and so becomes Evil and Miserable That its Good and Happy Condition lyes in being like to God not in regard of Vnderstanding but a State of Quiescency That the Practice of the Virtues of the Active Life is insufficient for Assimilation to God but in order to it those which are properly Intellectual are most necessary whereby the Soul draws it self off from the Body Thus for the Soul to act by its self is Wisdom Introversion is Temperance Abstraction from Matter is Fortitude to follow Reason is Justice That by the Practice of these the Soul purifies its self i. e. casts off the things without its self and so recovers its Purity by bringing those things into Light again which lay hid under the rubbish of Sensible things before so that the Soul did not know them to be there but for the Discovery of them it was necessary for the Soul to come near a greater Light than its self and to bring the Images which are in it to the true Originals The way of Purifying the Soul he calls by the Names of Abstraction and Recollection which he else-where expresses by awakening the Soul out of Sleep wherein it was disturbed by sensible Images not as though the Soul had need of any other way of Purifying but only restraining it to its self by taking away that load of Matter which oppressed it and then it naturally endeavours after the nearest Vnion with the first Being which he calls the True Being and the super-Essential Being And he saith When the Soul endeavours after this Vnion it must lay aside all sensible and intellectual Images of things and make use only of the purest and supream part of the Mind or the Fund of the Spirit that God then is not to be considered under the Notion of Being but as something above Being and that we are not either to affirm or deny any thing of Him that Our Contemplation
of Him is not by Knowledge or any Intellectual Operation but by a Divine Presence which far exceeds any Knowledge for Knowledge he saith hinders Vnion therefore we must go beyond Knowledge and be abstracted from all other Objects and be united to Him only by the Power of Divine Love from whence follows a clearer Light in the Soul And in this State saith he there is not only a Cessation of Passion but of Reason and Vnderstanding too neither is the Person himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like one in a Rapture or an Extasie he enjoys God in that State of Quiescency as in a silent Wilderness which he calls being in God and in other places seeing God in themselves being the same with God being one with God and which is the highest of all being God which is the perfect State of Dei-formity Of Porphyry who was a Disciple and Confident of Plotinus the same Author gives us this account That he looked upon the Theurgick Way as lyable to deceit and not capable of advancing the Soul to highest Perfection Which Theurgick Way lay in the initiating of Men in some Sacred Mysteries by partaking of certain Rites and Symbols by which they were admitted to the Presence of some of their Deities the End whereof as they pretended was reducing the Souls of Men to that State they were in before they came into the Body So St. Austin tells us from Porphyry That they who were purified after this manner did converse with glorious appearances of Angels which they were fitted to see but Porphyry himself as he did not utterly reject this Lower and Symbolical way so he said That the Highest Perfection of the Soul was not attainable by it but it was useful for purifying the Lower part of the Soul but not the Intellectual By the Lower part he understood the Irrational which by the Theurgical Rites might be fitted for Conversation with Angels but the Intellectual part could not be elevated by it to the Contemplation of God and the Vision of the things that are true And herein he placed the utmost Perfection of the Soul in its return to and Union with God in this upper part or Fund of the Soul for the utmost the other attained to was only to live among the Aetherial Spirits but the Contemplative Souls returned to the Father as he speaks which as many other of his Notions he borrowed from the Chaldaick Theology To shew what this Intellectual or Contemplative Life was that should bring Mens Souls to this State of Perfection Porphyry writ a Book on purpose Of the Return of the Soul as St. Austin tells us who quotes many passages out of it and this particular Precept above all the rest That the Soul must fly from all Body if it would live Happy with God which is all one with Abstraction of Mind and pure Contemplative Life In that Book he complains that there was no Perfect Way yet known to the World for this End not the Indian Chaldaick or any other But what that was which he meant appears by what he saith near the end of the Life of Plotinus where he hath these Words The Scope and End of his Life was Vnion and Conjunction with God over all and four times saith he when I was with him he attained to this Vnion by an unexpressible Act of the Mind which he before sets forth by a Divine Illumination without any Image or Idea being above the Vnderstanding and all intelligible things And he saith of himself that he was once in this State of Vnion when he was 68 Years of Age. Which Holstenius understands of an Extasie he then fell into and imputes it to the depth of his Melancholy joyned with his abstracted and severe Life his frequent Watchings and almost continual Exercise of Contemplation For all these things were remarkable in him and Eunapius saith of him That he was so little a lover of the Body that he hated his being a Man and being in Sicily he was almost famished by Abstinence and shunned all Conversation with Mankind as he begins the Life of Plotinus That he was like one ashamed that his Soul was in a Body So that we find the Foundation here laid saith our Author not only for the Mystical Vnion but the Abstraction of Mind necessary in order to it and that it doth not lye in any Intellectual Operations but rather in a Cessation of these Acts is likewise expressly affirmed by Porphyry Many things saith he are said of Vnderstanding things that are above the Mind but the Contemplation of those things is better performed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 otio vacatione Intellectûs as Holstenius renders it rather by the Rest and Cessation of Operation in the Vnderstanding than by the Exercise of it as many things while a Man wakes are said of him that he does when he sleeps but the Knowledge and Perception of them is by Sleep for things are best understood by Assimilation And elsewhere he saith That our manner of Vnderstanding all things is different according to their Essence those things above the Mind are to be known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the way of unknowing and after a super-essential manner where we see the very Phrases of Dionysius used by him and in many places he speaks of the Minds abstracting and loosing it self from the Body and drawing it self nearer to the First Being of the Souls being in God of the pure and clear Light which follows the Abstraction of the Mind of the State and Life of Contemplation and the Virtues necessary thereto such as Abstinence from the Actions of the Body and from Affections to it which saith he raise the Mind to the super-essential Being And he very much disparages the Active and Political Life in comparison with this the End of one being only Mens living according to Nature but of the other Assimilation to God He that lives according to Practical Virtues is only a Good Man but he that lives the Life of Contemplation is a God From whence we understand the Deiformity of the Mystical Divines being attainable by the Life of Contemplation The Way laid down by him for Purifying the Soul is this 1. The Foundation of it is for the Soul to know it self i. e. to consider that it is in a strange place and bound to a thing of another Substance 2. Recollection or gathering it self up from the Body to be free from the Affections of it In order to which he adviseth to deny the Body in its Appetites and Pleasures and to shew as little Care of it and Concernment for it as may be by degrees to lessen all sense both of Pleasure and Pain and so to come at last to a Freedom from the Passions of the Body Then he describes the Superlative Being and saith that it is neither Great nor Little but above both and is neither Greatest nor Least but above all and that his Presence is not Topical but Assimilative and
that the only Way for our Souls to recover themselves is to bring them into themselves by which Means the True Being is present with them and we become united to God Which Vnion of the Soul with God Holstenius thinks it very probable that Porphyry understood by the Book which he mentions in the Life of Plotinus called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred Nuptials because both Plotinus and he supposed this Union to be wrought by the Power of Divine Love as well as the Mystical Divines and Porphyry saith upon the reading of it some thought him Mad because there were several things spoken in it after a Mystical and Enthusiastical manner for which he was highly applauded by Plotinus Jamblicus was Porphyry's Disciple but out of him our Author recites no more than what is set down before concerning the Egyptian Mysteries but out of PROCLVS another Platonick Philosopher who lived long after these and of whom Marinus gives this Character towards the Conclusion of his Life That his Soul was so recollected and drawn into its self that it seemed to be separated from the Body while it remained in it he hath this passage In the beginning of his Theology saith he he distinguisheth between that Intellectual Faculty in us whereby we are capable of Vnderstanding the Nature and Difference of Intelligible Idea's and that which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Summity as the Mysticks speak and pure Fund of the Spirit which he saith is alone capable of the Divine and Mystical Vnion so he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For saith he though there be many Intellectual Powers in us yet it is by this only that we can be united to the Divinity and be made partakers of it For we cannot reach the Divine Being either by our Senses or by Opinion or by Apprehension no nor yet by Ratiocination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It remains therefore that if the Divine Nature can any ways be known by us it must be by the Essence of the Soul For the Soul being drawn into its own Vnity and removing from it self the Multiplicity of its Powers it ascends to the greatest height of true Contemplation While the Soul looks about on things below it it sees nothing but Shadows and Images of things When it comes to a State of Introversion then it sees its own Essence and Operations of the Vnderstanding But when it searches deeper then it finds the Mind within it self and the several Orders of real Beings When it goes yet farther into the most secret Closet of the Soul there it contemplates as it were blindfold the Divine Beings and the first Idea's or Vnities of Beings And this saith he is the most excellent Operation of the Soul in the Rest or Quiescency of its Powers to stretch it self toward the Divine Nature and dance as it were round it and to raise up the whole Soul towards this Vnion with it and abstracting it self from all Inferior Beings to rest upon and be conjoyned with that Ineffable and Super-essential Being And by this means the Soul comes to have the truest Vnderstanding of all things All these Notions saith our Author both among the Chaldeans and the Platonick Philosophers are built upon a very ancient Hypothesis but very different from that of Christianity which Hypothesis being granted this Mystical Divinity appears with some face of Reason and colour of Probability It was this That the Souls of Men did exist in another World long before they came into the Body that in their Descent to the Body they had an Aetherial Vehicle joyned to them which upon the conjunction of the Soul and Body became the Means of Communication between them and takes up its chief Seat in the Brain which is the same which we call the Imagination that the Soul being in this state is apt to be much inveigled with Kindness to the Body and so forget its Return home that the Body is capable of doing the Soul mischief no other way being it self under the power of Fate then as it draws it downward that the Mind being the upper part of the Soul is always acting but we know not its operations but only by the Impressions they make upon the Phansie that the Mind hath the true Idea's of things within it self but we are deceived by the Representations conveyed by our Imagination and therefore our Ratiocination is very short and uncertain that our only way of Recovering our Souls is by drawing them off from the Body and retiring into themselves and that upon this the Mind hath the Divine Being so nearly conjoyned to it that it passeth into a Divine Nature and recovers its former State when it parts from the Body But because it is not to return alone without the Aetherial Vehicle it brought with it therefore the Chaldeans and Egyptians had several Sacred and Symbolical Rites for the purifying of the Vehicle as they called it which they made necessary for this End and with them Jamblicus joyns but Porphyry thought them not necessary but that Philosophy and meer Contemplation would purifie enough without it This is the true Account of their Hypothesis as may be fully seen in Hierocles and Synesius without going farther and was the first Foundation of Mystical Divinity which I will not deny to be well enough accommodated to it But it is as remote from Christianity as the Hypothesis it self is This is said by our Author to disparage Mystical Divinity because he supposeth it will not be consented to by any that are Friends to it But how doth it appear that this Hypothesis was the first Foundation of Mystical Divinity which for any thing he hath shewed to the contrary may be more ancient than it His bare affirmation in his own Case certainly is not to be admitted for Proof But in case that were admitted how is that different from Christianity for he would not say contrary though no doubt many of his Readers would be apt to take it so The Jews did believe it before our Saviour's time the Apocrypha doth favour it the Apostle's Question concerning the Man who was born Blind doth favour it nor doth our Saviour's Answer at all contradict it but rather suppose it and it hath been asserted by Learned Men both of the Church of England and other Protestants from Proofs of Scripture as well as Reason His Conclusion also is observable that Mystical Divinity is as remote from Christianity as the Hypothesis it self such another cautious Expression not to expose himself but by which the generality of his Readers may easily be imposed upon Truth is a very venerable thing and Divine matters ought to be treated with great Reverence the very Heathen Mysticks would have thought so whatever our Rationatists think Besides these ancient Philosophers our Author takes notice of the like Notions and Practices among other Gentiles even at this day but of what antiquity amongst them he saith not It is taken from a Letter of Monfieur
without these God doth not usually grant them That Active Contemplation is the ready way to Passive and That though in the higher degrees of them they are but rare and given to few yet in some inferior degree they are communicated to many and however That an Active Contemplation and Fruition of God by Love spoken of before and the Great Advancement in all Christian Vertue gain'd thereby if we be admitted to no higher things of which true Humility always esteems its self unworthy is a sufficient Recompence in this World for any Pains of ours in Purging of our Life and close Attendance on God in Solitude and Prayer which is undertaken for it Lastly since such Christian Perfection chiefly contains in and depends upon the Exercise of the Affective part of the Soul and not on high Knowledge or Speculation therefore it is recommended as attainable by all Sexes and Conditions and all are equally encouraged in the Prosecution of it For the Grace of Contemplation as S. Gregory observes in Ezek. hom 17. is not given to the high and not given to the low but this do often the highest and often the lowest more often those who are remote that is from Worldly Cares but sometimes those who are in a Married State receive § 30 31. More of this he hath afterward which I shall here add as followeth Of the Steps in order to the highest State of Perfection which this Life arrives to mentioned in Sancta Sophia p. 32. 1. The first is the way of External and Imaginary Exercises of Prayer that is using the Discourse of the Understanding and Meditations as also Vocal Prayer then which Step Sancta Sophia observes many go no further but end their days in it that is in such Meditations is taken up the most part of their Devotions 2. The second Step is the Exercise of the Will and Affections which after long practice breaks forth into continual Aspirations and Elevations thereof 3. The Third is Divine Inaction or the extraordinary and supernatural and more sensible Operations of God's Spirit in the Soul wherein God acteth more than she and which are not in her power at all to procure sooner or retain longer then God pleaseth of which much hath been said before 4. After which usually in the Intervals of these Coelestial Visits do follow great Desolations of Spirit as the Experienced have described them partly arising from the sense of her Loss and an impatient longing after these Favours once tasted and partly out of a great nauseating and disrelish that she hath now of those entertainments of the Creature from which she formerly received some Content Such we may imagin was that of the Prophet David wheâ—â— he said Heu mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est And Concupiscit deficit anima mea in atria Dominiâ— And after a Non movebor in aeternum Psal 29. an Avertisti faciem tuam factus sum conturbatu◠§ 63. But not only this but God also sometimes with draws even from his greatest Saints and that for somâ— long duration of time any sensible assistance at all oâ— his Grace leaving the Soul as it were in its purâ— Naturals and as if he were quite departed from it in great Aridity Obscurity Solitude Pressure and Heaviness disgusted with all things she knows not why performing still her Devotions and accustomed Duties of Piety and the Service of God as formerly but without any sensible comfort in such Performance Meditation Aspiration Reading very difficult sterile insipid and seeming without Fruit only forbearing her Consent to any Sin Vanity or Sensuality and not seeking any secular Consolations Much discouraged also at such times many are in imagining that God hath so deserted them for Failings in their Duty or for something wherein they have offended his Divine Majesty which doubles this Anguish Or if not this at least they imagin it to be caused by some great Indisposition of Body as it is granted sometimes partly it may so as some begin therefore to dispense for a time with the former Exercises of their Devotion and other pious Employments But notwithstanding many times in these the poor Soul is mistaken and this strange dejection of Spirit comes without any such respects meerly from the sole Will of God and is the ordinary course of his proceeding with those also who are by his former Graces well grounded and arrived to some degree of Perfection and is sent only for their much greater Advancement therein and the rendring them more capable of higher Favours and therefore ought as such to be entertained with all Equanimity Patience Resignation and Conformity to his Will These Consolations and Desolations take as it were their certain turns in them as they do in a lesser degree in all the Regenerate they have by course a Day and a Night an Ascent towards God and a Descent and decadence into themselves a Vivification by and in him and a Mortification in themselves a Summer wherein the Branches shoot forth and Fruit comes to Maturity and a Winter when the Root spreads more and the Tree becomes more surely fixed To all God's Children do these Vicissitudes happen but these in a higher degree to the further advanced in Perfection and the greatest Favours are preceeded with greater Desolations and these ordinarily proportioned one to the other And always necessary less or more are such Purgations and Refinings of the Soul by these interior Crosses because always something in them is amiss and as yet imperfect Our natural Corruption is still producing something in us to be amended and some Self-will and Self-love to be parted away by this sharp Remedy whilst we are in this Life And the Benefit of these Desolations if rightly complied with as well as of Divine Consolations is very great in many respects § 64. For herein it is that the Soul comes most perfectly to know it self and all other Creatures to see it own Nothingness and to be most perfectly purged and cleansed from all Self-love and Propriety and herein it is most especially taught non quiescere iâ— donis Dei sed in Deo and Adorare Deum in Spiritâ— Veritate not in Devotione and Exercere se aâ— Deum in adversis sicut in prosperis the seeking Gust and Suavity and Consolations even in Spirituaâ— things being one of its Imperfections since these are not God himself Herein it is that the Soul 〈◊〉 preserved amidst such Divine Favours which aâ—â— apt to inflate it in a due and necessary Humility Angelus Satanae colaphisans ne magnitudo Revelatioâ— num extollat me saith the Apostle after his Rapt Herein its true Love and Adherence to God Quveniendo adjuvat and then derelinquendo probat Donis firmat and then Tribulationibus tentat saith St. Gregory Moral l. 20. c. 19. its Perseverance and Loyalty are especially discerned in keeping constant in the Service of him when deprived of all Consolation in it avoiding any application to the Comforts of