lost their understanding but like to that Great Example set by Christ for imitation here and salvation hereafter SECT III. That in purifying our selves principall care is to be taken of the puritie of our Faith and of the affections of the Inward Man not neglecting outward severities 1. FAith is not only by the Reformed very often but sometimes by the Unreformed also of great note compared to and call'd an Hand But if this hand of Faith be all on the taking side and little on the giving both which are properties equally of the spirituall hand then is it verie defective For the Philosopher termed the hand of the Bodie the Organ of Organs or Instrument of all other Instruments usefull to us and such is Faith to our spirituall life and actions given us to work the work of God with If therefore it be only extended to receive Christ and justification by him to the quietation of the sollicitous and troubled Conscience and not to prepare the way by diligent and dutifull actions our faith being first unfaithfull to God will in the end also prove treacherous to our own Souls And that Instrument which is blunt or ill framed in it selfe is very apt to marr the work intended Without a good Pen a man how expert soever cannot make a good letter and much lesse write a fair hand And not only an hereticall Faith subverting the true Faith but an Orthodox and sound yet barren credulous presumptuous unactive impatient of both good and evill fond contumacious turbulent or unnecessary querulous and quarrelsome being entertained and rested on drawes neerer to perdition than salvation how flattering soever it may appear to the owner of it 2. And on the other side blinde zeal and violence rather than zeal going about to reforme the Soule with an unreformed or unsanctified Faith doe oftentimes expose the Bodie and Soule to unprofitable and dangerous injuries perhaps upon a mistake of perfection commended to us in the Holy Gospell For instance If a man should put out his own Eyes lest they should or because they had misled him or to the end he might become a better Philosopher as they write of some Philosophers and it is said of Didymus the Alexandrian otherwise an holy Christian given to contemplation or if a man should mutilate himselfe because he would not be chosen a Bishop of which Antiquitie gives us instances or to prevent or to revenge acts of unlawfull Lusts should destroy what Nature hath ordained or in fine should having fallen into any great and shamefull sin think to make propitiation for the same by laying violent hands upon himselfe all this must be imputed rather to want than abundance of Faith and to impenitence accumulating sin unto sin till the Soule sinks under the weight which by true Faith might have been removed or lightened 2. The inordinate passions therefore of the minde are to be the task of every good Christian and the purging or chastizing of the irregular appetites and casting out of doors and so purging the Temple of God as Nehemiah did the profane Stuffe of Tobiah the Samaritan out of the Chambers of the House of the Lord polluted thereby Severall Inmates there are which either creep in for entertainment or perhaps plead prescription which must be dislodged or there will in a short time be found no room for the Master of the House himselfe to reside in or rule over the Soule To wash the outside of the Bouls Platters and Cups is not amisse for it is required of every man not only to be religious but to appear so lest he comes under the condemnation of those who are ashamed of Christ his Doctrine and holie Discipline but to content our selves with that pittance of performance is to rank our selves with the Pharisees and Hypocrites condemned by Christ Oh that there were such an heart in them was the wish of God himselfe to his peculiar people the Israelites Deuteron 5. 19. when they promised fair and spake well concerning obedience which God requires But not the obedience of the tongue which without the heart ends only in aery Complements absurdly used towards men and ridiculously towards God when the heart is far from him And far is that heart and must needs be so from God which is unclean and unclean it must needs be which entertains such a Rabble of lusts which like drunken Companions in Taverns or Alehouses quarrel notoriously one with another but agree to foul the Room with their Pipes Pots Glasses Liquor and perhaps with their own vomit and other evacuations The sober man seeing this disorder and hearing such noise and havock sayes I would not be bound to dwell there if I might have never so much And can we think that Gods pure and piercing Eye beholding such distempers of the Spirit and disorders which the lusts of the flesh make in the Soule and the uncleannesse contracted thereby can or will condescend to take up his habitation there Into a malicious Soule wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the bodie which is subject to sin Wisdome 1. 4. For all sin consisteth of two things contrary to Wisdome and to God the Fountaine of Wisdome Folly and Foulnesse which cannot consist with the Spirit of Holinesse and the true Wisdome which cometh from above and is first pure and then peaceable c. 3. If it were therefore only because God so frequently so earnestly so pressingly requires inward Puritie Puritie of intention and understanding which qualifie exceedingly actions otherwise irregular and faulty Puritie of affections freed from smuttie delectations and cleer and sincere and fixed and fervent towards the best Objects and that upon the best Grounds and Motives Gods service and honour who well advised would not apply himselfe to so noble and necessary a task as the searching and trying his heart and casting out thence whatever may corâ—upt the rest of his exteriour services and offend the eyes of his heavenly Father though not scandalous to man. 4. And this may be another Motive to interiour holinesse the powerfull influence the inward temper and disposition of the minde hath upon all exteriour actions whether good or evill For according to the Regencie of the minde is the obedience of the outward man as our most wife and holie Master Christ informes us saying Mark 7. 21. From within out of the heart of men proceed evill thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousnesse wickednesse deceit lasciviousnesse an evill eye blasphemie pride foolishnesse All these evill things come from within and defile the man. All sin defiles but principally and in the first place the inward man and thence as from a bitter or corrupt Fountain-head unsound and impure actions doe flow Or as we see in Clocks and Watches the Hand outward pointing to the hour goes true or false according to the Spring and inward frame of them so our externall practices are right just and holy or on the contrarie false and depraved according to the
THE Method and Means TO A TRUE Spiritual Life Consisting of Three Parts agreeable to the Auncient Way By the late Reverend Matthew Scrivener Vicar of Haselingfield in Cambridge-shire Cleared from Modern Abuses and render'd more easie and practicall Feb. 1. 1688. Imprimatur Jo. Battely LONDON Printed for James Knapton at the Queens head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1688. TO THE READER COnsidering with my selfe and lamenting the many polemicall or contentious Discourses about Religion and that Christian this unhappie Age hath produced it might be feared that through the subtiltie of the Old Serpent such strifes may have the mortall event upon too many of liking no Religion at all To prevent or obviate so great an evill I found my selfe inclined very much to treat of such a Subject as might by Gods blessing conduce much as well to the obliging of mens mindes to the Faith and fear of God in generall as to reconcile Christians one to another rather than divide them farther or encrease Animosities between them But I must confesse a more speciall reason hereunto exciting me how insufficient soever I found my selfe to the worthy perfourmance of so good work was the consideration of some Persons of our Communion I mean the established Religion in this Isle who though shining with Pietie and devotion towards God to the ecclipsing of phantastick lights lately appearing do keep up that temper of Spirit to which our Saviour Christ hath affixed this Beatitude Matth. 5. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousnesse for they shall be satisfied For as Gregorie the Great hath it in an Homilie on the Gospells Herein differ the delights of the bodie and the Soule that bodily pleasures while we have them not enkindle in us a sore desire of them but so soon as we devour them greedily they turn to loathing through satietie but on the contrarie spirituall pleasures are onely loathed when we have them not and are so much the more thirsted after by how much more they are received by the hungring Soule And this kinde of hunger observing to increase in them by conversing with spirituall Books wrote by others I conceived my generall Office and particular Obligations to such Persons in a manner demanded of me an endeavour to gratifie such religious Appetites And hereupon I chose rather to publish mine own inabilitie than to frustrate the expectations of such Christian Spirits intending hereby to divert them with a mean view and sense of heavenly things which as Saint Paul speaks Ephes 1. 4. are the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glorie But it will appear by the Methode I have here chosen and the manner of my proceeding in this Discourse that it was not my principall much lesse onely designe to be usefull to greater Persons or sublimer Christians but to the lowest and meanest of both Orders I having laid my foundation so low as the weakest may rest on and improve by and so raise themselves by orderly gradations to a more considerable height Which course I have taken not out of affectation of singularitie as some may conjecture who are either wholly ignorant that this is of very long standing in the Catholick Church or doe know that books of Devotion in our Mother-Tongue have very rarely if at all insisted on this Subject or trodden the same path with me and they of the Unreformed Church who have often treated of this matter have very seldome handled all these parts of Piety together but passing over lightly the Illuminative and Purgative parts of Religion have ambitiously to my apprehension strived to abound and excell in the Unitive-Way and their Mysticall Theologie soaring very high if not exorbitantly towards Heaven and gaining to themselves and Church no small estimation for divine Contemplations strange Notions and Language as if they had themselves been wrapt up into the Third Heaven as was Saint Paul and were priviledged to doe what was denied him viz. to utter those unspeakable words which he tells us 2 Corinth 12. It is not lawfull for any man to utter and exalting Contemplations to the undervaluing of operations and active life under pretence that Marie who sate still not attending Christ being present chose the better part and Martha the inferiour in serving of Christ which notwithstanding it be so generally received and applauded by Scholasticall as well as Mysticall Doctours auntienter and later seems to me to be no otherwise true than as Mary represented the state of blisse hereafter consisting alltogether of Contemplation and Affection and Martha the state of a Christian in this Life in which unactive Contemplation and barren in the work of the Lord is scarce laudable and as the Quietists are said to magnifie it not tolerable they amongst other notorious Errours charged upon them excluding divine Meditation from their contemplation by too great nicenesse though we our selves have in this Treatise distinguished them as degrees consistent one with another so far as they are Acts of the spirituall life we now live For according to our present Subject we first not without good advice consider simple Intelligence or knowledge of God acquired by Illumination of the naturall Man whereby a Christian comes to a right belief of God and a knowledge of himselfe and a discerner in good measure of Spirits and fallacious Visions and Revelations This being competently attained unto disposes the Soule to right Reformation of it selfe from the inveterate evills of sin corrupting and afflicting it which is the Purgative way every true Christian should exercise himselfe in untill he hath purged out the Old Leaven and cast out the Old Man of which Saint Paul speakes with the affections and Lusts And because it suffices not to denye and even to dye unto worldly lusts if this may be supposed unlesse we allso live the life of Christ and be truely united unto God through him and that by those proper helps and ascents prescribed by him and in some manner by us described here therefore doe we proceed to the third State of a Christian commonly called the Unitive wherein is to be found that true rest of the Soule promised by Christ not so as to cease from a possibility of sinning or suffering perturbations as late Quietists are allso reported wickedly to maintain but so as to prefer God and Godlinesse above all things in the World and by love of and delight in them to persevere immutably to perfect consummation in blisse hereafter And having thus given thee Christian Reader a brief account and Prospect of my present Designe I committ my selfe to thy favourable acceptance and commend thee to God and to the word of his Grace which is able to build thee up and to give thee an inheritance among all such as are Sanctified The Summe of what is contained in the first Part. SECT I. Previous advice concerning the necessity reasonablenesse and usefullnesse of being truely Religious Page 1 SECT
II. A brief description of the Illuminative Purgative and Vnitive way of Religion p. 9 SECT III. Of the necessity of Illumination and of Faith with its subordinate Graces especially conducing thereunto p. 12 SECT IV. That Faith and naturall Reason improved is the onely proper cause of Illumination being taken for the things revealed whereof some principall heads are here given p. 20 SECT V. Of the Grace and act of Faith leading to Illumination and of the difficulties and meanes of believing p. 40 SECT VI. Of the gift and guidance of Gods Spirit towards true Illumination the abuse and true uses of it noted And of the necessitie of believing p 51 SECT VII Of Illumination Reflexive whereby the Christian Soule comes to the knowledge of its selfe in its Spirituall State. p. 63 SECT VIII Of Revelations or Illuminations extraordinarie by Spirits and the discerning of them with the use of such Revelations p. 76 The Second Part. Of the Purgative part of Religion SECT I. THAT Action and good Works must be added to true knowledge and Believing And of the distinction of sins to be purged Page 99 SECT II. Of the Office of Faith in purging the Soule from sinfull defilements p. 105 SECT III. That in purifying our selves principall regard is to be had to the puritie of Faith and of the affections of the Inward Man not neglecting outward severities p. 114 SECT IV. Of the proper meanes and methode of cleansing the Soule And first of Baptisme p. 124 SECT V. Of the Grace and power of Repentance in cleansing the Soule p. 129 SECT VI. That this purgative Repentance must be generall of all sins and perpetuall p. 147 SECT VII Of Selfe deniall required to true Reformation and that both of Vnderstanding and Will. p. 156 SECT VIII Of the custodie and discipline to be had over the outward man especially the Eyes Eares and Tongue p. 174 SECT IX Of outward moderation and modestie to be used in abstinences and Apparell p. 189 SECT X. The connexion of what hath passed with what followes concerning the Seven Capitall Sins p. 201 SECT XI Of Pride the first deadly or Capitall Sin. p. 203 SECT XII Of Anger a Second Capitall Sin its Concomitants and Remedies p. 219 SECT XIII Of the deadly sin of Envy its nature and Remedies p. 233 SECT XIV Of the Capitall Sin Covetousnesse p. 244 SECT XV. Of Luxurie and Vncleannesse p. 254 SECT XVI Of Gluttonie its sinfullnesse and Cure. p. 265 SECT XVII Of Slothfullnesse the last Capitall Sin. p. 277 SECT XVIII The Conclusion of this Second Part with some short advices relating to what hath been said therein p. 288 The Third Part. Treating of the Unitive Way of the devout Soule with God. SECT I. Of the Nature of true Vnion with God and of Mysticall Theologie and of the Abuses and due Vse thereof p. 297 SECT II. That this Vnion consisteth chiefly in the true knowledge of God and Love experimentall and reciprocall p. 304 SECT III. Of the excesse of Vnitive Love of God in Extasies and Raptures with their abuses and uses noted p. 309 SECT IV. Of the Vnion of the Soule with God by Divine Contemplation and Meditation with some instances of particular Subjects for this latter p. 317 SECT V. Of the Vnion we have with God in Prayer habituall and actuall as the proper matter of Worshippe p. 328 SECT VI. Of the defects incident to the Act of Praying and their Remedies p. 334 SECT VII Of the due use of Publique and Private Prayer p. 342 SECT VIII Of the severall sorts of Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall Supramentall Extemporarie Formed or fixed as allso of Singing of Psalmes p. 350 SECT IX Of Vnion and Communion with God in the Holy Eucharist or Lords Supper to which certain instructions are premised p. 359 SECT X. Of the difficulties and dangers in receiving the Holy Communion here discussed p. 367 SECT XI Other impediments and scruples observed against Communicating especially with their proper Remedies p. 378 SECT XII A brief recapitulation of what hath been treated of before with advices and directions concerning the interruption and recoverie of actuall Communion with God and of Consolations p. 387 THE Methode and Means TO TRUE SPIRITUALL LIFE The First Part Treating of Spirituall Illumination SECT 1. Previous advice concerning the Necessity Reasonablenesse and Vsefulnesse of being truly Religious 1. THERE being three principall Stages as I may so speak which every true Christian is to passe over in his travail towards that Sabbath of Blessednesse hoped for hereafter and aspired to it may seem both very methodicall and profitable to that great end to prepare the way thither by cleering up the defaced Characters written by Gods own finger on the tables of Mans heart concerning the sense of God and Religion towards him in generall that such a fundamentall perswasion being well received the edification in our most holy faith may be more firme absolute and better advanced 2. For what may we call Religion speaking here more practically than artificially but a thorow conviction of a Supream Being and Power able to save and destroy everlastingly inferring a strong and just obligation upon all creatures especially Man to pay the debt of veneration and obedience to that God from whom he received his present being and to whom he owes his subsistence and upon whom depends his future state of happinesse or misery 3. But may it not here allso be said Who hath believed our report and to whom hath the Arme of the Lord been revealed too many obstinately refusing any better guidance or conduct of their Lives but such as may favour their degenerous and dangerous humour of gratifying their sensuall appetites hurrying them to a liberty inconsistent with that whereby we are made free to God by Christ Jesus For his service being perfect freedome ' when we are dedicated to him in Baptisme we renounce the servitude and turpitude of the world and enter our selves Apprentices to learne and doe the will of God by Religion the Art of all Arts God at the same time Indenting and Covenanting with Believers so faithfully serving him when their times come out by death in this world to give them a more noble and desireable freedome by making them Citizens in Hierusalem which is above the Mother of us all than which the heart of man can desire no greater or better event of all his labours and services in the world nor so good nor great remuneration 4. Who would not then sometimes retire into the chamber of his heart and seriously consider these things And who considering these things would not apply himselfe to this so necessary so divine and beneficiall a work shall we see so many Artists of this world strive to excell one another not only for lucre sake but esteem of men in their severall professions and trades and shall we be cold indifferent and carelesse in this of Religion the glory of all How many have become poor infamous
of the soule or spirit of man which was variously canvased by the wise men of this world without resolution satisfactorie and that he and not naturall generation was the true cause thereof and that Christ and his Father worketh hitherto and he worketh John 5. 17. 7. Seventhly we learne from holy Writ concerning the government of the World that God leadeth not such a sedentarie and carelesse life as some Philosophers imagined after the manner of many Great Men who build fair and stately Houses and furnish them richly but so leave them to fall to decay and the things therein to be lost and spoiled neither doth he trouble his head or vex his heart as some men doe about the management of their Houses and Lands but by a mean way of sufficient protection and providence disposes all things even Good and Evill so wisely and harmoniously that no molestation is given to himselfe nor any damage to the Universe it selfe though innumerable changes are constantly wrought to the detriment of some particulars there and the like advantage to other things not before noted So that what for its time lay hid and contemptible is raised as it were out of the dust and exalted to greatnesse and splendour and for a season having so continued by the same all-disposing hand relapses into its ancient obscurity and this by a perpetuall vicissitude which some times an Age or two declareth some times not many Centuries of years And by the same Faith we according to St. Peter's Doctrine 2 Ep. 3. 7. understand that as the heavens and earth were formed and stood out of the waters so the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement 8. By Faith likewise we know that the fine and admirable Masterpiece of God himselfe Man created in the foresaid perfection and being in great honour and happinesse through his own folly as did the Angels before him fell from his stedfastnesse into blindesse povertie and generall miserie of bodie and minde contracting thereby disorder of affections inward and diseases and death outward the seeds of all which he transmitted to his posterity and is that Originall sinne all are infected and infested with This the Learning of this world could hardly or not at all instruct us in but is the office of our faith to inform us From whence also we can only give account of the many and strange exorbitances of our minde and the severall infirmities distempers and pains of our bodie before our reason comes to that ripenesse as to entitle us to the guilt of erroneous actions or free election of Good and Evill 9. Neither could humane learning or books of the greatest Philosophers informe us how tied and bound in the chain of our sins and fallen into the depth of common destruction we should recover our losses and repair our breaches neither could we our selves devise any more than we could really desire to evade the evils we were surrounded with But that light from above which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world sheweth that God out of the Abysse of his Counsells and freenesse of his Grace and Love towards Mankinde first determined the redemption of him and when the fullnesse of time was come actually sent his Son into the world in the likenesse of sinfull flesh to condemn sin in the flesh Rom. 8. 3. Galat. 4. 4. 10. And this Salvation was ratified to man soon after his fall God entring then into a new Covenant with man to the re-enstating him into his favour and restoring him to the blessed hopes of salvation eternall upon Evangelicall faith and obedience answerable thereunto And that these termes of this Covenant may as well as ought be performed on mans part though not upon his own strength is a materiall point of our faith and a prime motive to our obedience For were it not that man bounden thus to God might come up to that degree of perfection as to be judged by God to have performed what is necessary to obtaining the promises made by God no wise man would trouble himselfe to begin such an impossible work and no faithfull man or true believer could be sure of his salvation as is often taught we may and ought to be but rather every man may be sure of his damnation knowing thar he can in no wayes doe that upon which his salvation depends 11. Furthermore It is necessary to salvation as the Athanasian Creed tells us that we believe rightly the Incarnation of out Lord Jesus Christ who by taking flesh of the Virgin Mary his Mother unto the divine nature became an apt and sufficient Mediatour between God and Man and Administratour of the New Covenant made between God and Man. 12. And this administration was wrought two wayes principally First by the divine doctrine and knowledge revealed unto the world delivered by himselfe and his elect servants to that end inspired extraordinarily and contained in the severall Books of the New Testament Secondly by his Passion and death upon the Crosse as a Lamb of God offered for the sins of the whole world in which God rested satisfied and became appeased and Believers had accesse to the throne of Grace and became accepted in the beloved 13. But to the effectuall application of so glorious a benifit as this is somewhat more required of all true Believers than a Faith passive it being necessarie that first we should use the meanes ordained by God to that great end before we can have any sound hope of attaining the same And supposing faith preceding the summe of what remains and to which other duties may be reduc'd may be three fold 1. The use of the Sacrament of Baptisme instituted as a laver of regeneration and a forme of initiation into the Covenant without which we are of the number of Infidells and aliens from the Common wealth of Israel and without hope of salvation and in our sins and naturall blindnesse which hereby was so cured that the newly baptised were said in Scripture to be illuminated or enlightened Heb. 6. 4. Hebr. 10. 32. 2. And unto this comes in as an Auxiliary improving and perfecting the low beginnings of those once initiated to an high degree of holinesse and comfort The Sacrament of the Lords Supper ordained by Christ to the ratification of our Covenant entered into with God and the memorie of Christs passion and death upon the Crosse for us and our being more strictly and intimately united to Christ as shall hereafter be more fullie declared 3. A third most necessary and effectuall meanes of applying Christs merits to us is that excellent gift of God as the Scripture termes it Acts 5. 31. Acts 11. 18. Repentance of which with the concomitants of it likewise we may speak farther hereafter 14. Of the Resurrection likewise of the bodie and the reuniting of the soule unto it and upon such restauration the receiving of the proper
and deformities and finde the smart of our sores there is little probabilitie we should be sollicitous so far about our selves as to seek for redresse and remedie for the same but having attained this that which followes in the mentioned words of the Apostle viz. perfecting holinesse in the fear of the Lord may happily succeed And this advantage by the same words is put into our hands towards so great and good work as to learne the generall division of our sins and impurities to be removed and that some sins have the resemblance of a spirituall nature and others of a fleshly For according to the diverse constitution of Man consisting of Soule and Bodie whereby he partaketh both of the nature of Spirits and Beast so are his inclinations sometimes transporting him to the excesses of Evill Spirits and sometimes sinking him down towards brutish lusts but which are insinuated unto us by St. James Chap. 3. 15. thus writing This wisdome descendeth not from above but is earthly sensuall and devillish Whereby we understand that some sins and especially they of the minde of man are really devillish as having the Devill as well for their Authour as Actour viz. Envyings Gloryings Strife Lying instanced in by St. James a little before and some others of the like nature And on the other side Hatred Murthers Violences offered to others Intemperance Incontinence and slothfulnesse and such like are such which senfuall appetites dispose us unto and we have in common with beasts prone to them Yet to the shame of Man may it be spoken beasts many times governed by their senses being not so great offenders thereby as men directed to higher and better things both by Reason and Religion or Faith. For in trueth there is a fourfold restraint appointed by God for the keeping us within due compasse of living First our very Senses not made by evill customes more brutish than naturally they are doe certifie by a naturall reluctancie when we exced due measure in the use of sensible pleasures And a greater light and check to such exorbitances does our Reason give us not bribed by corruption to give false reports and dictates But the Light and Rules of Faith are yet more clear full and perfect to direction and sanctification but the life and Crown of all is the Grace of God bringing the will of man into subjection and obedience Most of which we shall here speak briefly to SECT II. Of the Office and Power of Faith in purging the Soule from sinfull defilements 1. FAith as we have shewed is by descent of heavenly extraction It is the gift of God and not owing originally to the will or election of man And it is given as an Instrument to work the work of God And this it doth well applyed and improved by the Illumination alreadie spoken of and discoveries of Gods Will and our Dutie in a clearer and fuller manner than otherwise we could attain to But this is not all this is not the greatest or chiefest part of its Power and vertue but that which impells and enables us too to doe the Will of God For as Christ our Lord and Master saies He sent me into the world to bear witnesse unto the trueth and that not by affirmation only but by exemplarie holinesse consummated in dying for the trueth so should every good Christian by doing and dying if need be testifie to the trueth 2. And surely great is the influence true and strong Faith hath to that end according to St. John 1 Ep. 5. 4. telling us This is our victory even our faith so termed because it is the principall meanes whereby we become Conquerors of Gods and our own Enemies which St. Paul 2 Cor. 10. 4. calls the pulling down of strong holds and of every thing that exalteth it selfe against God as all sinfull lusts doe and bringing it into the subjection of Christ For here is verified what Christ foretold in the Gospell A mans enemies shall be they of his own house A militant Christian never being free from intestine jars and warrings of the Law of his members against the Law of his minde and faith So that if we listen to any suggestions or lean on any other aid but what our Faith furnishes us withall we are lyable to fail and fall in our contentions For as Christ said to the Father of the Demoniacall Son. Mark 9. All things are possible to him that believeth So shall we see on the contrary all things are impossible to him that disbelieveth it being said of Christ himselfe Mark 16. 5. He could doe there viz. in his own Country no mighty works because of their unbelief as if unbelief in man had tied Gods hands and disabled him who is ever omnipotent to act accordingly though we must understand the words of Scripture not absolutely but according to the ordinary course of Gods proceeding towards man who must not expect that God will obtrude his blessings upon him contemning him as did these his Countrymen who astonished at the Wisdome and Doctrine of Christ carped at his Relations and Education and meannesse of his Person and Parentage believing with prejudice reproveable by their senses that Christ could not doe that they saw him doe and therefore refused to bring forth to him their sick and impotent so that he could not doe many mighty workes there And the case is the same in spirituall mortifications and cures of the distempered soule To him that believeth all things are possible but unbelief makes possible things impossible and easie things most difficult For Faith not doing its office of declaring to the ignorant minde the nature of God an implacable Enemie to sin and the nature of sin an intolerable Enemie to God man must needs be carried away by that false naturall light that he hath after those pleasing objects that seem rather than are good to him And again He whose faith is firme is also operative as well as intuitive and so far influenced and excited by it that he cannot choose but he must act according to his judgement perswasion and principle of life 3. For what was that which moved Moses to forsake Egypt and bid adieu to the Courtly pleasures of it and to suffer affliction with the people of God and to esteem the very reproach of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt but that as the Scripture tells us He by his faith saw him that was invisible and by his faith had respect unto the recompence of the reward He by faith both believed aright in God and by the same loved what appeared to him most noble and desireable Which held not good then only but is of perpetuall truth as is that of our Saviour Christ also According to thy faith so be it unto thee So it is and so it ever will be unto Christian Soules If a man believes truely but does not fully his faith is impotent in its hands and feet and can profit very little to the main
ornaments of Nature which if they be not accurate enough recourse is had commonly to Artifices imitating and excelling Nature But with God lovely are the Eyes swelled with weeping the moistened and blurred Face the drooping Head neglected Attire pale Countenance and dejected not daring so much as to lift it selfe up to Heaven sackclothes on the Body instead of Silks and gorgeous Apparell and ashes on the Head and halfe-formed language directed to God through confusion of minde and oppression of spirits under the sense of sin and offences committed against God. This is the thing God is most in love with this is the Image methinks I could worship above any other representation and by mediation of which I should hope to have greater acceptance with God than by the intercession of the most eminent and renowned Saint in Heaven For if Saints can help and befriend us seeking to them they cannot prevail for us before God but as we repent but certainly Repentance may prevail with God without them Though thou wash thee with nitre Jerem. 2. 22 23. and takest much sope yet thine iniquitie is marked before me saith the Lord. How canst thou say I am not polluted But Take to you words of Repentance and turne to the Lord say unto him take away all iniquitie and receive us graciously c. and you shall be saved from your sins Offer to God all the Beasts of the Field and the Sheep upon a thousand Hills yea take the fruit of thy Bodie and offer it and them all as a sacrifice of expiation to Almighty God for the sin of your Soule and it shall not be received but the sacrifice of a broken spirit and contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise And what should I mention in this case the treasures of Princes of no account with God in comparison of Repentance to finde favour before him or to cleanse us 2. Who is there then that should be affraid of Repentance which removes all consternations and fears Who is there that should be ashamed of the deformities of Repentance so beautifull in the eyes of God or the basenesse of it so exalted and honoured by God 'T is true At first she will walke with him by crooked wayes Ecclesiasticus 4. and bring fear and dread upon him and torment him with her discipline untill she may trust his soule and trye him by her lawes then will she return the strait way unto him and comfort him and shew him her secrets For what can be more easie or equall or comfortable than what St. John saith 1 Ep. 1. 8 9. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the trueth is not in us But if we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse 3. But all this while though the danger be not so common or great as the contrary undervaluing and neglecting Repentance caution is here to be used while we thus applaud and magnifie Repentance and the power of it lest we ascribe too much unto it For here may Repentance curing the distempers and purifying the pollutions of the Soule say with the Apostle Saint Peter Acts 3. healing the impotent man Not by our own power or holinesse have we made this man to walk But by the power and institvtion of God is the great cure wrought by it upon the Soules of the penitent For what is Repentance of it selfe Even as vile and contemptible a thing as it appears to be as course and uncomely as unhappie and unfortunate and unprofitable to such great ends as it seems What can a melanchollie look contribute to the cleering Gods countenance towards a Sinner Or what can a wounded heart conduce to the healing of the diseases of the Soule What satisfaction for the wrong done to God can wringing of hands beating the Brest sackcloth and ashes severe Penances liberall Almes very commendable in such cases avail to recompence the injuries done to God our Neigbbour or our own Soules How is it possible these things should restore innocency to the Person or integrity and puritie No surely But God seeing man plunged into debt with him in ten thousand Talents and having nothing to pay so condescendeth to the necessities and extremities of his miserable and forlorne Creatures as to raise up one Mighty to save poor in Spirit and rich in Mercies and Merits which he extended to the relief of us lying under guilt and Gods heavie displeasure but yet not so absolutely and inconditionately but we should concurre by our endeavours to put efficacie actually into the generall meanes ordained by God to our restauration and reconciliation amongst which none is more prevalent with the Father of Free Grace and Mercies than Repentance and that quicken'd and enlivened by such adjuncts and fruits mentioned For who shall except against God if he pleases that so many Cyphers of our penitent actions and humiliations shall stand for round Numbers tending towards the payment of our debts Baptisme by naturall water is but a poor and beggerly Element of it selfe to wash away originall Sin but God may and hath elevated it to a noble and Divine Effect So the baptisme of Repentance is altogether insufficient to such high Ends as washing the Soule but by Gods Institution it becomes thereunto effectuall to a miracle 4. Whatever therefore may be pretended of free Grace on Gods part and feared of superstition on mans part in disciplining the Soule by outward austerities such as afflicting the body to bring iâ— under subjection to the minde and rebating fleshly concupiscences and motions towards Sin Watchings Fastings Confessions to God and man Prayers forgiving others that have offended us Almes and such like Christian acts and exercises as inconsistent with Christs full satisfaction upon the Crosse it is more inconsistent with the Goodnesse and Grace of God to oppose these and may in like manner tend to the abolition of that small pretence to Repentance and Prayers yea Faith it selfe remaining with such selfe-securing Scruplers The power indeed of Faith and Repentance is in a manner infinite through Gods Power and Grace influencing them but God workes rather by his own prescription than according to our imagination and fond Faith naked of such a proper retinue as is mentioned It is abundantly sufficient to all ingenuous mindes and throughly repenting that God will admitt them to the benefit of Repentance upon the use of it in deepest manner and with all its circumstances and therefore for men to speak evill of that way and to studie for excuses from severer practices and to declaim against them as derogatorie to Christs merits may provoke God to denie that grace of acceptance which in many cases he granteth unto Penitents For God hath wisely and justly hid from every mans Eyes the precise and particular termes of our reconciliation with him neither hath he declared precisely all the qualities and circumstances of that humiliation upon which
which the Masters of Jewish morality noted and wisely disswaded all to turne their Faces from Amorous Romances and Lascivious Poetrye are to be reduced to this caution And that eye cannot be accounted innocent which coming into a Shop of Rarities and great varieties looketh not so much nor demandeth what it doth want but seeketh for somewhat which when it beginneth first to see it beginneth allso to want and desire and to want it because it desireth it and not desire it because it wanteth it Excellent therefore is that counsell of Ecclesiasticus Chap. 9. v. 5. 7. against both these and their fellowes and that when there were no Monks nor Friers in the world upon whome we would cast such severe counsells as their prosession leads them to Gaze not on a Maid that thou fall not by those things that are precious in her Look not round about thee in the streets of the City neither wander thou in the solitarie places thereof But our Saviours Evangelicall counsell exceeds this Matth. 5. If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out It is better for thee to c. Nature as Lactantius observes to preserve the eye a very tender and precious part hath fenced it with hairs on the lids as so many Speares which at the approach of the least Enemy to it being but lightly touched give notice to shut it presently for its securitye But it hath not provided such meanes to defend the eye from morall objects which are ever in readinesse to offend it but that is the speciall gift of God and should be the Christian prudence of every true Believer 3. And the like circumspection is necessary to be had about the Ear another most profitable yea necessarie Sense and no lesse passionate than the other 'T is incredible even to them that are overcome and captivated by dishonest Speeches lewd Books obscene Poetry what a change and that for the worst aptly tempered sounds and melodious Voices have upon a man. They deject him and make him moody and heavie they inflame and lighten him make him brisk and wanton make him full of talk and ridiculous motions and finally insnare and draw him to humour the notes in his actions good or bad Cease my Son therefore saith Solomon to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge whether Poeticall or Prosaicall For when the forme of words the eloquence of the Tongue and gracefulnesse of speaking are the gift of God the matter clothed and adorned and adapted to the eare by them may be of the Devills devising and sent before him to fowl the room of the Soule for him and his unclean Spirits to dwell there For as the Good Spirit of Wisdome will not enter into a body given to sin no more will or can the evill Spirit enter into a Soule or bodie not fitted for his turne by impure cogitations and devices Turne therefore saith Solomon Proverbs 14. 7. from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge Which knowledge is there used for wise and profitable talke opposed commonly to foolishnesse which in Scripture signifies as much as Sin. And in so advising he doth implye the next and right way to avoid not only certain single acts of corrupt communication but even the inclination and desire of impure matter imbibed by word or writing For it is true in morall things as well as naturall that the understanding is made all things according to the impression made by the object as Philosophers teach being formable into any shape So according to divinity is it true that according to the pure and chast subject we choose to meditate on and converse with or the light obscene and frothy is the inward Sense affected not only actually or transiently but habitually and permanently So that in accustoming a mans selfe to immodest and immorall acts or businesses the minde is so tainted that all Diviner things become unsavourie and irksome In like manner to the palate of the Soule accustomed to spirituall pure and chast Discourses and reading the pleasureablenesse of vain idle and foolish Subjects and especially obscene becomes alltogether extinguished an irksomenesse succeeding in its place 4. And there being such neer relation as we have partly seen between the Ear and the Tongue as there is between a Fiddle-stick and Fiddle to strike it as it pleaseth the same doctrine of Sanctitie reacheth unto the due regiment of the one as well as of the other but more especiall care and custodie seem to be due to this than that For as much as the Tongue is an active part and Organ to evill but the Ear passive chiefly And sometimes it so falls out that a man must whether he will or no hear what is leud vain riotous wanton unclean and prophane but no man is constrained to use his Tongue so indiscreetly and wickedly he hath it more in his power than he hath his Eares and therefore he is the more obliged to make a good use of the one than he can of the other And as some have observed Nature by fencing it double with Teeth and Lips least it should trespasse upon God and our Neighbours teaches us with what good advice and moderation we are to use it For in trueth generally it so demeaneth it selfe that few can give that a good word which is the great instrument of Speech And seldome is it better employed than when it accuses it selfe and commends taciturnity and silence What can be said of it or any thing else more bitterly or truely than what St. James writeth of it Chap. 3. The Tongue is an unruly evill full of deadly Poison Therewith blesse we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the Image of God. And Solomon saith Prov. 21. Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue meaning that by a Lying slandering perjurious profane and unclean Tongue we hasten Death to others so that our own damnation at the same time lingreth not thereby Christ telling us Matth. 12. 36 38. that For every evill word that men speak they shall give an account at the day of judgement For By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned So that the Tongue or sting of the Adder is not so poisonous and pernicious as the evill tongue of Man. For that doth not sting or hurt the user but this doth verifying what is said of wicked men Pssalm 6. 4 8. They shall make their own tongues to fall on themselves All that see them shall flee away viz. as from the face and sting of a Viper And if we would judge of the ill Tongue as we doe of Persons of worth from their Extraction we shall find how low and base an originall it hath from St. James Chap. 3. The Tongue is a little member boasting great things the Tongue is a fire a world of iniquity it defileth the whole body
never been free from temptation nor rested satisfied in the servilitie of the Sin. But for any man to connive at lesser failings in him in this kinde as but wandring thoughts affected admiration of Beauties evill intentions and inward concupiscences without execution and much more actions impure is to be overcome and loose all unlesse renewed by Repentance again 7. Neither ought a man to intermitt acts of austerities as Cold Hunger and severe treatments outward of the flesh because sometimes evill events quite contrarie to his expectation have happened to him the reason whereof may be better omitted than enquired into yet most certain it is that constant subjugation as St. Paul speakes 1 Corinth 9. 27. or bringing the bodie into subjection is usefull to that end by the judgement and experience of the most famous Saints in the Church contrary to the vain and absurd Doctrines of modern Directers who doe exhort to the principall work without the proper meanes and so magnifie the Grace of God as necessarie and sufficient alone to effect this as if it could not consist with it or might not better be hoped for by such diligence and circumspection used And when they can no longer deny this fall to reviling them as if they were inseparable from Superstition and opinion of Meriting with the like folly For what a miserable shuffling and evasion is that and plain injustice to lay the blame and defects of Persons upon the dutie performed by them No doubt therefore the universall Churches judgement and practice is much to be preferred before the opinion of moderne and private Apologists for illimited use of sensuall gratifications and opposers of Bodily exercises and disciplining of the Appetites even to the denying of things not in themselves unlawfull as conducing to Chastitie Though the subjecting of the inward affections and lusts is more noble more necessarie more desireable as that to which the other should tend and in which end It was the course Saint Hierom writeth he took with himselfe when he found his flesh to rebell against his spirit in the desert of Bethleem upon an apprehension of a beautifull Ladie he had seen at Rome and began to desire He cast himselfe into the Briars as Gideon used the men of Penuel and Succoth Judges 8. 7. 16. who withstood him and taught his flesh better obedience The like to which writeth Gregory of Saint Benedict Dialog Lib. 2. that he threw himselfe amongst Thornes to turne his light cogitations another way 8. And agreeable to this is that universall Instrument of all Gifts and Graces descending to us from above Prayer and the firme perswasion that from thence and by that not neglecting other meanes Chastitie may be obtained according to the Rule and experience of the wise Man Ecclesiasticus 8. 21. thus writing Neverthelesse when I perceived I could not otherwise obtain her Wisdome or as some render it Undefilednesse mentioned before except God gave her me and that was a point of Wisdome allso to know whose gift she was I pray'd unto the Lord and besought him with my whole heart 9. Thirdly It is very requisite to avoid vain and vile communication which Saint Paul ratifying the opinion of the Gentile Poet assures us begets evill manners And therefore advises farther Ephes 4. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth And by the same Rule should a man let no corrupt communication enter into his eares and suffer no light obscene Books or Sonnets or objects of any Creatures tending that way to draw his eye to them For all these like the Estriches Egges covered perhaps for a time in the Sand untill the warm Sun shall ripen and enliven them will quicken in the minde of man in the heat of temptation or perhaps will of themselves break forth into a temptation and receive consummation according to the Doctrine of Saint James Chap. 1. A man is drawn away thus and enticed Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death And in avoiding evill Books and directly obscene let more especiall care be had of such Good Books of Moderne Casuists who under pretence of perfecter information of Confessour and Penitent abound with curious enquiries into all the secrets of Nature and sinfull concupiscences exposing them to the view and imaginations of the Reader and exciting of unclean Passions For all these sensible insinuations of unlawfull Lusts yea acts Lawfull to them that use them in a regular way become Images in the minde which the natural man turnes to upon occasion and falls down before worshipping them and idolizing them to his shame and fall 10. Fourthly Let it be consider'd what honour God doth to the chast Soule and Body in that he esteems them as his own Temple Christ and looks upon them as his own Members in especiall manner And on the contrary how ill he taketh transgressings in this kinde Know ye not that ye are the Temple of the Holy Ghost and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you If any man defiles the Temple of God him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are 1 Corinth 3. 16 17. And in another place with what indignation doth the same Saint Paul 1 Cor. 6. 15. argue against such affronts offered to Christ himselfe by such practices as these Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot What Monster of confounded Kinds did ever match this Prodigious mixture whereby Christ and an Harlot Christ and a Fornicatour are made one No wonder then that the Scripture assures us Ephes 5. 5. that No Whoremonger or unclean person hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of God and of Christ And sufficeth not this to quench the flames of lust in us and to repent throughly for it 11. Last of all Consider we what a concatenation of other Vices is found too often in this one and the reason will be apparent why it is accounted a Mother-sin For though Harlots are seldome fruitfull the sin of Whoredome is We hear much spoken of simple Fornication as minutely peccant in the opinion of divers But doth not that beget basenesse of Spirit and as Saint Austin saith lownesse of understanding nothing casting down the wit of man more from its top and Tower than such inordinate love of Women Nothing makeing a man more contemptible and ridiculous than that known Vice. But that is not all For from hence comes wasting of Estates as the History of the Prodigall cleerly proveth Hence allso proceeds Quarrelling and Duelling as it is amongst Dogs when they follow a Bitch that runs proud And Murders follow them and too often to avoid the shame of the world is destroyed with murdering Potions or Pills the fruit of the wombe before it ripens and which is worse are not sensible of that more heinous sin in covering sin
him the exception lying onely good where there can be no accesse to the publique Place 4. But I know not what vitious and very blameable modesty hath possessed so many of late dayes as to be affraid to be seen or taken praying and sundry devout Persons are startled and shrink to be seen unawares at their Prayers in Gods House it selfe which is the House of Prayer unlesse when the Bells publish the dutie at hand and an Assembly is made professedly and so likewise at their domestick and separate Devotion as if they were taken in a fault or some Crime whereof a man should be ashamed and affraid some men being more abashed seen to doe well than others are taken in an evill Action This cannot be well thought of by God whose service a man is then engaged in and cannot but be an infirmitie in men praying For though a man is not hypocritically and with no better designe than to be noted and praised by men to expose studiously himselfe to the view of others while he prayes he is no lesse obliged not to forbear what place and time and just occasion require at his hands or otherwise may be expedient because people see him For God sayes Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven and the manifestation of our Adoration and service is likewise a manifestation of his honour and glorie And if at length we could recover and bring into Reputation such lost good Actions as publique Prayer in private Persons Religion would be more renowned and many more than now doe would allso fall down and say God is in you of a trueth and so be excited to the same good work or worship in use 5. But a known time of Gods Worship being assigned a sound entire tryed approved Sacrifice and reasonable service of God being appointed for Confession Humiliation Supplications Petitions Deprecations Intercessions Thanksgivings and Benedictions as Saint Paul directeth 1 Tim. 2. 1. with sobrietie or good Conscience to contemne these either ignorantly or presumptuously and to foist in private Inventions scarce so good as humane all things considered what amounts this to but a despising of Christ himselfe and a provocation of God to cast the officious zeal of such as dung upon their own faces For how can it be supposed that God should be pleased with that Oblation obtruded upon him and others without Autoritie which is often put up without Faith and never with Charitie or Humilitie convenient But if our Prayers themselves offend how should we hope for pardon of our offences by them That therefore they should have favourable accesse to God is necessarie they should be dulie qualified themselves and that such as these Conditions here onely to be named be found in them 1. That we pray in Faith that God is and that he is a rewarder of all that call upon him 2. That we pray in trueth without any hereticall or erroneous Dogmes or corrupt Opinions of God of his Word or holy Worship 3. Praying in puritie of intention seeking even when our Prayers consist of spirituall or temporall benefits to our selvles primarily the glorie and good will of God. 4. In Puritie or holinesse of hands that is innocencie of life as David when he said I will wash my hands in innocencie and so will I goe to thine Altar or at least a dislike of our guilt and contaminations making them part of our humiliation and supplications to God. 5. In Charitie towards others so far as Justice and Pietie will permitt And lastly In zeal to Gods service and to our own Soules in so praying which is that lifting up the Soule we so much speak of here and leaving it with him to preserve to his greater service and glorie and our immortall happinesse SECT VIII Of the severall sorts of Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall Supramentall Extemporarie Formed and fixed as allso Singing of Psalmes 1. NOw because there are usually distinguished severall kinds of Prayer to God as well according to the matter as manner of putting up our requests to him all concurring in this one thing that the minde and heart should be thereby united to God and fixed it will not be amisse to glance at the principall in this second order having touched the former from the Apostles words 1 Tim. 2. 1. All which relate to the matter of Prayer and may be perfourmed in any one of those which great Artists have cast into this threefold Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall and Supramentall Sensible they make that which is common to all Christians praying to God in a vocall sensible manner to themselves and others Mentall they would have that called which is contemplative and whereby the minde is throughly directed to God not without affection For if the Understanding onely be erected and directed to God it can scarce deserve the name of Prayer to God as Philosophizing about him therefore it is necessarie that affectionatenesse and adherence to God by love which are acts of the will allso should be found in all due Prayer yea in all Treaters of the nature and use of Prayer otherwise acute and learned men may prescribe better than teach or affect A manifest Example we have in the two great Chieftains amongst Schoolmen Thomas the Angelicall and Bonaventure the Seraphicall Doctour as they call them Both which have in their Opuscula written Treatises of the Love of God. In which the former keeping closer than in such a Subject is expedient to Scholasticall Methods and termes of writing hath left but a dry Monument and insipide to a spirituall Palate of his gift in that kinde whereas Bonaventure speaking out of the abundance of the heart and affection as the Subject required rather than by the rule of humane disquisitions hath much more divinely commendably and profitably as to practice treated thereof And spirituall Doctrine and devotion towards God seem much to resemble the Notion we generally have of the nature of Spirits in themselves which they say consisteth in not being circumscribed by limits as our Bodies are but indefinite and diffusive very much like to the bodie of the Air in which we are inclosed which is capable of any figure but determined to none In like manner Spirituall Prayer and the gifts God bestoweth upon the Soule are not to be limited by the lineaments and parts of humane Methods which as it were fetters the Spirit from expatiating according to its pleasure which like the Winde bloweth and breatheth and leadeth as it listeth and is in very deed as Phanatiques terme it stinted and obstructed by the Arts of Men modelling their Devotion and not subject rather to it and following rather than going before its dictates and impulses For however I finde many Commentatours ingeniously enough and acutely methodizing holy Scripture and Analyzing it so as if it had been the very intent and designe of the Holy Spirit therein to speak Logically and
methodically yet could never be so really perswaded but that holy Men of old speaking and writing as they were moved by the Spirit contemned all order and Methods but what naturally arose from the bowells of the Subject they treated of and the occasion given them not contradicting or denying liberty to men to forme their matter by outward Methods as may agree best with the learning retaining and digesting what they finde there delivered 2. And answerable to this the more Mentall a mans Contemplations are the lesse methodicall are they wont to be So that if there be such a thing as may be called properly Prayer Supramentall as Authours speak it must be more strange to Order and Methode than either of the two other degrees of Prayer and be of the nature of Rapts and Extasies of which we have spoken For by such puritie of intention and such vehemencie of intension and ardour in directing a mans minde and heart to God and as it were delivering up his spirit into his hands the intellectuall facultie may cease which is that Absorption spoken of allso and such that can be approved onely from the goodnesse and Divinenesse so pored on and with its lustre confounding them carried away with it For it is apparent that Evill Spirits doe in like manner oppresse the mindes of the Persons devoted to them And therefore as I cannot condemne all such excesses mentall or supramentall rather so can I approve them no farther than they are consonant to the Law and the Testimonie and the Spirit of the Living Prophets I mean the Church truely so called and the peace and Charitie of the same So that as I cannot but think favourably of those extravagant passages and rulelesse while the Authours of them keep the peace of the Church and known principles of Christianity innovating nothing in the Faith but onely in their own supramentall Facts as we may terme them so can I no wayes justifie those presumptuous Spirits who not having attained to the true mentall Prayer dare obtrude their vocall and sensible Prayer upon the spirits of an whole Congregation and that without any good Autority so to doe 3. After the extraordinary gift of unprepared Prayer ceased in the Church of God together with unprepared preaching of the Gospell it lay upon the Governours of the Church to supplie that defect in the best manner they could by composing and prescribing formes for Publique Worship lest any scandall or indecencie should disaffect soberer and more prudent Christians And when the Bishop presiding in the Church committed any part of his wide charge to his Presbyter we never finde that he departed in the Publique Worship from what was in use in the Mother-Church either as to matter or forme Nay the principall Pastour of any Diocese never was himselfe so imperious over his Flock as vain men of late dayes to offer a new and unknown Office to Believers every day or to God as more spirituall or acceptable to him but aymed at nothing more than a Common plain well-known well-approved and constant forme of sound words to which all intelligent Christians might safely and cheerfully give their concurrence and sett to their Seal of Amen And to denie liberty to Ministers to offer the Will-worship of their own inventions in Publique was never lookt upon as they say as Lycurgus-like to cut up all the Vines in the Country lest men should be drunk but rather cutting down the wild Vines whose fruit is ungratefull to judicious Palates and pernicious to the community of Christians Wherein the gift of Prayer consisteth we have touched before but sure we are it consisteth not in the volubility of the Tongue readinesse of Invention fluencie of Speech choice of Divine Phrases but in the grace of Prayer which the same men unhappily would distinguish from the Gift which is a certain pure intention and fervent intension of Spirit lifted up to God which may consist with a Prayer used ten thousand times Not but that it is very lawfull usefull and allmost necessary in some cases to utter the fullnesse of the minde by unprepared words in private Addresses but to lay the weight and worth of a Prayer upon the wording of it is a foul absurdity When sudden surprizing and extraordinary occasions are offer'd to blame is that man who will not strive to use proportionable Addresses to God neither staying for a Book nor the licence of his Ordinary But plying his heart while it is hot and full the best manner he can for his ease and comfort 4. And not onely in such extraordinary cases as may even extort an Ejaculation sutable but out of that common Habit of grace a man may have attained unto by Christian diligence it is most reasonable and pious he should lift up his minde frequently unto God in divine Contemplation Admiration of his Power and Wisdome thankfullnesse for deliverances and benefits bestowed imploration of his mercie and pardon for dayly Trespasses he is liable to and exercising that Communion that every Good Christian should have with God and all this not onely in usuall and constant Phrases and Formes though that be commendable but as the Spirit shall give him utterance All which notwithstanding ought to be regulated by the rule of Christian modestie justice and Charitie so as not to indulge to private satisfactions herein to the prejudice of others nor to phansie such an Edification to himselfe which should tend to the dissipation of the Church of God that Rule of Saint Paul binding incessantly such as otherwise would be boundlesse Let no man seek his own but every man anothers wealth 1 Corinth 10. 24. meaning rather spirituall than temporall wellfare And again the same Apostle 1 Corinth 14. 12. adviseth For as much as ye are zealous of spirituall gifts seek that ye may excell to the edification of the Church which whosoever violateth by private affectations in Religion may be said to indulge rather to his own carnall humour how divine soever it may appear to weaker judgements than to the edification of himselfe or others For as he that sings with the Congregation ought to lay aside his private Tunes though possibly far more excellent than that which is set for all to follow so must the singular Devotion of a higher strain than ordinarie complie with the meaner to avoid scandall and confusion as that which may better agree with the whole Bodie than sublimer strains or Tunes And this is the Case of that plain and easie recitative way of using the Psalmes in our Church which requires a cheerfull Spirit without difficulty or tediousnesse of modulating the Voice which for that reason might have been preferred before the more Artificiall and hard of private mens Invention had it not pleased men of designe and unquiet Spirits to bring it into disgrace for no other faults but which are found to be more notorious in that they have introduced in its stead From which frowardnesse of Spirit and
that he might doe them good at the latter end not feasting them so by the way that they should not desire to enter into any other rest For as we see it is with the Day-labourer that his Meals are very short in comparison of his toyl so is it allso with the faithfullest Servants of God in this life their spirituall refreshments are not comparable to their labour in working out their salvation with fear and trembling so that as Bernard observeth the Dayes are rare and the stayes are short of Consolations 6. And a fourth reason hereof may be Gods great designe to keep the Soule in Humility which might be endanger'd by such exaltations and upon which inferiour and harder services might be slighted and neglected as more proper for Persons not so highly priviledged Or it may be vainly presumed that such priviledges are granted to the Soule for its extraordinary diligence in Gods service which must not be allowed but looked upon as an overplus of his favour 7. Fifthly The withholding or withdrawing of such delectations in Gods service may be to instruct us in the absolute Will of God to keep times and seasons in his own Power which it is not for us to know as Christ tells his Disciples Acts 1. And that the Kingdome of God cometh not by observation or according to our expectations 8. But because it is very acceptable to God that we should in all our services give a cheerfull Sacrifice to him which cheerfullnesse is much advanced by the sense of Gods good will towards us such a lightnesse of spirit is not to be wholly slighted as it is not too importunately to be sought after The meanes therefore to obtain the same may be First The due observation of the foregoing Rules now mentioned Secondly A free submission of our selves and services to the disposition of the will of God and contentednesse to persist unalterably in our station under such Aridities of which we know not our selves to be direct occasions a great motive to incline God to manifest his favour unto us more fully Which calls to my minde what I have been told to have happened in the Court of Charles the First For why may we not illustrate things as well by Moderne as Auncient Examples and Domestick as well as Forein in which rare and noble divertisements being prepared for the delight of such as he favoured an inferiour person demanded entrance into the place of such Splendour but being repulsed by a Noble Person to whome the power of admission was given He said Well if I must not be admitted I know what I will doe Doe said the Noble Man Why What will you doe I will goe home said the other and goe to Bed. Nay then if you be so indifferent and well content without it come in replied that Lord. So doth it usually happen unto such who cannot but desire to be admitted into the Presence of God in this way of sensible delectations and yet with patience and submission absolute to Gods Will readily and quietly rest in their ordinarie Dutie ordained of God to walk in here in fullfilling his Will so on Earth as it is in Heaven according to humane abilitie where alone is the consummation of that Union we have but in part here never to be dissolved or interrupted Last of all Retirement for some time into our private Chambers and then into our own selves by stillnesse and composednesse of spirit and minde from not onely worldly cogitations but forcible as I may so speak devotions towards God becomeing as it were Blanks before him that so he may write his own will and in his own way upon the Soule and having so done not to intermitt the wonted Worship of God whether private or publique fullfilling what is said Lamentations 3. 28. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him He putteth his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope For it often happens that a great mistake is committed through the speciousnesse of the condition of serving God and having him in our Eye as if we intended nothing more than a more cheerfull and acceptable service when love of our selves bears the greatest share in the pursuit of such serenities of minde and consolations For the Soule finding an heavinesse and wearinesse upon it naturally desires ease and relief which Religion it selfe does not denie or disallow provided it be pure from Selfe-love often concerned herein And an humble apprehension of our vilenesse unworthinesse and unfitnesse to entertain Christ in such singular manner moving one to cry out in the words and Spirit of Saint Peter Luke 5. 8. Depart from me for I am a sinfull man O Lord may be as great an argument of the profitable and saving Presence of Christ as the possession of him in Consolations and a more readie way to attain what is really good for us though not directly craved in this kinde A Prayer for true Union with God. MOST High and Holy Lord God whome the Heaven of heavens cannot contain who dwellest on high and yet humblest thy selfe to behold the things done in heaven and earth yea to dwell with them that are of an humble spirit and broken heart and takest the simple out of the dust and liftest the poor out of the mire to set him with Princes even with the Princes of his People even with thine holy Angells and the Spirits of just men made perfect And to this end vouchsafest to begin that glorious state here by that state of Grace whereby thou enterest into the Soules of thy Servants and dwellest with them and art united to them O most Gracious Father in thy Son Jesus Christ and through thy Holy Spirit be pleased to descend into my heart and make thy abode with me as by thy Son thou hast promised Vnite my heart to fear thy Name Open the eyes of my understanding that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law and with cleer and pure Contemplation of thee and things spirituall and Heavenly may be so far inflamed with the love of thee and thy Worship that all earthly and sensuall contents and pleasures may be strange and unsavourie to me and that such a spirituall gust may so affect my Soule that I may refuse all delights and glories not placed in thee and derived from thee and tending to thee which may more firmely oblige and endear me to thee so that Nuptiall Bond whereby thou hast espoused me to thee and thy Son Jesus Christ may never be dissolved but amidst the many cares troubles and temptations which may befall me in this life I may constantly and faithfully persevere to serve thee without distraction and much more alienation from thee Thou knowest O Lord that this corruptible bodie presseth down the Soule musing on heavenly things thou knowest that though our spirit be willing our flesh is weak and yet hast taught us that thy Grace is sufficient for us and thy strength is made known in our weaknesse as thy mercy is in our wickednesse wherefore Righteous Father take possession of this thine House which thou hast chosen to dwell in vindicate me from the usurpations of sin the flesh the Devill and all worldly vanities apt to deceive me or draw me from thee that so like thy servant Stephen by a strong eye of Faith evermore stedfastly beholding thee and the glorie with thee I may joy in thee here and everlastingly enjoy thee hereafter through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen FINIS
obstinacie and obduratenesse in their naturall state according to Christs own judgement of the world John 5. v. 40. Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life So that as it is written by Sulpitius Severus in the life of St. Martine that being endued with a marvellous gift or faculty of curing sick and impotent persons The blinde and lame and decrepit who got their living by begging were affraid of him and would not come near him lest being cured of such their defects and impotencies they should lose their livelihood In like manner many getting a miserable and beggarly livelihood by serving and complying with the world and so being blinde and crippled in an heavenly sense refuse that light and life and renovation which Christ bringeth with him An instance whereof we have in the ministrie of St. Paul preaching to the Athenians prepossessed and captivated with worldly wisdome and thereupon saying Thou bringest strange things to our eares In their judgements more strange than true And though it be Mannah it selfe and that dropt down from heaven for their edification and comfort men out of their scepticalnesse and curiositie will question it and perhaps in time loath it as the Israelites that bread from heaven there being generally too little agreement between the notions of half-sighted naturall reason and delectations of our senses naturall and the divine Revelations and more spirituall prescriptions given us by Religion though naturall reason not counterfeited nor corrupted by baser allayes of vitious men may passe also as Gods true coyne But that pure Gold it is not which the Holy Ghost counselleth us to buy Revel 3 18. that we may be rich and wherewith we may get white raiment that we may be clothed that the shame of our nakednesse doe not appear and get that eye-salve that we may see which is the word of God. For the knowledge or illumination which we have from thence and that which we have from the Holy Spirit differ no otherwise than that money a man carries about him or that which the Tradesman hath present in his Bank and that which he hath in his Books which must put him sometimes to trouble to fetch in The manner of which fetching in is by the Holy Spirit also opening the heart that we may as the Disciples going to Emaus after Christs Resurrection understand the Scriptures untill which time that will be found too true which the Prophet Hosea Cap. 8. 12. complains of in Gods behalf I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing 4. But if we should enquire faithfully into the grounds of such incredulitie and prejudice against Religion we may finde them too often in the corrupt manners of men influencing the understanding with mistakes and grosse errours which yet some to cover with shew of greatest candour in judging and ingenuity have wished they could believe the things Christianity requires of them But if reality and common integritie be not also laid aside here how easie a thing is it to reconcile them to the truth For does not their own prime reason and of all civilized People tell them that nothing truely humane is more naturall to Man than to be of some Religion And yet if they be men but of indifferent reading and observation they shall finde that there is no Religion nor ever like to be all whose Principles are obvious to all competent understandings And so consequently that men to avoid the barbaritie of Atheisme must believe more than nature can compell them unto by her philosophicall demonstrations or fall into an absurditie little inferiour to Atheisme That every man should frame his own Religion and be so far religious as he thinks fit and no farther and which must necessarily follow call his freak and humour his reason and judgement So that it is scarce so true that a man cannot believe the mysteries of Religion as that he will not and he will not because he dares not for fear of the worst Or let it be that he cannot when St. Paul if he be but so far believed saith of some 2 Corinth 4. 4. The God of this world who that is I suppose is well known hath blinded the mindes of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them vain and vitious men having by their presumed wit and evill lives tempted evill Spirits themselves and drawn them to be accessaries to their infatuations For as every good and perfect gift cometh from above from the Father of lights as St. James tells us Chap. 1. 17. So doth everie notorious errour and wickednesse proceed from the Prince of darknesse who ruleth in the Childeren of Disobedience they being called children of Disobedience in Scripture who obey not the Gospell nor believe it reasonably propounded 5. But it may seem strange and worth our wondering How the same effect of blindnesse of minde should be ascribed to God and also to the Devill in Scripture as John 12. 4. speaking of God out of the Prophet Isaias He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts c. This is in truth a Scholasticall difficultie which belongs to another place to which I may referre it but here I would have it observed that as Judges or Princes are said to put Malefactours to death when they doe it not themselves but deliver them over to the Executioner whose office it is so God upon just provocation delivering great Sinners to the Devill may be said to be a cause of their hardnesse and blindnesse when it is caused directly by Satan only and themselves But the true light of Faith and life of Grace doth most properly appertain to God as it is said 2 Corinth 4. 7. By grace ye are saved through faith it is the gift of God. The reason whereof is That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us And this key of knowledge which is also of the Kingdome of God did Christ deliver to his Apostles by vertue of which God assisting Lydia's heart was opened as we read Acts 16. 14. And so necessary is the assistance of God in this case that he seems to keep this key by his own side and not at all times to lend it to his Ministers no not the Apostles Nor did Christ himselfe who as God had the command of mens mindes allwayes succeed in his teaching and exhortation but by I know not what deep providence suffered his labours to be frustrated by the incredulity of men But this we may say falls out by divine dispensation that God may be all in all in the beginning continuing and consummation of every good work and to repell that spirit of presumption whereby too prosperous Labourers in Gods Harvest or Vineyard might be prone to attribute much more to themselves than
comes to their share 6. For this reason God sends such tempestuous and dark weather at Sea to the skilfull Navigatour that he shall not be able readily to know or say where he is till the restored calme Light better informes him And sends Shipwracks sometimes to the subtill Merchant that he may understand better who it is that gives skill and strength to get Riches And diappointeth the hopes of the understanding and painfull Husbandman And as the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 44. maketh diviners mad and turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish teaching them all and us too and that in all senses more perfectly that necessary lesson of humility Deuteronomy 8. 18. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God. For it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth c. And as it is with the riches of this world it is with the riches of the world to come or being rich towards God as the Scripture speaks Luke 12. 21. For undoubtedly God may and doth apparently denie the ordinary meanes of Salvation sound knowledge and holy faith in him and of divine mysteries to some To others he grants to be initiated and to have some knowledge of the saving trueth who there stop and proceed no farther as tender plants rising out of the earth wither and perish for want of the blessings of heaven falling on them without which they can proceed no farther towards perfection and some proceed farther and promise fair and for the same reason attain not to the intended end 7. But nothing of this nature can reasonably be taken into an Apologie or defence of the unprofitable servant whom God hath delivered such talents and meanes unto that in themselves tend unto such progressions and consummations as are saving and beatificall But admit thou art becalmed and canst make no way through want of divine aspirations and influence How canst thou how darest thou impute this cessation and oscitancie of thine in not doing the known Will of God unto an unknown cause or rather a not cause of doing which whether it is so as thou imaginest or givest out at least that thou imaginest when thy heart contradicteth thy tongue thou knowest not For who can say that God denies him the inward power and meanes of Salvation that is of effectuall Grace to whom he giveth the outward meanes of Illumination Faith and Salvation Whatsoever may be wanting in the abstruse counsell and dispensations internall of God and known to him cannot be so known to a man without divine Revelations It is an uncharitable and rash act in any man directly to charge his Neighbour with denying him his due or taking away his goods from him when he can prove nothing against him and much more injust it is and impious for a man to say directly that God denies him grace or doth harden his heart so that Rules and exhortations and sufficient reasons of becoming faithfull righteous and holy before God and man are of no effect upon him 8. It is not so much pardonable as commendable in all Good Christians to be sensible of their naturall insufficiencie and infirmity to doe any good act St. Paul having taught us 2 Corinth 3. v. 5. That we are not able to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiencie is of God. But doe not the very next words as well as the latter part of that argument plainly tell us that God hath a sufficiencie for us and God doth make us able Ministers of his Will And doth not St. James tell us that every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights James 1. 17. And doth not our Saviour Christ direct us how we should fill our selves from that Fountain when he saith Matth. 7. 11. If ye being evill know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more should your Father which is in heaven give you good things that ask him And this good thing is the best and fullest of all good things being interpreted in St. Lukes Gospell Chap. 11. 13. to be the Holy Spirit it selfe the fountain of all Grace which he giveth to them that ask him The Querie then must needs be made to our selves whether upon sense of our infirmities and defects we ever did and that as we ought invoke Almighty God implore the gift of his Spirit and its concurrence and whether we ever submitted to its Dictates and directions to that power God hath given us For to doe this as well as believe that we have an excellent president from the wise Man Wisdome 8. v. 21. Neverthelesse I perceived I could no otherwise obtain her i. e. True Wisedome comprehending all intellectuall graces except God gave her me and that was a point of Wisedome also to know whose gift she was I prayed unto the Lord and besought him and with my whole heart I said O God of my Fathers and Lord of mercie c. Which prayer for that illuminating gift and Grace so necessarie might not very unfitly be transcribed hither and used by all true lovers of light rather than darknesse at least untill the Day-star shall arise in their hearts according to which true Believers may shape their course more steadily towards Heaven but I shun prolixnesse SECT VI. Of the Gift and guidance of Gods Spirit towards true Illumination The abuse and true use of the same and necessity of Believing 1. BUT the use or act of the grace of Faith resteth not here but is wonderfully assistant to the naturall understanding in discerning the minde of God revealed unto us in his Word For as the discreet and diligent Master doth not only set his Schollar whom he teacheth to write an exact and fair Copie to imitate and follow but also guides his hand in the making the Letters and joyning them together according to their true shape and order in like manner doth he whose Chair is in heaven teaching the hearts as his Instruments and Officers doe the eares and eyes of men below to understand receive believe and act according to the Rule and scope prescribed For man naturally is apt to believe those things only which his Reason assures him of but his reason how acute soever cannot demonstrate the Scriptures to be the Word of God which we believe and must believe to be so if we would be accounted good Christians And having the Scriptures in that esteem we cannot out of our promptitude and acutenesse of wit discerne clearly and readily many usefull things therein contained without the direction of that great Authour the Blessed Spirit principall in the composing them For 't is truly said The Scriptures must be understood by the Spirit that indited them According therefore to the gifts and grace given unto Mee doe they understand the mysteries of Faith Rom. 12. 6. And to every man is given grace according to the measure of Christ Ephes 4. 7. whereby that light revealed shineth unto the true Believer as out of a dark place So that
famous Emilius the Platonist by common understanding discerned a Great Mysterie of the Deitie to be intended thereby but that unnaturall Christian Socinus could not or would not apprehend so much the reason whereof may be that given by Christ himselfe John 9. 39. For judgement am I come into the world that they which see not might see and they which see might be made blinde They who have nothing to helpe themselves but mere naturall light may sooner come to the light of Religion industriously and modestly using that one Talent deliver'd to them but they who stand upon termes with God and refuse all other information besides naturall reason shall fall by the folly of their presumptuous knowledge This is the ordinary fate of such persons puffed up with their fleshly minde 3. So on the other extreme divers Christians having heard and read of extraordinarie Revelatious imparted by God and looking upon the Light without the Scriptures as a dark and dead letter in comparison of extraordinarie and Inward Light ambitiously aspire to that and credulously flatter themselves not without ostentations outwardly that they are priviledged thereby to their ruine answerably to the excessive curiosity of the Greatest of the Heathen Philosophers who having passed the bounds of vulgar capacities were pricked forward with immoderate studie of such secrets of Nature which they found they could not attain to but by commerce with Spirits and therefore with many vain and vile rites were tempted to combine with them in such pursuits of knowledge So that it is observed by Learned men very few there were of them who had not his familiar to assist him And I have often and much wonder'd with my selfe whence it should proceed that evill and naturall men should so easily and readily obtain the conversation and assistance of evill Spirits and good and spirituall men so rarely obtain without delusions the co-operations of Good Spirits or Angells for their more perfect Illumination and directions Yet at length I satisfied my selfe with such an account as this not knowing how it may satisfie others 4. The ground of all Divine Presence I take to be Puritie of heart and affection which is so rarely and hardly attained unto as to make the soule susceptible of such an Harbinger and therefore no wonder that Gods Spirit should estrange it selfe from such as are not purged according to the rate at least of humane frailty from their uncleannesse of flesh and spirit But wicked spirits stand not so much upon such preparations and predispositions as those though to conceale from men what their reason would teach them to lothe them for there constantly were used certain Ceremonies purgative as they supposed disposing to pretended purity as Poets have taught us And even in the Apothegmes of the Fathers in Olympius a devout Hermite we read of a certain Heathen Priest who entring into the Cell of a Christian Monk who lived in great austerity and Devotion demanded of him whether God did not in extraordinary manner reveal Mysteries to him who answered No. 'T is strange replyed he that so it should not be with you taking such pains whereas we seeking our God so finde answers and see mysteries therefore sure it must needs be said he that your hearts are not clean before him which the Christians wondering to hear from him confessed it to be so indeed But did that Heathen Priest perswade himselfe that their hearts were cleaner than the Christians It may be so but the truer reason was that their god so free of his Oracles and Revelations was not so clean himselfe as the Holy Spirit by whom Revelations are given unto men and therefore might be more forward to afford an impure heart his impure companie Their cleannesse consisted in carnall abstinences such as they write that great Magician Apollonius Tyaneus to have excelled in and to have had communication of Spirits But purity of minde and unroyled and undisturbed Passions are that wherein such Christian purity doth consist which disposeth to or at least goeth before Inspirations truly Divine and spirituall Illuminations 5. Another reason why evill Spirits are so officious to attend their Confederates and the Holy Spirit not so signally present with Holy Men may be the purity of intention required to the Spirit of God more than to deluding Spirits For no more or greater impediment needs there be to the entrance of the miraculous Spirit of God than a passionate thirst after Revelations and Visions which imply a mislead understanding not rightly judging wherein consists true Divinenesse but supposing that Gifts proceeding from unmortified curiositie and tending to vain glorie and elevation of a mans minde above others render a man spirituall which God who scattereth the proud in the imagination of his heart and exalteth them of low degree Luke 2. 51 52. most of all detesteth and will not be accessarie to but rather delivers him over to Spirits answerable to his appetite and humour which shall deceive and abuse him A famous instance whereof we have in this Nation in the last age of a man very Mathematically learned and not wanting in other Sciences very retired in his Life and exemplarie in his conversation with Devotion extraordinarie towards God but being ardently set on Revelations and seeking Oracles from Spirits obtained his end so far as to have Spectres presented to him through Glasses and certain answers humouring exactly his superstition and curiositie so that he could not consider that it is without precedent Divine and of God that female Spirits should appear as sent from him and that such theatricall gestures and speeches could not consist with the Majestie of God or the solemnitie of his Angells sent by him so that the large Volume of such like Impostures remain to this day as a monument of his infatuations and a Rock to such as shall sail by such Compasses It is above an hundred years since this Delusion disturbed England and other parts of Europe too especially Germanie But not many yeers are passed since a more prodigious one of this kinde was afforded us in Scotland by a phanaticall Major allmost Sainted by the vulgar Innovatours in Religion for his well-managed hypocrisie and stupendious gifts of Prayer extemporie so that no lesse than Simon Magus he of a long time had bewitched that unhappie people to an obduration in an inveterate Schisme and admiration of his Illuminations untill his iniquitie was found to be hatefull as it is Psalm 36. and such a discovery of his bestialities and damnable practices as are not to be uttered by chast mouths or heard by chast ears 6. These and such like specious pretences to spirituall Illuminations ending in such scandalous events have put wise and grave Heads upon the Doctrine of distinguishing of Spirits as they informe or possesse men having so just warrant as such sad experiments minister'd and the precept of Saint John 1 Epist 4. ver 1. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the spirits whether
Possessions And I can think little more reverently of the frequentation of Visions and Revelations celebrated in the Lives of those three famous Women published together viz. Hildegardis Elizabeth Micthildis which afford us such instances by bushells as it were I will not instance in Jacobus de Voragine his Golden Legend nor Caesarius Heiberstachius as I could to the great disadvantage of that Cause which was intended to be advanced thereby as such at which the modester and graver of the Roman Communion need not any other to put them upon blushing at they doe it of themselves But when I read in the Visions of Katharine of Sienna sainted a perpetuall storie of God himselfe appearing to her and preaching in person to her almost through the whole book though I like the Sermon very well and must needs acknowledge the Documents deliver'd to be many of them very Divine and usefull I cannot assent unto the Scene there given us If these Revelations as we say of Phanaticall and pretended Inspirations and gifts of Prayer in Publick were so Divine as reputed and affirmed why doe they not become Canonicall Why are they not equallized to the Holy Scriptures But things are not come to that height thankes be to God unlesse with them who glorying immodestly of a Light within them and the Word and Will and Wisdome of God given into them contemne the written Word themselves for this very reason becoming suspected convicted and detestable 10. But those Visions which are so practicall and grosse as that they end as in their consummation in the gratifying of our senses outward and them the grossest overthrow in my opinion the spiritualnesse and even the honesty of Revelations and notably shake the reputation of that Religion which countenances them If it were recorded only in an unapproved Author what I finde in the Sermon of an eminent Preacher Granatensis Vol. 5. pag. 387. concerning the same Katharine of Sienna Granatens Vol. 5. Conc. 3. in Cathar pag. 387. it might have been lesse scandalous to read of the great and frequent familiarity between Christ and her so that termes of wooing passed between them for a long time till at length she was sensibly espoused to him but what were the consequences of that Wedding I know not This to my apprehension is a true consequence of such Revelations that it must be the Devill rather than Christ that so appeared and led away a silly Woman laden with sinne in the midst of her profession of Sanctity or that these Talemongers have shamefully belied that reputed Saint And on the other side the like instances might be given of such who were so vehemently devoted to the Virgin Mary as to win her love so far as to condescend to suffer her breasts to be handled by her Saints A little more cleanly and credible is that story in the Remains of Gregorie Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neocaesarea of an Exposition of the Faith which he received from Saint John the Evangelist by the meanes of Mary the Mother of God. But the Romanists themselves are so modest we thank them as not to hold it to be the same we now have under that name And we are so bold to tell them that their Visions Miracles and Revelations so much sometimes with the ignorant sort boasted of have done them more discredit with the wiser than good or honour 11. And to these another note of true and false Illuminations and Alluminations which I may call all outward Discoveries made to the senses may be that made by the observation of the Masters of such Learning That in the true and near approach of God and his Holy Spirit to the sense outward or minde inward first great trouble surprisement consternation and deep humiliation are wrought upon the spirit of him the Lord vouchsafes so to honour with his presence as it appears by Ezechiell the Prophet Daniell and before them by Manoah who were struck with dread and confusion at the Revelations made unto them as likewise was the Blessed Virgin at the aspect and Annunciation of the Angell Gabriell but in the winding up and conclusion they were all refreshed and comforted aboundantly On the contrary the specious Pageantry and Insinuations of Evill Angells are begun with great delight of the deluded minde and in the conclusion bring shame sorrow and confusion answerable indeed to the method of the tempter in all other Cases in which the good Wine is brought forth first of which when men have well drunk followes the bad but Christ first sets before his faithfull servants the bad and keepeth the best to the last of all that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to doe thee Good at the latter end as it is said Deuteron 8. ver 16. Brisk Pert and vaunting are the gifted by Evill Spirits reflecting upon such their perfections above others but modest humble and grave are they who are indeed taught of God. 12. And thus having briefly prepared the true Christian with a prospect given him of the nature use and necessitie of true Spirituall Illuminations translating him out of the Kingdome of darknesse into the marvellous light of saving Knowledge and Faith before due progresse can be made to the life and power of Faith in holy Conversation and likewise shewed the hazards of miscarrying through mistaken Light I proceed to the Second Part of Christian walking with God by walking according to that Light consisting principally in Spirituall Purgation or Sanctification A Prayer for Spirituall Illumination O Allmighty God and Heavenly Father the Light and life of the world lying in darknesse Who by thy Son Jesus Christ coming into the world enlightenest every one that cometh into the world and whome to know is eternall Life But who can know thee the Father but the Son and he to whome he shall reveale him and yet none can come unto the Son unlesse the Father draw him and none doth the Father draw unto him but by his holy Spirit teaching all things Send down I beseech thee that Spirit of light life and truth into my minde and heart that they may preserve me prevent and informe me and rule me that by that key of knowledge the door of my heart may be opened and the eyes of my understanding to perceive the things of God which are only spiritually discerned and that I may not love darknesse rather than light because my deeds are evill But grant that in thy light I may see Light and know how to choose the good and refuse the Evill not calling darknesse light nor light darknesse nor bitter sweet nor sweet bitter nor good evill nor evill good Various are the Mazes and Labyrinths of this World and many are lost in them Difficult is the road and strait is the way that leadeth unto trueth and life and few there be that find them Dangerous it is to lean to mine own understanding or wisdome who am but of yesterday and know nothing as I ought
without true wisdome the Apostle St. Paul so flattly contradicting and confuting mens opinion vainly conceived of themselves thus writing 1 Corin 8. 2. If any man thinke that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know Which is most true when he would needs know as Adam and Eve did without God or what God would have hidden and concealed from him And when a man would needs know all things but can be content not to know himselfe For as Charity of which the Apostle there allso speakes according to the common and generally true saying begins at home so doth or ought to doe knowledge For the Alpha of true knowledge and the Omega too is to know God but a man cannot know God as becometh him when he stands in his own light And in his own light may he be said to stand when he understands not himselfe his measures his capacitie and meanes to true knowledge He that layeth hold of more than he can well span or embraceth more than his Armes can contain commonly letteth all goe and loseth it And so it is in curiosity of knowledge he knoweth nothing that would pretend to all things Like to the Church of Laodicea Revel 3. 17. which because she gloried in her riches was poor and wretched and blinde and naked and knew it not What blindenesse what ignorance so grosse lamentable and dangerous as this And yet loth are men to have their eyes opened to perceive it as if in the mist of their minde they discerned and feared that which he who was cured of a phrenzie bewailed in himselfe that in his distemper he was much more happie than in his cure For in that he imagined and pleased himselfe with nothing lesse than a fair Principalitye under him subjects obsequious Pallaces stately with Crown and Scepter but reduced to his true reason found the contrary to all these to his great losse and trouble And to such excesses doth our presumptuous knowledge betray us For as St. Paul before saith Knowledge puffeth up swells and apostemateth the Soule with corruption which often breakes out into rottennesse scandalous Hence it is that if a man erres wilfully and notoriously to all he is not ashamed as Seneca observeth as when in Grammar he speakes false Latine or English or gives a false pronunciation to a word but if he doth it ignorantly and be told of it then he either blushes or boldly defends his errour against his own tacit perswasion least he should seem not to have known as much as another And Cardane himselfe a Physican tells us he knew one of the same facultie who having through ignorance destroyed his Patient rather than he would be thought ignorant professed he killed him on purpose though there was no such matter to such a monstrousnesse of absurdities and iniquitie doth this unbridled and untamed humour of seeming wise and appearing so transport a man. 2. This evill Appetite wars against nothing so much as Religion and is inconsistent with nothing more and therefore should Religion war against that turning the forces of the Spirit against this Tower of the Flesh built up to this dangerous height by the evill spirit of Pride and affectation of vain-glorie And this I look on as a prime and materiall part of our selfe-deniall when we shall be able and willing to submitte our private busie and clambering Reason to the simplicitie of the Faith and know our infirmities and failings as well as we know others yea and better too having attained to that perfection which the wise Man only owned in himselfe Prov. 30. 2. Surely I am more brutish than any man I have not the understanding of a man with this limitation notwithstanding that if God or good Autoritie under him shall have chosen any such humble Person to preside teach and lead others no modestie nor humility in him ought to with-hold him from discharging his office No more than any knowing himselfe more wise or learned out of his abundance is to withdraw himselfe from the guidance of such an one as he excells under suspicion of calling Gods Providence and Right in question to rule and teach by whome he pleases and especially the difficult lesson of humility and selfe deniall Don't I know Can you teach me is the language of a proud Spirit very often and of one who wilfully how ignorantly soever must and will have his saying A man out of common charitie might blush for such as doe not blush to hear them oftentimes indeed wise and more than vulgarly knowing when they fall into Paradoxes when they stumble in plain ground when their mistake happens by surprise or other incogitancie how loth are they to be taken in the snares of truth it selfe how they by all tricks pretences fetches and innumerable devices and defenses would justifie what once they happen to say though conscious to themselves of errour they would not have said or done such things yet they once passing from them they will maintain them to the last though the more they struggle the more they are ensnared and fall into a far worse absurdity in defending than committing an errour And all this that they might not suffer in their beloved and selfe-admired witt And because they cannot denie them neither for Gods sake nor for trueths sake but hold it the most honourable course to themselves to bend both to their saying than to yield to be measured by such Rules And if their wits fail them in framing evasions and shuffles which may justifie in some degree their slips Passion and loud clamour shall support their cause and drown the noise of weake trueth as the Idolatrous Jewes were wont in sacrificing their Children to Molech in the Valley of Hinnon to use Fife Trumpet and Drum that the voice of the massacred might not be heard or pittie shewn to them nor justice O foolish Galatians saith St. Paul in another case Galat. 3. Who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the trueth Answer may be made selfe love selfe-preservation which are such that a man can better endure a blow on the Pate than on his Opinion But St. James saith Chap. 3. 14. My brethren Lye not against the trueth a reason whereof may be because he that opposes an acknowledged trueth though not very important sinneth in some degree against the Holy Ghost the Spirit of trueth and the testimonie of his own Conscience and to have his will in arguing or doing grieveth the Spirit of trueth trueth in all things being Sacred and Divine which when it possesseth the minde of a man seasonable and true is that advice of the Prophet Habakkuk Chap. 2. 29. The Lord is in his holy Temple let all the earth keep keep silence before him 3. And this Advice reacheth unto the other Branch of a Christians Selfe-deniall which consists principally and more immediately in the subjecting the will of man to the Will of God as that did in the subjection of the
Christ hath set us 6. Secondly The speciall care that God taketh of him who careth least for his own will but committeth the management of it into the hands of his most Wise and Gracious Father 'T is true To have ones own will and to doe as we are impelled by it is the preciousest Pearle in the world to the naturall man nothing so deare to him as that and that when it is really evill in it selfe and hurtfull though pleasing to himselfe But man having so little skill how to use such a dangerous instrument were it not much better to resigne it into the hands of him that careth for us more than we doe for our selves and is wiser for us than we for our selves As we see it in Children When a thing of great value is bestowed upon them by some Friend the Parents have the keeping of it least it should be lost spoiled imbezel'd or hurt the young owner till he comes to yeers of discretion So our Godfather properly so called God himselfe bestoweth upon us that great Jewell of Freewill and Choice which he denies to inferiour Creatures but with this tacit condition that we should committe it to his custodie and by his wisdome and direction only use and exercise the same till we come to yeers of true discretion which is only in Heaven and not in this life Then shall we have the full and absolute use of it because then there is no feare that we should use it amisse as here we doe And this is that which holy David adviseth Psalm 55. 22. saying Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved This is it which St. Peter allso exhorteth unto 1 Ep. 5. 6 7. Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you And more expressely and particularly Christ himselfe counselleth thus his Disciples Matth. 6. Take no thought for your life c. For Which of you by taking care can adde on cubit to his stature The trueth is no man exalts himselfe so highly as he who secluding or not considering God followes the will of himselfe and the greatest of all humiliation is by the subjecting of our wills to Gods and the next and readiest way to true preferrement or exaltation And take no thought saith Christ not commending supinenesse sloth or lazinesse in any but none without God none not directed and regulated by his Will and Prescripts none without consulting him and submitting the event with all confidence aed calmenesse to his all-disposing most wise most just most gracious Providence and in suffering as well as doing his Will For it is a Maxime or Rule berter becoming a Heathens mouth than a Christians Every man is master or maker of his own fortune not but that every man hath a hand in and contributes towards Good or evill events befalling him but that the Architectonicall or Over-ruling Power of all is in God whoe doth not allwayes give the Battle to the strong nor the Race to the swist nor bread to the wise to teach us that he is Lord paramount of all according to the Divine acknowledgement of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 26. 12. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou allso hast wrought all our works in us And therefore it seems to me a thing as very memorable so more worthy the mouth and practice of a Christian what is written of Muhamed Olbarsalanus the Great Prince of Bagdet or Babylon a Saracen who being wounded to death in a Battle which he fought as he died said I never before this once fought but first I desired Gods blessing I would all Christians would doe so and have so much confidence in God in all matters especially of importance that they would first implore Gods aid and then depend on him for the successe which if it be favourable he must be humbly thankfull if improsperous in like manner patient as the effect of Gods Divine and wise Providence requires 7. Thirdly The Scripture both by Example and Precepts directs us to this reasonable as well as religious resignation of our wills unto Gods Will when it sets before our eyes the practice of earthly Parents and Children as Hebr. 12. 9. We have had Fathers of our Flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live For they verily for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be patakers of his holinesse Fathers of our flesh may take a cruell pleasure rather than intend any reall profit or benefit unto Children in chastising them but 't is not to be imagined that God can transgresse the mean or erre in the end of any Dispensation severe or unpleasant to us therefore much rather should we be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live a more easie safe and comfortable life here than otherwise can be expected and a most happie life hereafter where all things be perfectly subject to the Father as Saint Paul speaks 1 Corinth 15. that he may be here allso as well as hereafter All in All. 6. Fourthly This Selfe-deniall is the true Holocaust or absolute Sacrifice we can give to God and most acceptable imposed upon us as true Believers according to Saint Paul Rom. 12. 1. saying I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of the spirit of your minde that ye may prove what is that good and perfect Will of God. Sacrifices came alive to Gods House and Altar but were not accepted till they were slain so it is with the spirituall or reasonable Sacrifice of our selves especially our naturall wills so long as they live cannot please God but they must be crucified as Christ was crucified for us And as the same Apostle advises Rom. 6. we must reckon our selves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. He that is dead ceaseth from willing and so from sinning He that denieth himselfe and his will is dead indeed unto sin and liveth by the life of the Son of Man and is acted by the Will of God. And surely if it be our Dutie our Wisdome our Righteousnesse to committ our very Soules and life into Gods hands and disposall shall we stick to render that one faculty of our Soule our Wills into his hands That doth Saint Peter exhort us unto 1 Epist 4. 19. Wherefore let them who suffer according to the will of God committ the keeping of their soules to him in well doing as unto a faithfull Creatour Let God then have the keeping of our Wills as he hath of our Lives as he had of Christs
that as Pride is the beginning of all sins and wickednesse the contrary Vertue Humilitie is the mother of all Christian Vertues This foundation then must be laid here allso otherwise all repairs of the ruinous Soule will be frustrated For where Humility is wanting a thousand false phansies of our perfections and merits will swell the minde above its proper height and largenesse so that every little thing will stand in its way and offend it For men suspecting themselves undervalued by others as they doe and needs must who overvalue themselves presently the vindicative Spirit falls to work by word and deed to satiate it selfe upon detractours as it accounts them mistakenly childishly and madly at the same time 9. Where therefore true Humility is found Meeknesse will not be far distant nor long absent And where Meeknesse dwells Madnesse and Choler will have but cold entertainment And to the Spirit of Meeknesse doe much conduce a Discipline and cohibition imposed on the outward man. It is often alledged by the riotous minde I cannot bear that abuse or this affront or such contempt or disobedience or neglect I cannot be so advised as I should be But no man can say that professes manlinesse and humanity but he can move or hold his hand and can speak or keep silence or compose the outward parts of his body or suffer them to break out into disorders which Regiment when he hath obtained over himselfe outwardly and for a time practised he shall finde a considerable change in his inward man in due time and the heat allayed and a wonderfull calme and tranquillitie with admiration that he should heretofore be hurried away in a storme frivolously occasioned And as it is observed that too hot mettall'd Horses which are apt to run away with their Riders are no wayes better tamed and taken off their courage than by accustoming them to walk a foot-pace so modest and moderate actions outwardly will in time qualifie the impetuousnesse of the minde It were therefore well worth a mans labour attendance and time to bend his minde resolutely for tryall of his strength and what Mastery he hath of himselfe to act though an unwilling part of patience and to prove how impregnable he is against wonted provocations and having some few times hardened himselfe against such provokings it will become easie to doe and suffer the same in earnest even when the like caution and attendance are not used 10. But because there are certain junctures and causes which doe allmost naturally dispose to anger such as are Sicknesse and Pampering the Bodie making it thereby more than one way resty immoderate Cups and even Fastings rarely used and such as the Bodie is not accustomed to and some other which justle as it were nature out of its Rode and so offends it Great circumspection is in such cases to be used And in trueth such excesses are wholly and absolutely to be avoided as they which blinde the eyes of Reason inslame the Blood precipitate the Spirits to act violently And Abstinences or Fastings themselves stand in need of watchings over a mans disposition For as all things are molested inwardly by denyall of wonted food and naturally complain so the Body of man being disappointed of its ordinarie supply and refreshment is apt to be murmuring discontented and querulous untill it be better acquainted with such changes and fretting and pinchings within will goe nere to vent themselves outwardly upon such as shall stand in their way and converse with them Care therefore is to be taken not as some may inferre to shun fasting but to bridle at such times especially the sharp humour which may stir up strife or discontent lest the good be evill spoken of or a scandall brought upon a Christian Dutie by some misbehaviour consequent thereunto 11. And to the better preventing of such ebullitions of the Spirit it is requisite a man should carefully avoid such Passion when it seems to carrie much innocencie and veniallnesse with it For it seems to divers no offence allmost to be angrie as Balaam was with his Beast to be in Choler against Dogs that will not hunt and Hawks that will not flie against Horses that will not goe according to our mindes and some think themselves excusable when their Choler is high only against their Servants but all with a dangerous errour For as much as libertie being allowed to a mans selfe in such cases Flesh and Blood will not long contain themselves in those bounds but being accustomed to such heats and perturbations will transgresse where perhaps they never intended For by such usances tolerated men become easily inflameable and their blood afore they are aware is as it were sowr'd and disposing to other excesses and that upon occasions lesse warrantable 12. And upon the same reason circumspection is to be had how a man is offended and angrie with himselfe for some men have held it verie laudable so to be and some have been religiously vindicative upon themseves by severe Penances for their follies and offences against God and others which must not be disallowed when governed by Christian prudence which many times being wanting a man punishes one sin by another and offers unnaturall violence to himselfe which is worse than to doe the same to another So that herein is requisite the Counsell and conduct of others no lesse than in Controversies of trespasses against a mans Neighbour to whome he would seldome doe justice if he were Accuser Judge and Executioner too And so not rarely men transported with a religious Passion against themselves as it may seem offend in punishing offences And this is seen in cases extra-religious men fretting and storming and raging that matters under their hands succeed not according to their mindes and merits They will miscall themselves complain of themselves and be enraged as if no man had so ill luck as they or did so ill as they and this doing hold themselves very excusable because none but themselves suffer hereby But there is herein commonly a double errour For first they who give way to any exorbitances against themselves prepare a way to be injurious and furious against others much more and that upon the reason here given But secondly what seemeth to be seldome is really so And men fretting and in a tosse against themselves to outward appearance are in trueth incensed against Gods Providence or perhaps their tutelarie Angells not doing their parts toward them in giving better events to their good actions For no man as Saint Paul saith ever hated his own flesh or himselfe naturally and no man that is supernaturally or by Grace vindicative upon himselfe can lightly fall into such passions and therefore inconsiderately accuses others of his mistakes and miscarriages who can be no other than the mentioned whether he intends so much or not Some instances may make this more probable as When he misses a thing he had in his hand a little before and cannot suddenly finde it for
suffereth long and is kinde Charitie envieth not Chartie vaunteth not it selfe is not puffed up Doth not behave it selfe unseemly Rejoyceth not in iniquitie but rejoyceth in the trueth Beareth all things endureth all things Which whosoever so doeth cannot envie nor seek nor desire the evill of another nor rejoice at any evill befalling any other as if thereby some good had befallen him which is the guise of Envie Wherefore O Lord who knowest that all our doings without Charitie are nothing worth pour into my heart that most excellent gift of Charitie the proper Antidote against this Poison of Envie hatred and malice and the very soule of all Christian Graces and the Earnest of and key to Glorie and that fire of unquenchable blessednesse contrarie to that unquenchable fire of Hell where the Devill and his Angells are tormented that fo for his fake and through his Spirit who loved us and gave himselfe for us I may with faithfull servent and never failing Charitie love thee who hast first loved me and in thee and for thee all as they belong to Thee through Jesus Christ Amen SECT XIV Of the Capitall Sin Covetousnesse 1. I Have sometimes doubted and wondered how the excessive Declamations found in humane Authours and the sharpest Censures found in Holy Writ can be true of severall Vices as if more than one were worst of all For sometimes Pride is the originall of all Evill and sometimes Covetousnesse is said to be the Root of all Evill as 1 Tim. 6. 10. And than which nothing can be said more severely against any Sin the Apostle adviseth concerning Covetousnesse Ephes 5. 3. Let it not be once named amongst you as becometh Saints For what indeed can worse become Saints whose conversation is in Heaven than to fall flat upon the earth and like Moles to work in it And There is not a more wicked thing than a covetous man saith Ecclesiasticus 10. 2. But comparing the Diseases of the Soule with the distempers of the Body some satisfaction may be given of such exaggerating formes of Speech For as the Maladies of naturall Bodies cannot so well be estimated from their kindes as from the degree of affecting and the danger from the part so affected so is it with the evills of the Soule For a Pin thrust into one part may be more mortall than a Sword run through another And oft-times the pain of the Tooth is lesse tolerable than the Gout in Feet or Joints and a lighter distemper at the Heart more dangerous than a Cancer in the outward parts And thus may Pride be the chief and worst of sinnes of a spirituall nature and Covetousnesse may be the root of all Evill tending to bodily and brutish pleasure though it taketh the least sensible pleasure of any but only treasures up materialls for all other Vices and impells to monstrous desires and actions For gaping and hungry as the unsatiable Grave and dilating its stomach as Hell it fetches from thence allso hellish appetites contriveth plotts to catch its unjust prey or most unjustly hoardeth up and detaineth what perhaps not unjustly was acquired Or if at any time it letteth goe abroad part of its Magazine it is as Garrisons send out Parties to bring in more spoil by pilling and robbing the Country that is by Usurie and extortion or Money lent most disadvantageously to the borrower 3. Certain old Stories doe commonly passe of some Caves Hills or holes of the Earth wherein are great Treasures of Gold and Silver and precious Stones but so that they are kept by Dragons or evill Spirits from being carried out and become usefull to men Very true is this of Wealth in the possession of Covetous Persons There it is to be found but thence it may not be taken by any meanes For 't is kept by Evill Spirits so close that the pretended owner himselfe scarce durst touch it For as Solomon saith What good is there to the owner of them saving the beholding of them with the eyes Ecclesiast 5. v. 11. And yet this is not all but ver 13. There is a sore evill which I have seen under the Sun Riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt A double damage generally happening to the Amassers of Wealth One to the wicked treasurer of it while the more he hath the more he wants and the more he possesseth the lesse he enjoyeth And therefore very aptly in our English Tongue we call a Covetous Person a Miserable Person as most unhappie of all men And it proveth a sore evill to him for whome it is so gathered the Posterity of the Covetous Person scattering with like though contrary pleasure as the Father gathered and by prodigious Prodigality hasting to the Grave and so to Hell for spending as his Predecessour for sparing And the Evill Spirit that stopt the course of due spending now on a suddain drawes up the Sluce and drowns the Country with Vice and Vanity managed for a short season by Money But to begin the torment of the Covetous in this life he is told by trueth it selfe Prov. 28. 8. He that by Vsury and unjust gain encreaseth his substance he shall gather for him that will pitty the poor a thing which he dreadeth most of all who so hoardeth 4. But another Reason may be given why St. Paul calleth Covetousnesse the root of all Evill taking here Evill for Punishment and future Torments For I am of opinion that Covetousnesse sends more grist to the Devills Mill and finds more Fewell for to maintain Hell-fire than any other Sin infidelity perhaps excepted For very many great Sinners in the dayes of their youth and Vanity drawing towards the end of their lives have seriously and savingly repented changed their mindes and manners finding thereupon the effect of Gods bountifull Promises and Goodnesse But Covetousnesse like an inveterate Cancer in the Flesh the older it is the more it proceeds and consumes the Bodie and Soule Seldome doe men repent of their parsimonie and basenesse in their youth but often of their profusenesse and licentiousnesse And not so seldome as it were to be wished so rashly retreat from their former Errours that they run into the contrary Vice of Covetousnesse from which very few returne But the old Sinner thinks he makes God some recompence for his former Vices and doubts not but he repents notably if he declaims against young mens and his own expences in foolish Fashions in riotous Companie in costly Dames of the worst rank and such like miscarriages of youth and sees not that another Sin is to be repented of and his base sparing shall but adde to his punishment for base spending Here comes in a Mock-gravity Sobrietie Temperance Continence zeal against all sins but that he is lately wedded to and embraces as fondly as any he did formerly to the apparent hazard of his Soule mistaking change of sins for Repentance and Reformation of Life Whereas the Rule and Power of true Repentance for
minde and greedinesse we devour rather than take our ordinary Meals And lastly when we eat unseasonably against due rule and order and Christian prescriptions 7. For the Quantity no set Rule can be given but every man is to be a Law unto himselfe as the Apostle speakes of the Righteous Man For Gods Word so frequently enjoyning Temperance doth committ the interpretation and application of that Law unto himselfe as best able to judge unlesse corrupted by his Palate his own capacitie and the exigencie of his nature Sexes Ages strength and weaknesse of nature of divers persons and employments laborious and hard or light and sedentarie make great variety in the stomachs and appetites of men So that in eating one must not rashly condemne another because he takes a greater portion than himselfe neither must he excuse himselfe from Gluttonie who eats no more than another the cause making the equality Arithmeticall unreasonable Allwaies provided and observed that in eating and drinking a man hath not by unnaturall usances brought upon himselfe an unnaturall necessity of taking more than his proportion For in such cases he is a glutton by vertue of his first errour necessitating the following and reformation if not suddenly yet gradually must be made by a true Christian according to the auncienter and commoner Rule of using Gods creatures to Gods glory and Natures benefit 8. And for the Qualitie the simpler and more naturall the better it must needs be the great naturall ends of sustenance and healthfulnesse and usefulnesse to bodye and minde which moderately considered are strong lustie expedite and active but tainted with the inventions of Kitchin Philosophers are enfeebled and confounded And the importunity of the delicious Palate becomes so restlesse and unsatisfied that the greatest wits in that Trade can scarce finde out Novelties fast enough to still them No though there be such encouragements to advance Learning in that greasie black Art that some great Persons have doubled the Salarie of their Cooks to that of their Chaplains So base an Object was a Cook aunciently amongst the Romans as Livie tells us Lib. 39. that none was his equall in vilenesse untill true Masculinesse decayed in Rome and the Asiatique Armie having subdued those Countries brought home the infection of deliciousnesse in Diet which made Cookery a noble Science at length which before was a drudgerie few would be hired to But how much more shamefull and lamentable is it that the Gentrie and Nobilitie too some of them should look upon it as a piece of forrein breeding to understand how to make palatable Sauces and in person to practise such ignoble and degenerous acts whereas if their Tutours the French had taught them to mend their old Clothes and Shoes they had brought back a more usefull and no lesse commendable Art though they were as learned in that Art of Cookery as was Suitrigall Duke of Lithuania who as Aeneas Silvius tells us wrote an accurate book of Cookerie which wherever he travailed he would be sure to give strict charge to his Steward to remember to bring along with him What is this but to fall justly under Saint Pauls Censure Philip. 3. 9. Whose end is destruction whose God is their bellie who minde earthly things For as St. Paul saith Rom. 16. They that are such serve not the Lord Jesus but their own bellies Both which i. e. Idoll and Idolater God shall destroy nay themselves hasten to destruction by such indulgence and voluptuousnesse And the reason holds against drinking and eating with affectation and pleasure more than naturall For both make up Gluttonie and sometimes one 9. A third kinde is the inordinate manner of eating when men with too much greedinesse and hast devour rather than eat their Meat and so become rude and scandalous and injurious to Nature it selfe not able to dispatch so suddainly what is stuffed in so hudlingly to the prejudice of the body And which is a great disappointment the Appetite is oppressed rather than satisfied But it is far from my purpose to insinuate any thing here which may instruct men to eat or drink to the best advantage And therefore 10. Lastly The offence in unseasonnable eating and drinking were here to be explained had I not in the directions above given for the custodie of the outward man treated of Fasting and the obligation Christians have not allwayes to measure their libertie herein by the generall natures of Meats and Drinkes nor by their appetites disposing them so to doe against lawfull restraint and order For such must either be rebellious in their mindes against Lawfull Autority or gluttonous in their lustfull part who contemne all regulations not of their own devising in this case Whereas the Apostle plainly tells us Rom. 14. 20. All things are indeed pure but it is evill with that man who eateth with offence Offence then especially by the contumacious despising of Autority undoubted converteth clean Meats into unclean and stands in need of this Purgative Doctrine as much as immoderate Gormandizing 11. The meanes of curing this Distemper have been some of them touched before and therefore now this Summary may suffice First Gluttonie comprehending eating and drinking both is a wasting the Spirits or oppressing of the minde the fountain of true ingeniousnesse and Reason 2. It weakens the bodie allso as well as the minde and that Politick as well as Personall men thereby being effeminated unhardy dull and timorous but when the phrenzie of excesse heats their brain when they should be soberest and wisest they become brutish 3. Mispending of precious hours to trample upon which they choose such diversions more truely called subversions of themselves and 4. Of the good creatures which God having ordained to be received with thanksgiving and blessing him are turned to his dishonour by riotousnesse cursing and swearing and blaspheming and contentions and mutuall violences and assassinations 5. Hereby Men and Women too of this order are put upon unlawfull lusts of the flesh and what not but Modestie Humility Chastitie Mercifullnesse to the poor and divine Contemplations which will not down with the Gluttonous nor rise high with the Drunkard And above all to avoid this Rock steer we our course by the due Compasses of Gods holy Word which Rom. 13. 13. adviseth Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkennesse not in chambering and wantonnesse not in strife and envie But put on the Lord Jesus and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof And Ephes 5. 18. Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excesse but be filled with the Spirit And let that premonition sink into our hearts given by Christ Luke 21. 34. Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkennesse and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares For as our Saviour saith allso Luke 12. If that servant say in his heart My Lord deferreth his coming and
is requisite that we should not rest in the opinion we have of our selves which is commonly biassed by selfe-conceit selfe-love selfe-interest all quite contrary to that great Dutie of Selfe-deniall but that we should be so true and just to our own Soules as like righteous Judges to keep one Ear for what others judge of us and impartially to give a sentence upon our selves accordingly and not slie to that base and bold subterfuge of nonplus'd and shamelesse persons I care not I care not For though Malice and ill-will may instigate some one or two and upon speciall occasion to false accusations and slanders yet if the opinion be of more and those not so prejudiced and constant and lasting in vain doe men proclaim their integrity and innocencie for such judgement of others is much more to be trusted than our own 7. Sixthly Appearance of Evill and Hypocrisie reverst as I may so speak when men seem by outward carriage to be worse than in trueth they are is allso carefully to be avoided not onely because of the sin of scandalizing our Brethren and causing an erroneous judgement and uncharitable to be entertained but because it very often happens that men fall really into that sin which they at first onely seemed to committ Therefore it is St. Pauls Rule Philip. 2. 4. Look not every man on his own things but every man allso on the things of others not by curiositie and censoriousnesse but Charitie and conscienti ous walking without offence to others and if possible to prevent sin in others as well as our selves 8. Lastly Every man should have Charitie towards his Brother but no man is to demean himselfe so as to stand in need of the charitable judgement of others For he that doth so is certainly uncharitable in the first place and being really guiltie within himselfe is most wickedly unjust in demanding that another should be so charitable as not to think so of him though there be use of Charitie even where Crimes are past defence or excuses but for men to live conscious to themselves of unrighteousness towards God and justice towards men and then because there may want notorious convictions to demand of Censurers to judge charitably is in effect to require that others should be religious and they may be wicked under the protection of others Pietie and Charitie A Prayer for Puritie of Spirit O Lord God who is like unto thee amongst the Gods Who is like unto thee glorious in holinesse fearfull in praises doing wonders And what greater wonder is there than of sons of Men we should be called the Sons of God and of Children of wrath heirs of the Kingdome of God of lost sheep be brought back to the great Shepheard of our Soules of prodigall and fugitive Sons be brought home and embraced by thee our heavenly Father making us as well as requiring us to be holy as thou art holy raising us from the death of sin to the life of Righteousnesse given us by the Spirit of Grace which worketh in us by the meanes of Grace ordained by thee to that great end Let that Spirit be never wanting in me let that Grace never be received by me in vain whereby I may be sensible of my unworthinesse and insufficiencie to any thing that is good and at least to have an hunger and thirst after righteousnesse that I may in thy due time be satisfied and in the mean time grow and increase in this desire and this desire proceed to action and this action to such perfection as to overcome and mortifie all worldly lusts and Carnall affections purifying my selfe as he is pure and taking greater content and pleasure in casting off than ever I did in taking on me the burden of sin and in purging away all my old sin than ever I did in contracting those spots and blemishes which have too much and too long defiled that pure Spirit thou once gavest me and defaced that beautifull Image thou once stampedst on me And let the pleasure of Repenting be greater to me than that of offending ever was to me though alas it was too great Lord nothing is impossible to thee who canst bring light out of darknesse and strength out of weaknesse and out of stones raise up Children unto Abraham and to thy selfe and out of the ruines of Religion in me raise up a Temple fit for thy holy Spirit to dwell in Descend into possesse and dwell in my heart by faith and love of thee which may purge out the old leaven and make me a new lump and quench all fleshly Concupiscences which have or may raign over me or rage in me For this corruptible bodie presseth down my minde musing on high and heavenly things and the weight of sin so easily besetteth me that I cannot run the Race which is set before me and the stain of sin pollutes my best actions Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this bodie of death from this bondage of corruption Thy grace I know O Lord is sufficient for me and thy Son mighty to save and that his Office is to save his people from their sins from their sins I say as well as from the punishment of sin Let that Day-star at length arise in my heart and enlighten and warm my minde with love of thee and let that breath of new life be inspired into me enliven my dead bodie and re unite and animate my drie bones and excite me with new vigour to the perfourming thy holy will that so the life I now live may be by the faith of the Son of God and being poor in spirit as he was I may be pure in spirit as he allso was for theirs is the Kingdome of God even the Kingdome of Grace here and the Kingdome of Glory hereafter whither O mercifull God and Father in thy due time bring me for thy blessed Sons sake Jesus Christ my Saviour Amen The Third Part. Treating of the UNITIVE WAY OF THE Devout Soule with God. SECT I. Of the Nature of true Vnion with God and Mysticall Theologie and of the Abuses and due Vse thereof 1. SUCH due preparation being made towards Spirituall Life in laying aside every sin so easily besetting us the remainder of our Christian Race towards God and our Union with him are more easily attained which Union is by Saint John called our fellowship with the Father and the Son 1 John 1. 3. And this is it which vulgarly is called allso Perfection Perfection being here used for Justification by faith in Christ and Christ dwelling in us and such a measure of assurance of Gods grace and favour which are competible to our Militant state in this life and incline God to the acceptation of us to a future inheritance of Immortalitie and Glorie And to this it is not absolutely necessarie that no blemish imperfection or infirmity should be incident but that none such should be found which either of it selfe should tend to corruption
or deserve amputation from the Body of Christ of which such perfection and conjunction make us members 2. Thus far onely if the phanaticall strains found in Mysticall Theologie of contrarie Extremes had proceeded not onely innocencie but honour allso had been due unto it But we finde the Moderne advancers of it to have scandalously corrupted it by affectation of excesses in Stile and big Language and facts agreeable to them whereas Bonaventure writing on that Subject thus simply describes it in his Prologue to it It is the extension of love towards God by the desire of love And a little after he saith It is such whereby the religious Soule leaving humane Wisdome the curiousnesse of unprofitable knowledge and the sophistry of argumentations and Opinions by the Ascent of love rises up to the Fountain of all by desiring in which onely she finds trueth insomuch that the simple Laick being in the School of God may receive this wisdome from God himselfe immediately by the affection of love which no naturall Philosopher nor secular Master nor humane Intelligence can attain to Neither is the description of this Unitive Way given by Gerson in his Mysticall Theologie to be rejected where more soberly than divers of late dayes affect to speak He saith Mysticall Divinitie is an experimentall Knowledge had of God by the conjunction with God by spirituall affection But we cannot allow of such great swelling words and ecstaticall practices answerable thereunto wrapping mens Soules in a Cloud of reall Ignorance in the midst of their pursuit of supreame Knowledge and suffering them to fall into direct profanenesse of words and deeds while they have a strong and vain emulation and affectation of sublimest Devotion and Pietie which to passe over the many exorbitancies in this kinde found amongst such as are known by the name of Phanatiques a great pretender to Devotion Horstius in a Latine Book which he calls The Paradise of the Soule hath fallen into there speaking in this manner pag. 59. Trulie Lord if what is not possible I were owner of any thing which thou wantedst I would willingly yield all to thee and give it thee Yea if I could be God I would not for this onely that thou mightest be God and have no Peer Which with us is no better than a piece of fond Devotion and implicite Blasphemie proceeding from an illimited affectation of strange and monstrous expressions familiar with such like Mysticall Divines carefully to be avoided and shunned as the bane of true and favourie Religion towards God whereby the Devill sets Christians as once he did Christ on the Pinacle as it were of the Temple that he may the more easily cast them down headlong But the heart of a true Believer being well-grounded in Faith and setled in love to God is capable of some singular and extraordinarie sense of Gods goodnesse and the wisdome which cometh from above with a true spirituall ardour towards God and desire of Union with him which may be said to consist in these three things First A Cleerenesse then Soundnesse lastly Acquiescence in the Will and Wayes of God. Whereby the Soule having in some competent manner escaped the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2. cleaveth so stedfastly to the Lord or is joyned to him as it is 1 Corin 6. 17. that it becomes one Spirit not by transmutation of nature or substance but by assimilation in Holinesse and plenarie subjection of the will of Man to the Will of God that so God may be all in all Which is more corporally expressed by Saint Paul Ephes 5. where he saith of true Believers We are members of his Bodie of his Flesh and of his Bones Not by transubstantiation of Natures but transformation and renewing of the minde as is said Rom. 12. 2. So that as Saint Paul speaks Galat. 2. 20. The life which a Christian so transformed out of himselfe and conformed unto Christ liveth he liveth not but Christ liveth in him by the faith and love of Christ a state of Grace bordering nere upon Glory it selfe In which Mysticall Language great care is to be used least a Believer be so far drawn away from the solid foundation and edifying knowledge that his Religion should end in aery speculations and notions and these in bold denominations given himselfe And lastly Spirituall life or walking with God as did Enoch untill a translation be made from hence nerer to the presence and fruition of God. 3. Therefore to prevent Delusions incident to high flyers in Divinitie in this kinde Our speculations must be measured by our love to God reciprocated upon the sense of Gods love wherewith he first loved us And lest even this love should prove a fondnesse the sincerity of it is to be proved by the practice of a mans life answering in Puritie and degree the fervour pretended of love Not denying that where such intimate conjunction there is between God and the Soule certain tacite and inward signatures thereof are made to it invisible to the world and sensible only to its selfe but not so as therein to acquiesce without all sollicitude as if such were allreadie in Heaven but with constant contentions about these two principall Points 4. First How they should continue in that good state to which they have allreadie attained which is no otherwise brought to passe than by the meanes whereby it was attained as naturall Bodies subsist by the same Elements of which they doe consist And secondly because to rest satisfied with what a man hath without designe held up of proceeding is the next way to lose what he hath and to fall backward and to decay It is necessary ever to be pressing forward that the Tide may allwayes be rising in grace least upon willfull remission and slacknesse the Soule be by degrees left emptie and dry For it is the Character of Heaven given by Saint John Revelat. 14. That they rest from their labours which belongs not to any not the highest in this life that they should cease to doe good untill that Sabbath above shall be enter'd into and celebrated And yet even of the blessed there we read Revelat. 4. 8. That they rest not day and night to act according to that state where there is Union with God indissoluble and Communion to satiety without surfeit on one hand or wearinesse on the other A resemblance whereof is to be obtained even in this life by those who by diligent attendance on spirituall Duties here and denying the world doe as Gregory saith Hom. 34. on the Gospells burne with the flames of lofty Contemplation breathing onely with desire of their Creatour and coveting nothing farther in this world are nourished with the sole love of Eternitie They contemne all earthly things and in their mindes transcend all temporary things They love and burne and in that heat they rest quiet they burne by loving and by their speech inflame others allso and whome by their words they touch they instantly
to us SECT III. Of the excesse of Vnitive Love of God in Extasies and Raptures with their abuses and uses noted 1. ALthough the principall designe in this Unitive Tractate be not to fill the Brain with gallant Speculations and gay Notions of Union with God yet because it seemeth necessary to a competent understanding of the Love wherewith God doth love us and of that whereby we love God to take in the Extent of it it will not be amisse to consider the doctrine and use of Extasies and Raptures too much famed by some and no lesse defamed by others For as supream Illuminations by Faith and Contemplation ordinarie do receive their Crown and summitie by extraordinarie Revelations and Visions God may and doth sometimes impart to his Servants so may it be that the top of spirituall Affections and Love seraphicall may touch the bottome of extraordinary Extasies and Raptures which are certain transportations of the Soule above the pitch of common Love though sincere sound faithfull and saving For in trueth I scarce read of any Religion except we make some factions Religions in which instances of wonderfull nature to this purpose are not found excepting the Mother faction of late For others issuing from them have gloried much of such elevations and transportations And Histories and Relations very credible assure us that of old amongst the Heathen and at this day amongst the Mahometans certain devout Persons in their way receive after some Ceremonies used to that end supernaturall impressions and Inspirations extaticall And why not Since it is very probable that all Religions tending either remotely or immediately to the worship of a Deity whereby some honour at large and blindly is given unto the only true God above what Atheists ascribe to the same and that according to the most probable Philosophie about Spirits there are divers kinds of them some purer others impurer some most malitious and mischievous others lesse noxious that God the most Wise just and infinite dispenser of all things and disposer may give way to Spirits to enter into and cooperate with zealous Persons in their simple yet intense devotion to a Deity and manage them according to the merits and manner of their Profession So that in very trueth faithfull and unerring judgement of a sound Religion cannot be made from such possessions and transportations but on the contrary rather that not the reality but purity and divinenesse of such Extasies are to be estimated from the reasonablenesse trueth and holinesse of the Religion professed by such Enthusiasts Onely this may be well granted that such Persons by such Enthusiasmes are competently characterized for select Persons in their Professions whether Idolatrous Hereticall or Orthodox 2. Or may we not say as there is one Fire necessary for the Cook to make his Vessels boyl over for Extasies are certain ebullitions of the spirit of a Man and another Fire requisite to the Smith to temper and fashion his Mettall and another to the Founder for his service so severall loves giving severall heats those severall heats have severall effects upon divers Subjects which they work on Certainly though true and modest Believers should not live or carrie themselves so towards God as if they would oblige him to extraordinarie Inspirations or Motions to be granted them so should the modestest of all demean themselves in their Religion as thereby they should be more susceptible of supererogated Gifts or measure running over as the Gospell speakes from God. Of which impartments I doe verily believe the professours of that Faction who are Enemies to all prescribed disciplining shall never be partakers pretending their Divinity is too spirituall to trouble themselves with such Exercises and they must goe the nearest way to Christ destructive of all bodily reverence decencie and due veneration which consists in select outward formes and fashions distinguishing to the sense divine from naturall morall or civill services as is most requisite 3. But as to Extasies of which we now speak as they are such which God vouchsafes to cause to the eminently constant and servent in his service and worship so may we not argue a certainty of Gods valuing those Vessels he so fills as more honourable or holy than some others from which he with-holds such gifts though where he so conferrs them and they are not delusions of idle and Evill Spirits imitating divine no doubt but there is some good degree of holinesse preceding not common to all true Believers For still we must look on them as gifts to profit withall and not as Graces whereby men actually have profited And the profit which succeeds thereupon is rather of others than themselves For such they are described to be that in them sometime the reason is taken away from them who suffer them and sometime their senses I scarce know what to judge of that saying of Antonie the Great undoubtedly eminently devout whatever Moderne Censurers may judge which Cassian in Collat relates That no man arrives at the perfection of Prayer who in Prayer understands what he sayes which possibly might give occasion to moderner Authours to invent such a kinde of Prayer which they call Supramentall that is such which is above Intelligence but this I may presume to say that if any whose Office it is to be the Voice of the People to God in Publique who then especially should together with him offer a reasonable Sacrifice to God should affect or willfully fall into such extaticall formes of speaking that neither he should understand himselfe nor should be understood by others he must be owing to some other Spirit for such his gifts than that of God. 4. And for privation of Senses in Extasies some Instances may be given very credible during such translations of minde which I dare neither rashly applaud nor condemn But whether this was the case of that holy man Elpidius of whome the Auncients write I know not that he was wont to stand whole Nights in Prayer and praising God in Psalmes not in recitation of Creeds and Ave Maries with such stedfastnesse that being once stung with a Scorpion he changed not his posture Which might be ascribed to an holy pertinacie against sense not without sense But if evill Spirits entring into and possessing Vessells of dishonour and impious drown the senses for that time there is no incrediblenesse that the good Spirit of Grace and Peace may overcome all sensations externall Was it not so with Saint Paul when as we read 2 Corinth 12. he was wrapt up into the third Heaven whether in the body or out of the body he knew not And 't is most apparent that some Epilepticall distempers bereave men both of sense and Reason And it is related to us by Bodin Theatr. Naturoe lib. 4. that in Germanie divers men are wont to cast themselves by Witchcraft into Extasies in such manner that for the time they feel no pain by blowes pinchings or burnings but returning to their common senses
they presently feel most grievous torments And this I rehearse verily believing that God by his holy Spirit doth elevate some men so extraordinarily as that they exceed humane order in contemplations and sensations heavenly and that evill Spirits may counterfeit notably the same effects in their Servants And hereupon I leave these few Rules to all sober faithfull and devout Christians tending to the discerning of Spirits good and evill 5. First they who pursue the great meanes ordained of God to arrive at the heighth of the Love of God uniting them to God and causing an acquiescence and rest in him so that in effect their reasons and senses naturall inconsisting with such perfection should be lost in God and in Christ and they live in the world undisturbed by it are laudably and safely extaticall 6. Secondly That they who may have surpassed others in the exercise of Christian Vertues and the Unitive Way with God and no wayes aim at such Perfections or desire them as at the best not making the Soule more good but more great rather and not more dear or acceptable to him which should be every prime Christians studie and endeavour may have exaltations of this nature which importunately coveted may provoke God to deliver them over to delusions of evill Spirits 7. Thirdly Seeing counterfeit Ware comes too often under the countenance and resemblance of what is pure and passing good the soundnesse of the faith professed by such is not proved by such excesses but such excesses must be rather judged by the Law and Testimonie of God as Isaiah speakes Chap. 8. upon which Faith is grounded and by which it is directed For no otherwise true is that description of Extasies given by that auncient Authour called Dionysius the Areopagite That Extasies are a wisdome putting a man besides himselfe than that suspension or absorption of naturall knowledge and understanding is occasioned by the dominion of divine Irradiations truely so called So that this excesse of Light and Love must be it selfe subject to tryall and that twofold principally the one taken from the Antecedent and the other from the Consequent Circumstances For if sobernesse of believing and divinenesse of behaving our selves lead not to these Extasies they are spurious and dangerous Again if such transported mindes thereupon fall into unreasonable unjust or ridiculous actions inconsistent with the gravitie and puritie of the divine Presence there supposed it is but reasonable to suspect the Scene to be managed by idle Spirits For Rapts of a Royall stamp are such as Gerson describes An experimentall knowledge of God obtained by a conjunction of spirituall affection Which Unitive and experimentall knowledge may be had without the disorder of the naturall understanding and may allso dissetle it so as to depend for some time wholly upon Gods supportation and transportation and that especially in the estimation of the world and common judgements For thus was Christ judged to be Mark 3. 21. and that by his own Friends besides himselfe and Saint Paul allso by Festus and by some other Believers as may be gathered from 2 Corinth 5. 13. SECT IV. Of the Vnion of the Soule with God by Divine Contemplation and Meditation with some instances of particular Subjects of this latter 1. WHEN Meditation and Contemplation are distinguished as sometimes they are Contemplation may be said to be directed immediately to God and the fixing of the minde and heart on him and from and through him to cast an eye on the Creatures and the various acts of his Providence in which he is seen allso with an Evening Light and Knowledge as he is with a Morning Light as Saint Austin was wont to speak by that immediate Intuition which yet properly is to be attained onely in Heaven But Meditation is the consideration of created things not so much as they are in themselves which is the employment of naturall Philosophers but as they are effects of a Divine and supernaturall Power and designed to the assistance of duller and weaker Eyes which are not able to behold the Glorie of God but as men doe the beauty of the Sun in Water And yet from hence ascent is made to a faithfull and fruitfull apprehension of God himselfe where the Soule mounted as was Peter James and John at the transfiguration of Christ desireth to abide and have its residence for ever 2. But Grace and Goodnesse here being in their minoritie yea and under Tutours and Governours as the Apostle speakes Galat 4. 2. We are not to take possession of the promised and expected Inheritance in this life But the Methode hereunto is this which we finde exemplified in David speaking thus Psalm 17. I will behold thy face in righteousnesse here when I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likenesse For as Saint Paul allso saith 1 Corinth 13. 12. 2 Corinth 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glorie of the Lord are changed as into the same Image from glorie to glorie even as by the Spirit of the Lord meaning hereby that the Spirit of God concurring with the Glasse of Gods Creatures and his revealed Word gives us a true but a distant and so dimme representation of God as through Perspectives And these to improve to the best degree and advantage is the great businesse of our present state here as whereby we are dayly wrought to a conformity to the Image of Christ and God defaced in us and returne unto his likenesse and a liking of him which two are both Unitive of us to God and actuall Union with him according to our present capacity For it is true in Religion what Philosophie in her Sphere teaches that the Understanding is made all things answerable to its Object the minde of man wonderfully conforming it selfe to such things as are brought unto it by the Ear or Eye and is in a manner figured by them as we see that Water admitting any Body more solid than it selfe into it selfe gives way to it and receives the shape thereof within it selfe as doth the Air allso though not so visibly to our sense So the minde of man contemplating and conceiving God and Divine matters is formed or conformed to the same morally loosing its naturall shape and posture and propensities which is thus expressed by Saint Paul Rom. 12. 2. And be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minde that ye may prove what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of God. For instance a man hearing and taking pleasure in absurd riotous and obscene Discourses or Books as is in part noted before is conformed thereunto and corrupted therewith the Images of things so imbibed or impressed being with great difficulty to be removed and with great facility and promptitude stirring up or at least yielding to sinfull temptations as occasion shall be offered agreeably And so in mens reading of the Histories of far and unknown Countries and the strange fruits of
before him and the world 6. Now from this foundation laid this principle granted this fountain of all spirituall wisdome and understanding opened doe issue all particular branches of our faith illuminating us some few of which articles reduced into the three eminent Creeds of all Christian Churches viz. The Apostolicall the Nicene and Athanasian which may yet be more plainly and vulgarly thus ordered to easie capacities 1. First that there is a God and this God but one in nature and substance of an infinite eternal immutable Being and there is or can possibly be no more number herein destroying all perfection proper to the divine Being which article though some of the wise Naturalists did give their cold assent unto yet scarce ever so but they tolerated such opinions and religions of others as maintained the contrary feeling rather as the Apostles phrase is after God than finding him or holding him fast by such a strong faith as Christians are and must be indued with knowing assuredly that Religion and our Salvation receive by no one superstition so deadly a blow and destructive to all sound Christianity as to erre about this first principle by acknowledging directly or indirectly more than one God that is either in the Proposition professing more than one which totally subverts Christianity or in Practice worshipping that for God which is not God though under a strong perswasion that what we worship is that one true God and though in mind and intention we design to worship only the true God. For such a fact upon involuntarie errour and all errour is said by wise men to be involuntarie may mitigate the offence before God and man but it cannot at all change the thing it selfe making that to be no idolatrie which is Idolatrie or that no heresie which is heresie in it selfe but only by certain circumstance may alleviate and yet we know not how little or much the crime of the offender which crime is in it selfe directly damnable and so by the doctrine of our Christian faith to be reputed and even with the losse of our lives to be avoided 2. And the same faith likewise teacheth us as necessary to salvation to believe aright of the severall and distinct wayes of the subsistence of the Deitie in the Trinity of the persons which we commonly call Father Son and Holy Ghost which as we must believe to be three and not one Person so must we believe to be one in nature and substance and not three so that the Father begetteth the Son and is not begotten of any and the Son is begotten of the Father by an Eternall and incorrupt generation not to be parallel'd in any other productions though dimly represented unto us And the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son by such a divine emanation as is not imitable by any created procession And in this article of our Faith Christians being wholly destitute of all naturall assistance to believe the whole must redound to the power and pleasure of God revealing these things and rendering them credible our faith upon that ground receiving them 3. And a third point of our Faith proceedeth to reunite as it were in our mindes and perswasions those persons we acknowledge to stand so distinguished by their intrinsecall Relations mentioned in their outward operations such as are acts of Creation Preservation and Governing by a most wise and just providence all things which are in this visible world and in that or those worlds which are to us invisible called Celestiall 4. And hence it is that by the same faith we are taught more expressely and particularly that the One God Father Son and Holy Ghost gave a being to all the world and out of nothing produced what we see and what we understand and more than we can behold and apprehend determining that knottie controversie which the Philosophers could make no work with concerning the Creation of the world which some would have never to have been but subsisting from eternitie of it selfe and not only so but we understand by divine Revelation and Illumination how the world was made and that not by the contriving of the brain or a modell laid before the eyes or by the labour of the hand the sweat of the face and tedious but necessarie toyl of many dayes years or ages but by the lightest and easiest way we could possibly understand any thing to be wrought For thus we read Heb. 11. 2. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear And so we read Psalm 33. 6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth And yet not so by the word or mouth of God as that any such part is to be admitted in God or that properly God so spake vocally For to what or whom should God speak so when there was no bodie yea nothing to hear but it was a mere simple pure velleity or willing of him so effectuall as to produce the Universe without the labour of his hands or of any other Agent or Instrument under him as some have vainlie imagined contrary to our divine Faith. For by the same power that God could create a worme he could create an Elephant and with the same ease that he could create a Mite he might create the hugest Monster that ever the earth bare yea the earth it selfe and that without delaies or distances of times though to shew his libertie and not necessity of working and to teach us advisednesse in all our Actions of importance he vouchsafed to distribute his acts into severall orders and spaces of duration called Dayes For as 't is said in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and all that is therein c. 5. And from this generall working or acting of God we are lead to an higher degree more nearly concerning our selves For it must necessarily follow from hence that as the Psalmist affirmeth He hath made us and not we our selves Psalm 95. And that as he made all things very good so the more noble in rank such things were the more perfect and unblameable they must needs be as they came out of Gods hands For God doth not work or proceed after the manner of nature from imperfect to perfect as all naturall productions are ill formed and defective at first and in tract of time arise to their ordained perfection but God made all things and especially Man at once most perfect both as to inward endowments and outward forme stature and parts so that nothing was wanting either to the ornament of his minde or the perfection of his bodie Crowning both with holinesse and happinesse immortal wherein his own Image and likenesse principally consisted adding unto them here in this life power and dominion under him over all earthly things 6 Furhermore the same faith teacheth us the Original