Auditors c. He calls it Speculation because the Soul doth not measure Divine Visions by the Will but by the Intellective Faculty and Measure of its Purgation Psell 9. What the Sun is in Sensibles that God is in Intellectuals For as It doth illuminate the visible World He doth in like manner the Invisible Moreover as It makes those who look upon it bright so He makes them Divine and Deiform Nicetas The Presence of Spiritual Light and Divine Splendor converts the Mind of those who are judg'd worthy of such a Glory and Contemplation from many and various Opinions and Imaginations to that which truly is that is to God c. Nicetas For what the Eye is in the Body this the Mind is in the Soul As therefore to behold the Lightning when it breaks out there is need of good Eyes so also for this that we may be illustrated by the Contemplation of God is required a Pure and Sound Mind For as in a Looking-Glass sordid and impure the Form of a Face cannot be represented so neither in a foul and unclean Mind the Splendor of God Ni. Whoever knowing that they are only Mind have pasled the bulk and grossness of the Body and have purged their Mind from the Stain of Vices and rendered it fit and meet for the Reception of the First or chief Mind and Creator of all things God is united to them For when the Mind is Pure and Incorrupt he doth converse with the Mind without any thing intervening and by it hath Communion with the Soul as again by this he is joyned to the Body But he is united not as He is but as We are capable of that Union And hence at last he becomes known Nor can any one otherwise know God unless he open his Soul to Him and receive him in it Psellus God doth so much become known to Men as he is familiarly joyned to them who by Vertue are joyned to Him For according as is their Ascent he doth descend And how much Man doth approach to God so much also doth God become known to Man imparting the Knowledge of himself according to the proportion of Purity that is in every one See whether the Spiritual and Divine Gradation will raise us For from the Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature as from the first step of a Ladder we are raised to Admiration of him as to the second step again from Admiration we ascend to more earnest Desire then from Desire are we raised up to Purgation and from hence further to Likeness with God and lastly we arrive to converse familiarly with God and know Him more perfectly by Vnion Then when we are made Deiform doth the true and natural God converse familiarly with those who by Grace are call'd Gods infusing the Divine Fulgers of his Knowledge in us as every one is purified Nicetas To be made God is to be partaker of Divine Illumination but not to pass into the Divine Essence Since we are set in the Confines between God and Matter if we decline to Matter we are Gross and Material if we tend toward God we are call'd Divine and thereupon Gods Nicetas St. Austin concerning the same THE Life of the Body is the Soul the Life of the Soul is God The Spirit of God dwells in the Soul and by the Soul in the Body that our Bodies also may be the Temple of the Holy Spirit whom we have from God Ser. 18. de verb. Apost c. 6. It is not unreasonable to say That the Incorporeal Soul is so illuminated with the Incorporeal Light of the Simple or pure Wisdom of God as the Body of the Air is illuminated with the Corporeal Light and as the Air grows dark upon the departure of that Light 11 de Civ Dei c. 10. Minds are to Souls as their Senses but of Sciences whatever things are most certain they are such as are those things which are illustrated or shined upon by the Sun that they may be seen as the Earth and all Earthly things But God is he who doth illustrate but I Reason am so in Mind as the Aspect is in the Eyes The Eye of the Soul is the Mind pure from all stain of the Body that is remote and purged from all desires of Mortal things c. 1 Soliloq c. 6. It is a great and very rare thing with the Intenseness of the Mind to transcend all Creature corporeal or incorporeal being considered and found mutable and to approach to that unchangeable Substance of God and there learn from Him that none but he made all Nature which is not Himself For so God speaks with Man not by any corporal Creature sounding in corporal Ears c. but he speaks by the very Truth it self if one be fit to hear with the Mind not with the Body 11 de C. D. 2. v. ibid. Coq When the Soul sees that singular and true Beauty it will the more love it But unless it fix on it its Eye with a mighty Love and decline not any whether from beholding it it cannot remain in that most Blessed Vision 1 Solil c. 7. One thing there is that I can prescribe thee I know no more That these sensible things are wholly to be forsaken and that we must greatly beware while we act this Body that our Wings which we need have intire and perfect be not hindered by any of their Birdlime that we may fly away from this Darkness to that Light c. Therefore when thou shalt be such that nothing of Earthly things doth at all delight thee believe me in that moment in the same point of time thou shalt see what thou desirest c. 1 Soliloq c. 14. Thou dost desire to see and imbrace Wisdom as it were naked without any thing of covering so as she doth not suffer herself except to very few and her most choice Lovers c. It is a certain ineffable and incomprehensible Light of Minds that vulgar Light c. ibid. c. 13. Confide constantly in God and as much as thou canst commit thy self intirely to Him Do not be willing to be as it were thine own but profess thy self to be a Servant of the most Gracious and Bountiful Lord. For so will he not cease to raise thee to Himself and will permit nothing to befall thee but what shall profit thee though thou knowest it not 1 Soliloq 14. Hear me my God hear me after that manner of thine known to very few Command I beseech thee whatever thou wilt but heal and open my Ears that I may hear thy Voice Heal and open my Eyes that I may see thy Becks Say to me which way I shall look that I may behold Thee c. 1 Soliloq c. 1. Being admonished to return to my self I entred into my most inward parts thou being my Leader and I could do it because thou wast become my Helper I entred and I discerned with the Eye of my Soul such as it was above the
without these God doth not usually grant them That Active Contemplation is the ready way to Passive and That though in the higher degrees of them they are but rare and given to few yet in some inferior degree they are communicated to many and however That an Active Contemplation and Fruition of God by Love spoken of before and the Great Advancement in all Christian Vertue gain'd thereby if we be admitted to no higher things of which true Humility always esteems its self unworthy is a sufficient Recompence in this World for any Pains of ours in Purging of our Life and close Attendance on God in Solitude and Prayer which is undertaken for it Lastly since such Christian Perfection chiefly contains in and depends upon the Exercise of the Affective part of the Soul and not on high Knowledge or Speculation therefore it is recommended as attainable by all Sexes and Conditions and all are equally encouraged in the Prosecution of it For the Grace of Contemplation as S. Gregory observes in Ezek. hom 17. is not given to the high and not given to the low but this do often the highest and often the lowest more often those who are remote that is from Worldly Cares but sometimes those who are in a Married State receive § 30 31. More of this he hath afterward which I shall here add as followeth Of the Steps in order to the highest State of Perfection which this Life arrives to mentioned in Sancta Sophia p. 32. 1. The first is the way of External and Imaginary Exercises of Prayer that is using the Discourse of the Understanding and Meditations as also Vocal Prayer then which Step Sancta Sophia observes many go no further but end their days in it that is in such Meditations is taken up the most part of their Devotions 2. The second Step is the Exercise of the Will and Affections which after long practice breaks forth into continual Aspirations and Elevations thereof 3. The Third is Divine Inaction or the extraordinary and supernatural and more sensible Operations of God's Spirit in the Soul wherein God acteth more than she and which are not in her power at all to procure sooner or retain longer then God pleaseth of which much hath been said before 4. After which usually in the Intervals of these Coelestial Visits do follow great Desolations of Spirit as the Experienced have described them partly arising from the sense of her Loss and an impatient longing after these Favours once tasted and partly out of a great nauseating and disrelish that she hath now of those entertainments of the Creature from which she formerly received some Content Such we may imagin was that of the Prophet David wheâ—â— he said Heu mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est And Concupiscit deficit anima mea in atria Dominiâ— And after a Non movebor in aeternum Psal 29. an Avertisti faciem tuam factus sum conturbatu◠§ 63. But not only this but God also sometimes with draws even from his greatest Saints and that for somâ— long duration of time any sensible assistance at all oâ— his Grace leaving the Soul as it were in its purâ— Naturals and as if he were quite departed from it in great Aridity Obscurity Solitude Pressure and Heaviness disgusted with all things she knows not why performing still her Devotions and accustomed Duties of Piety and the Service of God as formerly but without any sensible comfort in such Performance Meditation Aspiration Reading very difficult sterile insipid and seeming without Fruit only forbearing her Consent to any Sin Vanity or Sensuality and not seeking any secular Consolations Much discouraged also at such times many are in imagining that God hath so deserted them for Failings in their Duty or for something wherein they have offended his Divine Majesty which doubles this Anguish Or if not this at least they imagin it to be caused by some great Indisposition of Body as it is granted sometimes partly it may so as some begin therefore to dispense for a time with the former Exercises of their Devotion and other pious Employments But notwithstanding many times in these the poor Soul is mistaken and this strange dejection of Spirit comes without any such respects meerly from the sole Will of God and is the ordinary course of his proceeding with those also who are by his former Graces well grounded and arrived to some degree of Perfection and is sent only for their much greater Advancement therein and the rendring them more capable of higher Favours and therefore ought as such to be entertained with all Equanimity Patience Resignation and Conformity to his Will These Consolations and Desolations take as it were their certain turns in them as they do in a lesser degree in all the Regenerate they have by course a Day and a Night an Ascent towards God and a Descent and decadence into themselves a Vivification by and in him and a Mortification in themselves a Summer wherein the Branches shoot forth and Fruit comes to Maturity and a Winter when the Root spreads more and the Tree becomes more surely fixed To all God's Children do these Vicissitudes happen but these in a higher degree to the further advanced in Perfection and the greatest Favours are preceeded with greater Desolations and these ordinarily proportioned one to the other And always necessary less or more are such Purgations and Refinings of the Soul by these interior Crosses because always something in them is amiss and as yet imperfect Our natural Corruption is still producing something in us to be amended and some Self-will and Self-love to be parted away by this sharp Remedy whilst we are in this Life And the Benefit of these Desolations if rightly complied with as well as of Divine Consolations is very great in many respects § 64. For herein it is that the Soul comes most perfectly to know it self and all other Creatures to see it own Nothingness and to be most perfectly purged and cleansed from all Self-love and Propriety and herein it is most especially taught non quiescere iâ— donis Dei sed in Deo and Adorare Deum in Spiritâ— Veritate not in Devotione and Exercere se aâ— Deum in adversis sicut in prosperis the seeking Gust and Suavity and Consolations even in Spirituaâ— things being one of its Imperfections since these are not God himself Herein it is that the Soul 〈◊〉 preserved amidst such Divine Favours which aâ—â— apt to inflate it in a due and necessary Humility Angelus Satanae colaphisans ne magnitudo Revelatioâ— num extollat me saith the Apostle after his Rapt Herein its true Love and Adherence to God Quveniendo adjuvat and then derelinquendo probat Donis firmat and then Tribulationibus tentat saith St. Gregory Moral l. 20. c. 19. its Perseverance and Loyalty are especially discerned in keeping constant in the Service of him when deprived of all Consolation in it avoiding any application to the Comforts of
our Saviour in his Subjection to Joseph and his Mother Which though Self-denial be a Precept is a voluntary Act of the nature of a Reasonable Free-will Offering and a doing it daily as is expressed Luk. 9.23 a Living in it and a continual Reasonable Sacrifice of the prime Faculties of the Soul for the Service of God And the whole Business of an abstracted Ascetick Life What is it but a reasonable religious and devout Exercise of our Saviour's Doctrin in his Admonition to Martha Luk. 10.41 42. against being careful and troubled about many things when it was only for a short Entertainment of Himself and that One thing is needful and that Mary's Choice was of the better part In his Sermon upon the Mount of taking no thought for our Life Mat. 6.25 34. In his Parable of the Sower concerning the Cares and Riches and Pleasures of this Life the Thorns which choak the Seed of the Word that it bringeth no Fruit to Perfection Luk. 8.14 and concerning Watching that we be not surprized Mat. 24.42 25.13 Mar. 13.35 Luk. 21.36 And now if any one please as many have done to make any question concerning the meaning of our Saviour or the Interpretation of any part of this what more Authentick Evidence of that can be reasonably desired than what the wisest of Men have always approved and had recourse to in such Cases Usage and Practice afterward which daily Experience in the Construction of Laws and ancient Records and Deeds doth sufficiently confirm The APOSTLES certainly practised all this as far as was consistent with their Circumstances and Business they were imployed in and Preached it and recommended it by their Doctrin too as far as the Circumstances of the People and the Times would bear They forsook all not one of them Married any Wife afterward though they might have done it and were so far abstracted from all Diversions and Distractions of the World that they ordered Deacons for other necessary Works that they might give themselves continually to Prayer and to the Ministery of the Word or to Preaching And the effect of their Preaching and of the powerful Operation of the Holy Spirit upon the People was that they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrin in Communion in breaking Bread and in Prayers And all that believed were together and had all things Common and sold their Possessions and Goods and parted them as every Man had need c. Act. 2.42 And again Act. 4.32 The Multitude of them that believed were of one Heart and of one Soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things Common For as many as were Possessors of Lands or Houses sold them and brought the Prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles Feet What is here briefly said of the first Converts and Primitive Christians at Jerusalem agrees so well all things considered with what Philo more largely relates concerning those about Alexandria whom he calls THERAPEUTS who were never heard of before nor after under any Denomination unless of that of Christians which began early at Antioch and was soon spread over the World where any Disciples of Christ were and took place of all others that as the Ancients do affirm we also have great reason to rest satisfied that they were indeed such notwithstanding all the Cavils of some of the last Age which have since been sufficiently refuted It is true they did not long appear in that form of Communities for they were dissolved at Jerusalem and dispersed into divers Regions by that great Persecution after the Death of Stephen and doubtless by like Occasions in other Places But the Example and Doctrin of our Saviour and his Apostles could not but provoke many especially among the Jews before well-disposed for it to forsake the World and betake themselves to a retired abstracted Contemplative Life The Natural Inclination in them was excited and fortified by the various Examples which were common among them before and then receiving such further Encouragement from our Saviour and his Apostles both directly and indirectly from several Doctrines of the Gospel concerning Self-denyal Mortification Contempt of the World Heavenly-mindedness c. this could not but mightily affect them generally with an Heroick Contempt of the World and of the Body and all Earthly things The very Doctrin Promises and Miracles with which they were confirmed were apt of their own Nature to produce all this but much more being accompanied with such a Spirit and Power as the Preaching of the Apostles and the Primitive Christians then was And certainly they wanted nothing but Opportunity even then in the Apostles times to have settled in Coenobitical Societies which as soon as the commom obstacle the Persecutions was removed by the Providence of God in raising Constantine to the Throne of the Empire they presently began to do first in Egypt where 't is probable were many descended from the Recabites and Esseans and in no long time after in most other Parts Concerning those in Egypt in his time St. John Chrysostome gives us this Account Should any one come now to the Deserts of Egypt he would see all the Wilderness altogether more excellent than a Paradice and innumerable Companies of Angels shining in Mortal Bodies For there is to be seen spread over all that Region the Camp of Christ and the admirable Royal Flock and the Conversation of the Heavenly Powers illustriously shining upon Earth And this you may see most splendid not in MEN only but also in WOMEN Heaven it self doth not so shine with various Constellations of Stars as Egypt is beset and illustrated with innumerable Convents of Monks and Virgins But of this more hereafter These things being well considered it will be very plain 1. That they who have derived these Religious Institutions from our Saviour and his Apostles by their Example and Doctrin and the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit had a good Foundation of Truth to maintain their Assertion 2. That they who have raised such Prejudice in the Minds of the People against such Holy Religious Societies in general as to beget in them an Odium against all if they did it in simplicity and meerly through the Prejudice they themselves had conceived from the Scandals of those of their time yet did they very rashly and inconsiderately in so doing but if they did it to temporize and ingratiate themselves with Princes and Great Men who had inriched themselves with the Spoils of the Monasteries and the Revenues of the Church they did very wickedly and impiously We must not deny or question the Justice of the Judgment of God upon them but Who are they by whom the Righteous God doth usually execute such Judgments And at this time we have great reason to take that for a Warning to our Selves Were they cast out for their Laziness and Corruptions What then have we to expect Suppose ye that
into the Carnal part cap. 17. v. Col. 9. cap. 26. Abbot Daniel concerning the triple State of Souls Cass Coll. 4. cap. 19. ACcording to the Doctrin of the Scripture there are Three States of Souls the first Carnal the second Animal the third Spiritual which we read thus noted-out by the Apostle for concerning the Carnal it is said I have given you Milk to drink not Meat for then ye were not able neither yet indeed are ye for ye are yet Carnal 1 Cor. 3. And again While there is among you Emulation and Contention are ye not Carnal ibid. Concerning the Animal it is thus mentioned The Animal Man perceives not the things of the Spirit of God it is Foolishness to him 1 Cor. 2. But of the Spiritual But the Spiritual judgeth all things but is judged of none ibid. And again Ye who are Spiritual instruct those who are of that sort in a Spirit of Gentleness Gal. 6. And therefore we must be diligent that when by our Renunciation we have ceased to be Carnal that is have begun to separate our selves from the Conversation of Worldly People and to cease from that manifest Pollution of the Flesh we strive presently with all our Might to acquire the Spiritual State lest flattering our selves because we seem according to the outward Man to have renounced the World or to have forsaken the Contagions of Carnal Fornications as if by this we had gotten the top of Perfection we should thenceforth become more remiss toward the Emundation of other Passions and more slothful and being detained between both not be able to attain to the degree of Spiritual Profit supposing that it is abundantly sufficient for us for Perfection that in the outward Man we seem separated from the Conversation and Delights of this World or that we are set free from Carnal Corruption and Mixture And so being found in that Tepid State which is reckoned the Worst we shall understand that we are to be vomited out of the Mouth of the Lord according to his Sentence saying I would thou wert Hot or Cold but because thou art now Tepid or Lukewarm I will begin to spue thee out of my Mouth Rev. 3.15 c. Abbot Isaac concerning PRAYER Cass Col. 9. THE End of every Monk and Perfection of his Heart tends to a continual and uninterrupted Perseverance in Prayer and as far as is permitted to Humane Frailty strives after an unmoveable Tranquility and perpetual Purity of Mind For the Enjoyment of which we unweariedly seek and continually exercise as well Labour of the Body as Contrition of Spirit And there is between these a certain reciprocal and inseparable Conjunction For as the Structure of all Virtues doth tend to the Perfection of Prayer so unless all these be bound and compacted together by the toping of it they can by no means hold out firm and stable For as without them cannot this perpetual and continual Tranquility of Prayer of which we speak be acquired and perfected so neither can those Virtues which prepare for it without the Continuance of it be accomplished Wherefore neither can we rightly treat of the Effect of Prayer or enter to the principal End of it which is accomplished by the Employment of all Virtues by a hasty Discourse unless first all these things which for the obtaining of it are either to be cut off or to be prepared be in order enumerated and discussed and according to the Instruction of the Parable in the Gospel those things which belong to the Building of that Spiritual and more sublime Tower be counted and diligently prepared for it Which notwithstanding will neither profit being prepared nor rightly admit those high topings of Perfection to be built upon them unless first all refuse of Vices being cast out and all dead rubbish of Passions dug up the most firm Foundations of Simplicity and Humility be laid upon the sound and solid Earth of our Heart that Evangelical Rock upon which this Tower to be built with the Employments of all the Spiritual Virtues may be both unmoveably established and raised up to the highest Heavens by the Consistence of its own Firmness cap. 2. And therefore that the Prayer be made with that Fervour and Purity it ought these things are by all means to be observed First The Solicitude of Earthly things in general is to be cut off Next not only the Care but not so much as the Memory of any Business or Cause is to be admitted Detractions idle Talk much Talk Jestings are likewise also to be cut off Anger above all things or the Perturbation of Sadness are to be throughly rooted out The pernicious Food of Carnal Concupiscence and the Love of Money is to be plucked up by the Roots and these and the like Vices which are visible even to the Eyes of Men being cut off and wholly thrust out and such a cleansing of the Rubbish which is perfected in the Purity of Simplicity or Singleness of Heart and Innocence first made the unshaken Foundations of a profound Humility which may bear a Tower reaching to the Heavens are first to be laid then is the Superstruction of Spiritual Virtues to be built upon it and from all Discourse or Reasoning and light Wandering is the Mind to be restrained that so it may by degrees be elevated to God and to Spiritual Intuition For what-ever our Soul conceives before the Hour of Prayer of necessity it will occur to us while we pray by intrusion of our Remembrance Wherefore such as we would be found while we Pray such ought we to prepare our selves to be before the time of Prayer For from the precedent State is the Mind formed in Prayer c. cap. 3. The Quality of the Soul is not unfitly compared to a light Feather which if it be not spoiled by some wet from without happening to it by the levity of its own Substance with the help of a gentle Breath is as it were naturally raised up on high and to the Heavens But if it be aggravated with the Accession of any wet it is not only not raised up to any Aerial Flights by its natural Mobility but will be depressed down to the very Earth by the weight of the Wet received So also our Mind if it be not aggravated with contracted Vices and Worldly Cares or corrupted with the Humour of noxious Lust being lifted up as with the natural Advantage of its Purity will with the least Breath of Spiritual Meditation be elevated on high and forsaking low and Earthly things will be transported to those which are Heavenly and invisible So that we are very properly admonished by our Lord's Precepts See that your Hearts be not at any time over-charged with Gluttony Drunkenness and the Cares of the World Luk. 21.34 And therefore if we would our Prayers should pierce not only the Heavens but what are above the Heavens let us take Care to raise our Mind purged from all Earthly Corruptions and cleansed from
all Dregs of Passions to its natural Sublimity that so our Prayer may ascend to God dis-burthened of all Weight of Corruption cap. 4. The Intention of a Monk ought always to be fixed in God by whom even a small Separation from that Chief Good is to be accounted a present Death and most pernicious Destruction And when the Mind comes to be settled in such a Tranquility or loosed from the tyes of all Carnal Passions and the Intention of the Heart doth most tenaciously adhere to that One Chief Good then doth it fulfill that of the Apostle Pray without Intermission 1 Thess 5.17 and In every place lifting up pure Hands without Anger or Disputings 1 Tim. 2.8 For the Sense of the Mind if I may so say being drench'd in this Purity and reformed from the Earthly Filth to a Spiritual and Angelick Likeness what-ever it receives into its self what-ever it handles what-ever it doth will be a most pure and sincere Prayer cap. 6. The various Species of Prayer I judge cannot be comprehended without mighty Contrition of Heart Purity of Mind and Illumination of the Holy Spirit For according to the measure of Purity in which every Soul doth proceed and the quality of the State in which either by Occurrences she is lowered or by her own Industry renewed she her self is every moment new formed And therefore it is certain that Prayers are by none always made of the same form c. cap. 8. They who having the penal thorn of Conscience pluck'd out of their Heart are secure ruminating the Favours and Mercies of the Lord which he hath either in time past given or at present doth give or hath prepared for the future with a most pure Mind are transported with a most fervent Heart to that ardent Prayer which cannot be expressed with the Tongue of Men or comprehended Yet sometimes a Mind which hath profitted to that true effect of Purity and hath now begun to be rooted in it is wont conceiving all the parts of Prayer at once together and like an incompressible and devouring Flame spreading over all to pour out to God ineffable Prayers of a most pure vigour which the Spirit it self interceeding with inexplicable Groans we being ignorant doth send forth to God conceiving in that moment so great things and pouring them out ineffably in Supplication as it cannot at another time I will not say repeat with the Mouth but not so much as recollect with the Mind c. cap 15. The higher and more sublime State of Prayer is formed by the Contemplation of God alone and the Fervour of Charity by which the Soul being cast down and melted into Love of him doth very familiarly discourse to God as its own Father with a peculiar Devotion Which State that we ought diligently to desire the Form of the LORD's-PRAYER doth instruct us saying Our Father When therefore we do confess with our own Mouth the God and Lord of the Universe to be our Father we do indeed profess our selves to be adopted to be the Sons of God out of a State of Slavery adding thereunto Who art in Heaven that flying from the abode of the present Life which we live upon Earth with much horror as a Pilgrimage and separating us far from our Father we may hasten rather with our utmost desire to that Region in which we confess our Father liveth and may admit nothing of that kind which may render us unworthy of this our Profession and of the Nobility of such an Adoption or make us incurr his Displeasure To which Order and Degree being promoted we shall continually be inflamed with that Devotion which is in good Children that now we shall imploy all our Affection not for our Commodities but for the Glory of our Father Saying to Him Hollowed be thy Name c. cap. 18. And after a brief but excellent Explication of all the parts of this Prayer he adds You see therefore what Model and Form of Prayer is proposed to us by the Judge himself who is to be intreated by it in which is no Petition of Riches no Remembrance of Dignities no Prayer for Power or Strength no mention of Corperal Needs or of Temporal Life contained The Creator of Eternity will have nothing fading nothing vile nothing temporal to be implored of him And therefore he will do a very great Injury to his Magnificence and Munificence who-ever passing by the Petition of Eternal things will rather ask any thing transitory or fading and by the Vileness or Meanness of his Prayer will rather incurr the Offence than obtain the Favour of his Judge cap. 24. This Prayer therefore though it may seem to contain all plenitude of Perfection because either instituted or established by the Authority of our Lord himself yet doth it promote those of his Family to that higher State which we mentioned before and lead them in a more eminent degree to that fervent ineffable Prayer known or experienced by very few which transcending all humane Sense is not distinctly delivered by any manner of Words or Expressions but which the Mind illustrated by the infusion of that Coelestial Light doth not signifie by humane and narrow Eloquence but pour out abundantly as out of a full Fountain in full compacted Senses and ineffably utter to the Lord producing so great things in that little point of time as the Mind can neither easily utter nor recovering it self particularly remember cap. 25. And that you may perceive the Affection of a true Prayer I will produce to you not my own but St. Antony's Sense of it Whom we have known to have sometimes so persisted in Prayer that he frequently praying in an Excess of Mind when the Sun began to rise we have heard him in fervour of Spirit cry out Why dost thou hinder me O Sun who dost now rise to withdraw me from the Splendor of this true Light Whose also was this Coelestial and more than humane Sentence concerning the End of Prayer It is not saith he Perfect Prayer in which a Monk doth understand * By Prayer these Men understand an Elevation of the Soul to God and they who have observed how much the Soul may be affected and taken up in the Contemplation of much inferior Objects will not so confidently censure this though they never had Experience of any such thing in themselves It is no more than Plato hath said of Oratory in Menon even this it self that he prayeth cap. 31. They only with most pure Eyes do behold the Divinity of Jesus who ascending from low and Earthly Works and Thoughts do retire with him into the high Mount of Solitude who being free from the Tumult of all Earthly Thoughts and Perturbations and separate from all mixture of Vices elevated with a most pure Faith and Eminence of Virtues doth reveal the Glory of his Countenance and the Image of his Clarity to those who are meet to behold Him with pure Aspects of Soul c. Coll.
10. c. 6. This is the Design of a Solitary this ought to be all his Intention that he may come to possess in this Body an Image of future Beatitude and begin in this Vessel to fore-tast the Earnest of Heavenly Conversation and Glory This I say is the End of all Perfection that the Mind so extenuated or refined from all Carnal Dust may be daily elevated to Spiritual things till all its Conversation all its volutation of Heart may become one continual Prayer And as I said a little before All our Love all our Desire all our Study all our Endeavour all our Cogitation all that we see all that we speak all that we hope may be God and that Unity which now is of the Father with the Son and of the Son with the Father may be transfused into our Sense and Minds that is that as he loves us with a pure and indissoluble Charity we also may be joyned to Him in a perpetual and inseparable Charity cap. 7. For the Attaining and Practice of this he recommends from Experience of the Seniors the continual or frequent mental repetion of that verse Psal 70. Deus in adjutorium meum intende Domine ad adjuvandum me festina in our Liturgy O God make speed to save us O Lord make hast to help us and largely shews the use of it at all times and upon all special occasions Abbot Theodore concerning the right Knowledge of the Scriptures Cassian lib. 5. HE was indowed with very great Sanctity and compleat Science not only in the Active Life but also in the Knowledge of the Scriptures which he acquired not so much by Study of Reading or Humane Learning as by Purity of Heart for he could hardly either understand or pronounce so much as a few Greek Words When he sought the Explanation of a certain obscure Question he persisted indefatigably in Prayer seven Days and Nights until he knew the Solution of the Question proposed by the Revelation of the Lord. cap. 33. When certain of the Brethren admiring his eminent Light of Knowledge inquired of him the Sense of certain Scriptures he said A Monk desiring to attain to the Knowledge of the Scriptures ought by no means to imploy his Pains upon Books of Commentators but rather restrain and keep all the Industry of his Mind and beat of his Heart to the purifying of his Carnal Affections which being expell'd presently the Eyes of his Mind the Veil of his Passions being once removed will begin as it were naturally to contemplate the Mysteries of the Scriptures For they are not published to us by the Grace of the Holy Spirit that they should be unintelligible and obscure but they become obscure by our Fault the veil of Sins over-clouding the Eyes of our Mind which being again restored to their Natural Sanity the Reading of the Holy Scriptures will even alone abundantly suffice to the Contemplation of true Knowledge nor will they need the Instructions of Commentaries as these Eyes of Flesh need the Doctrin of none to see if they be free from Suffusion and Dimness of Sight For therefore is there so great Variety and Errors arisen amongst Interpreters themselves because the most running to Interpret them without using any Diligence toward the Purgation of the Mind by reason of the Grossness or Uncleanness of their Heart thinking things divers or contrary either to Faith or to themselves they could not comprehend the Light of Truth cap. 34. For this see in Smith 's Select Discourses The true Way and Method of attaining to Divine Knowledge Abbot Serapion of Discretion Cass Coll. 2. cap. 11. WHEN I was a Child and lived with Abbot Theon this brutish Custom was imposed upon me by the Enemy that after I had eaten with him at the ninth hour I did every day secretly convey one Bisket into my Bosom which I did after without his knowledge eat in secret Which Theft though I did constantly through my accustomed Incontinence commit yet when I had gratified my Appetite coming to my self I was more tormented with the Guilt of my Theft than satisfied with what I had eaten And when I was every day compelled to the grief of my Heart to perform that most troublesome work imposed as it were by Pharaoh's Task-Masters instead of Bricks upon me nor could extricate my self from this their most cruel Tyranny and was ashamed and confounded to discover the secret Theft to my Senior it came to pass by the Hand of God who was pleased to rescue me out of the Yoak of this Captivity that certain Brothers desired to come to the Cell of the Senior for Edification sake And when they were refreshed and a Spiritual Conference was begun the Senior answering to their Questions discoursed of the Vice of Gastrimargy or Gluttony and of the Domination and Slavery of Thoughts kept secret and did explain their Nature and most dismal Power so long as they were concealed I by the power of this Conference being prick'd and terrified with an accusing Conscience as believing that these things were spoken for that Cause that the Lord had revealed the Secrets of my Heart to the Senior I began first secretly to sigh then the Compunction of my Heart increasing breaking out into Sighs and Tears I pull'd the Bisket which by that evil Custom I had secretly stolen to eat out of my Bosom where it was conceal'd and proferring it to them I did prostrate upon the ground with Supplication for Pardon confess how I did every day eat in secret and with abundance of Tears did implore them to beg my Absolution from this hard Bondage of the Lord. Then said the Senior Be of good Comfort Child Thy Confession hath obtained thy Absolution though I hold my Tongue For thou hast this day gotten the Victory of thine Enemy more powerfully beating him down by thy Confession than thou thy self wert cast down by him through thy Concealment Whom not at all checking either by thy own or any others Reprehension thou didst suffer to domineer over thee till now But now after this thy Confession that wicked Spirit shall not be able to disquiet thee nor shall the filthy Serpent any longer hold a hiding place in thee being drawn-out into the Light out of the Darkness of thy Heart by a salutary Confession The Senior had not finished these Words and behold a Burning Lamp proceeding from my side so filled the Cell with the smell of Brimstone that the Stink of it would not suffer us to remain in it And the Senior resuming his Admonition Behold saith he our Lord hath visibly proved to thee the Truth of my Words that thou shouldest see with thy Eyes the Instigator of thy Affection driven out of thy Heart by a salubrious Confession and shouldst know that the detected Enemy should no longer at all have place in thee by his manifest Expulsion And so it is according to the Sentence of the Senior the Domination of that diabolical Tyranny in me is
even whilst he wore his frail Body of Flesh For our Lord who wore Flesh Himself for our sake and gave the Body a Conquest over the Devil wrought and wrestled together with this Holy Youth So that every one who strives in good earnest with the Devil may with good reason say Not I but the Grace of God with me 1 Cor. 15.57 At last the Devil perceiving that he could not overthrow and discourage Antony by this Device gnashing his Teeth and being like one beside himself to see himself drove out he who is really black in his Nature within appear'd in the form of a Black Boy to Antony and as it were lying at his Feet for the crafty Spirit being turn'd out of his Heart now no longer invaded his Thoughts assum'd an Humane Voice and said I have deceived many yea verily I have worsted and deceived very many But having now exerted my Strength against thee as against many others I have been weaken'd and overcome Who is this said Antony that talks thus to me The Devil answer'd in a wretched whining Tone To this Day I have ply'd soft fleshly Allurements in Young Persons and have been call'd The Spirit of Fornication How many when willing to be Sober have I deceiv'd How many have I by Hypocrisie and sense-affecting Motions drawn aside I am he of whom the Prophet speaks Hos 4.12 Ye have been deceiv'd by the Spirit of Fornication 'T was by me that they were tripp'd up I am he who have so often disturb'd thee and as often been humbled by thee Antony therefore having paid his Thanks to God and being become more valiant in Spirit said Hence 't is plain that thou art very contemptible for thy Soul is black and swarthy and thou art weak as a Child neither will I for the future give way to any Solicitude upon thy Account for the Lord is my Helper and I shall look down upon mine Enemies with scorn which he had no sooner said but the Black Monster fled away being afraid to speak or come near the Heroe 5. This was St. Antony's first Conflict with the Devil or rather to speak properly and as I ought this was our Lord's first defeat of the Devil in Antony who Rom. 8.3 4. Condemn'd Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the Flesh but the Spirit But for all this St. Antony did not neglect himself as if the Devil were intirely under his Feet Nor did the Enemy as though vanquish'd desist from forming Stratagems for he rang'd about like a roaring Lyon seeking out some pretence against him Antony had learnt from the Holy Scriptures that the Wiles of the Devil are many continually and therefore continually gave himself to exercise considering that since the Devil could not deceive his Heart by Pleasure he would try the more subtlely and diligently to do it by other Methods for the Devil is Sin 's sure Friend Wherefore Antony tam'd his Body more and more lest after he had conquer'd in some Combats he should be dragg'd a Captive by him in others Hence he resolves to accustom himself to severer Discipline still At which Resolution many were startled through surprize But however he went thorow with it very patiently for the bent of his Soul having lasted a long time wrought such a good habit in him that he seiz'd on every even the least Occasion of exerting his strenuous pursuit after Vertue 6. He watch'd so very much that oft-times he lay without Sleeping all Night long and this not once or so but very often to admiration He eat once a Day after Sun-set sometimes but once in two Days nay and sometimes but once in four Days His Diet was Bread and Salt His Drink only Water Instead of a Feather-Bed he lay on a Mat and sometimes on the bare Ground He never anointed himself because he said 't was more proper for the Younger to addict themselves to Ascetick Exercises than to seek out those things which effeminate the Body They should rather accustom themselves to labour and to bear the Apostle's saying in their Mind 2 Cor. 12.10 When I am weak then I am strong for then said he the Vigour of the Spirit is renew'd and becomes Athletick when the Pleasures of the Body languish and are impair'd This also was an admirable Thought of his viz. That he did not think it proper to measure our Progress in Vertue by the length of the Time we first set out or by our Retirement so much as by our Divine Desires and Longings and the Encrease of our Holy Purpose And therefore he would not remember the Time past but every Day as though it were the first he would express a more ardent Thirst and Endeavour after a further Advance Speaking by the way of Soliloquie that of the Apostle Phil. 2.14 Forgetting that which is behind and pressing forward And remembring the Voice of the Prophet Elias who saith 2 King 18.15 As the Lord of Hosts lives before whom I stand I will surely shew my self to day for he observes from the Prophet's saying To day he did not take a measure of the Time past but every day as if it were laying the first Foundation of his Vertue he studied to approve himself such an one as he ought to be before God pure in Heart and ready to obey his Will and no ones else Every Christian Ascetick said he ought to see and learn within himself his own Life from Elias as in a Glass 7. Antony having by this time and by these means recollected and simplify'd himself Travelled to the Tombs which were at a considerable distance from that Town having first acquainted one of his Acquaintance with it who supply'd him with Bread enough to subsist upon a good while When he was got thither he went into one of the Tombs and shut the door over his Head and tarried within there by himself Now the Devil not being able to away with this and afraid lest in a little time the whole Desart should be fill'd with Asceticks came one night with a great company of Devils and beat and bruis'd him at that fearful rate that he lay a long time Dumb because of the Extremity of his Torments for he protested his Pains were so great that 't was impossible Men should be the Instruments of the like But by the Providence of God for the Lord does not forget those who hope in Him the Day after an Acquaintance came with some Loaves to him who as soon as he had open'd the door seeing him lying along like a Dead Man upon the Ground took him up and carried him to the Town-Church and laid him upon the Pavement where many of his Relations and Towns-People sat by him as they there us'd to do about the Corps of the Dead Now about Midnight Antony came to himself and awoke and saw all asleep but himself and his Acquaintance that brought him from the Tombs
joyned with Mortification the Soul comes to operate more and more abstracted from Sense and more celebrated above the Corporeal Organs and Faculties so drawing near to the resemblance of the Operations of an Angel or Separated Spirit By this we may perceive that it is not difficult as our Author saith to put together some of their Words and Phrases as an Account of their Divinity p. 285. and what Account that is But besides these there are some other passages which he recites and in them some which he construes as he doth these and other things and some Expressions which may seem hard Sayings to one who is not willing to understand them or consider them as terms of Art and allow them a candid Construction and may afford Matter for Exercise of Wit to such as are disposed to sport themselves with Matters of Religion The wicked Spirit does easily insinuate himself into and impose upon Persons ingaged in Controversy they are ordinarily like Souldiers ingaged in War act as if all was Lawful whereby they can incommode an Adversary without due regard to Charity Truth and that fair Dealing and Kindness which Christianity enjoyns to Enemies and too often behave themselves like such Souldiers as are loath to have an End of a War lest they should want Employment trifling and skirmishing at a distance with vain Words and Shews and the consequence in each is frequently the baffling and disparaging of the Cause they are ingaged in and giving advantages to their Adversaries And I wish this Author by his management hath not given too much Advantage or at least Occasion to the common Adversaries Infidels and Deists But as to this cause O. N. hath so fully answered all Cavils at the Terms of Art that it seems he left little to be replyed to and therefore for Answer our Author is reduced to these two shifts 1. To inculcate the Unintelligibleness of Mystick Theology from the cessation of the discursive Faculty at the time of Contemplation which is all that the Mystick Writers intend as if all Men in the very act of intent listening to Sounds or beholding something extraordinary did not the like in a great measure 2. To make a great Bravado as if he had the Authority of the whole Church of Christ against all Visions immediate Revelations Extasies c. in the case of Montanus Whereas what was condemned in Montanus and his Companions was not the pretending to Visions and Revelations but pretending such to be Divine which were not but Diabolical as appeared both by the Manner and by the Matter being Heresie as is very plain in the ancient Writer in Eusebius l. 5. c. 16. When the Faithful throughout Asia had met often and in many places of Asia upon this account and had inquired into this New Doctrine and determined it to be prophane and rejected this Heresie they were expelled out of the Church And before he relates how Montanus his Ambition gave the Enemy an Entrance into himself and he was filled with the Devil and of a sudden possest with a furious and frantick Temper of Mind c. So he saith of Theodotus that he was possest with a false Extasie which plainly implies true ones believed then contrary to what our Author doth pretend To say that it hath no Foundation in the Christian Doctrine and yet to pass by so many Testimonies of Scripture produced for it with no better answer than what amounts to a Concession deserves no other reply than only to note it To mistake and mis-represent Mens Words through Ignorance is a Fault but more especially in Men pretending to Learning and Knowledge yet hath that some excuse by reason of the Humane Infirmity incident to all But to do it wilfully deliberately and seeking Occasions is not only different from but contrary to the Spirit of Christianity But what is it then if it be in despight of that which is really true and the Operations of the Spirit of Grace To say that the Case of Montanus was the very Case of Mystical Vnions and that the Spirit of Montanus was rejected in the Christian Church as a Fanatick Enthusiastical Spirit as if the Case of Mystical Unions was the Case of that Spirit so rejected with other expressions to like purpose are fit to be considered afterward if they were not well considered before-hand There is a passage which he recites out of the Spiritual Exercises of the Jesuites p. 31 32. edit 1574. viz. It is the great Perfection of a Christian to keep himself indifferent to do what God shall reveal to him and not to determine himself to do what he hath already revealed and taught in the Gospel which is very gross indeed if the meaning be what he would have us to believe and indeed so gross that it is not to be believed to be their meaning if it be to be found there and fairly translated but since it is capable of another construction viz. not to confine ones self to what is revealed in general but to be indifferent as to things not determined but left indifferent to do as God shall direct I know not what can be said of any weight against it Such a Construction had been but according to their own Rule Christianum unumquemque pium debere promptiore animo Sententiam seu Propositionem obscuram alterius in bonam trahere partem quam damnare c. Exercit. Spirit p. 65. edit Ant. 1676. 8 o. which had been more worthy of our Author's Observation Nor do I see any reason to alledge as an Instance or Proof of their Fanaticism that Custom of Ignatius and his Companions related by Orlandinus lib. 1. n. 111. viz. In any matter of Debate they were to joyn together in Prayer and after seeking God what Opinion the most were of that they resolve upon Where was the Fault in this in joyning in Prayer or in agreeing with the Majority If the Odium of the Name will excuse any thing with the vulgar yet it becomes neither Christianity nor Ingenuity nor is it consistent with true Prudence to condescend to such mean Objections Over-doing doth often spoil a good Work and disparage and discredit the Author The Errors and Miscarriages of Devout People ought to be pitied mentioned with Grief and not exposed beyond Truth or Necessity For that makes sport for the Devils and wicked Men gives Scandal to weak Men promotes Uncharitableness and Irreligion and discomposeth and disordereth the Spirit of him that doth it He who judgeth others ought to take care that they rise not up in Judgment hereafter against himself How will that Fanaticism which carries Men to the farthest part of the World for the Conversion of Infidels to Christianity rise up in Judgment against them who suffer their own Parishes and Diocesses of professed Christians at home to sink into Infidelity for want of due Care and sufficient Instruction And how will the Excess of Devotion if it be so in some Spiritual Writers rise
but it may also be found in the Great and Momentous Concerns of this Life which a Good Man that fears God and begs his Direction shall very often if not at all times find And in his Treatise of Humility speaking of this Guidance and Direction of Almighty God in relation to a double End 1. The Salvation and Happiness of the Soul 2. In all the Walk and Concern of this Life as to this latter he saith The Air doth not more naturally yield to our Attraction in Respiration or to insinuate it self into those spaces that are receptive of it than the Divine Assistance Guidance and Beneficence doth to the Desires Exigencies and Wants of an humble Soul sensible of its own Emptiness and Deficiency and implering the Direction Guidance and Blessing of the most Wise and Bountiful God And then adds I can call my own Experience to witness that even in the External Actions Occurrences and Incidences of my whole Life I was never disappointed of the best Guidance and Direction when in Humility and Sense of my own Deficiency and diffidence of my own Ability to direct my self or to grapple with the Difficulties of my Life I have with Humility and Sincerity implored the Secret Direction and Guidance of the Divine Wisdom and Providence This he speaks of the secret Guidance by the Spirit of Truth by Illumination of the Understanding and Inclination of the Will but there is another Secret Guidance by a Providential Disposal of Occurrences which he doth not here exclude yet seems more especially to intend when he afterward appeals to the Experience of others I have also observed as well from what he hath said upon several Occasions as from divers Passages in his Writings that he had from his younger time in all his Life not only a great respect to this secret Guidance of the Spirit of God but also so great a Sense of the Malice Subtlety and Energy of the Evil Spirits as made him very vigilant against them And I doubt not but his constant and reverend Attendance to that Holy Conduct and his Vigilance against the Wiles and Devices of those invisible Enemies were a principal Means whereby he became so Great and Good a Man as he was This is genuine Christianity and therefore it cannot but move Indignation in the Hearts of True Christians to see so Great and Noble a Principle of their Religion to be so unworthily expos'd contemned and reproached as this hath been in our Times partly by sensual Bruits partly by conceited animal Pretenders to Reason and partly by inconsiderate Opposers of Enthusiasm Nay it is a Principle not peculiar to the times of the Incarnation of the Eternal Logos and succeeding Ages but made manifest by that Light which enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World unto all pious and virtuous Souls from the beginning and it is a dangerous sign of an empty bewidowed deserted Soul for any Man to speak flightly or irreverently of so Holy a Principle That Excellent Philosopher and Emperor Antoninus besides divers other Passages to the purpose hath expressed himself in one place in the very words before used by our Author Seneca affirms it Bonus Vir sine Deo nemo est besides many Passages to this purpose And Cicero besides what more largely elsewhere Nemo vir Magnus sine aliquo Afflatu Divino unquam fuit Socrates is notorious and Plato and his Followers Plotinus Porphirius Jamblicus Proclus c. are known and confess'd to have been of the same Judgment as also the Chaldaick and Egyptian Philosophers The same is observ'd of Democritus That he thought that there were no Men Wise besides those who were inspir'd with a Divine Influence And Theophrastus and indeed all the better Philosophers are noted to have had the same Sentiments And even Aristotle himself as great a Rationalist as he was hath plainly expressed himself to have been of the same Judgment in several places In one among the rest to this effect They who are moved by a Divine Instinct ought not to consult Humane Reason but follow the Interior Instinct because they are moved by a better Principle than Humane Reason And that the same Sentiments were among the Gentiles in very ancient times we may observe in the Sacred Scriptures Dan. 4.8 and 5.11 and long before Job 32.8 33.14 15 16. and Gen. 41.38 and 39.3 and before 26.28 and before that 21 22. And for the Jews it is very plain that in those Excellent Books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus by the Name of Wisdom this Divine Influence and Conduct is intended And for the Christians the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles is so express to this purpose that they who would evade the genuine Sense of their Words are forced to strain their Wits to the utmost and their Consciences too I doubt if they be not stupified before hand I need not recite the places which every one may have recourse to at pleasure and therefore it may be sufficient to note them under several Heads as I. The Predictions of the Prophets Isa 44.3 54.13 recited by our Saviour Jo. 6.45 Jer. 31.33 34. Ezek. 11.19 36.26 27. Joel 2.28 recited by St. Peter and applyed not only to the Christians then but to those also who should come after Act. 2.17 33.39 Zech. 12.10 Mat. 3.11 II. Promises of our Saviour Luk. 11.13 Jo. 7.39 14.16 17 23 26 15.26 16.7 Lu. 24.49 Act. 1.4 8 2.38 III. The Accomplishment of these Predictions and Promises 1. In the Original visible Effusion on the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles and Primitive Christians Act. 2.2 3 4 33. 2. By a Ministerial Communication Act. 8.15 17 10.44 19.6 Gal. 3.2 5 14. 2 Tim. 1.6 2 Cor. 3.6 8. 3. By internal Residence and Operation Illumination and Sanctification Rom. 8.9 11. 1 Cor. 3.16 6.19 Eph. 2.22 2 Tim. 1.14 1 Jo. 3.24 Gal. 4.6 1 Thess 4.8 2 Cor. 13.5 Phil. 2.13 4. By special and particular Manifestation and Conduct variously exhibited as 1. By Visions and Revelations Act. 9.10 12 10.10 11.28 16 9 18.9 22.17 1 Cor. 11.23 12.4 6 10 14.6 24 29 30 31. 2 Cor. 12.1 2 7. v. Lu. 2.26 Gal. 1.12 2.2 2. By Allocutions Act. 8.29 10.19 13.2 4 23.9 3. By Impulses and Excitations v. Lu. 2.27 Act. 4.8 13 31 5.20 4. By Prohibitions Act. 16.6 20.23 21.4 11. and Restraints Act. 16.7 IV. Admonitions 1. How to obtain it Jo. 14.15 16 17 23 Act. 5.32 Lu. 11.12 Ja. 1.5 Rev. 3.20 1 Pet. 4.13 2. To follow and obey it Rom. 8.1 4 5 9 13 14. Gal. 5.16 18 25. Eph. 4.30 3. To try the Spirits 1 Jo. 4.1 1 Cor. 14.29 More might be added but these are more than enough And to these it would not be hard to add a true Catholick Interpretation and Comment that is The Sentiments of the most ancient Christian Writers and others of the most Eminent of after Ages such as Hermas Justine Tatian Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Novatian Hilary
to bring us unto Christ so is Observance of the Prescripts of the Gospel designed for our Tutourage to bring us to the Spirit To that we must come or we are none of his but that way we must come and in that way we must keep or else we shall be led by the Spirit of Error and mistake that for the Spirit of Truth If we do well consider the Holy Scriptures the Nature of the Holy Spirit and the Fruits of the Spirit we may learn what Qualifications are requisite to obtain that inestimable Treasure and by what Signs and Characters it may be known and distinguished And thereby we may discern that many who pretend highly to the Spirit are much out of the way of the true Spirit of God and many led by the subtile Spirit of Antichrist under the appearance of an Angel of Light to undermine the Gospel and Institutions of Christ to do despite to the Spirit of Grace and to raise Scandals and Prejudices against the Holy Doctrine which they pretend and it may be think to assert and to indispose Men for the Reception of those Graces which those envious and malicious Spirits may know to be ready to be communicated to them And this should make others the more cautious that they be not subservient to and be made the very Tools of these wicked Agents in their Opposition least at last they be involved with them in their Condemnation The True way to reduce the misled People is not to deny or dissemble the Holy Doctrine much less to villifie or reproach it but plainly to assert the Truth and shew them wherein and by what Means they are misled from it 1. That the Spirit of God is the most precious and desirable thing in the World and absolutely necessary but it is to be desired principally to transform us into its own Nature to lead us into all necessary Truth to endue us with Power to overcome all our Corruptions and all Temptations and to adorn us with all those Graces which ennoble Humane Nature and raise it above its self and so make us Christians indeed and to conduct us in all the important Occurrences of our Lives but to desire it for Matters of Ostentation to glory in Divine Communications or over-earnestly seek after the Consolations through impatience of bearing the Spiritual Cross are great Signs that such Souls are either quite out of the way or have made but little Progress 2. That Satan is often transformed into an Angel of Light and therefore we must be careful to try the Spirits 3. That whatever is contrary to Sound Doctrine 1 Tim. 1.10 2.1 to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness ibid. 6.3 the Doctrine taught by the Apostles Rom. 16.17 Gal. 1.8 to the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jud. 3. cannot be from the true Spirit the Spirit of Christ 4. That such Spirits as lead into Divisions Separations and Sects lead out of the way of the True Spirit of God and whatever lead into contempt or disrespect of the Sacred Scriptures or any of the Ordinances or Institutions of Christ are certainly Spirits of Antichrist how specious soever their Pretences may be for the Conscientious and Reverend Use of these are the very Means whereby Souls are prepared for the Communication of the Spirit of God and whereby it is ordinarily communicated to them Cui Veritas comperta sine Deo Cui Deus cognitus sine Christo Cui Christus exploratus sine Spiritu Sancto Cui Spiritus Sanctus accommodatus sine Fidei Sacramento saith an ancient and eminent Christian Tertul. de Anima c. 1. To whom is Truth discovered without God To whom is God known without Christ To whom is Christ manifest without the Holy Spirit To whom is the Holy Spirit granted without the Sacrament of Faith that is Baptism 5. And more particularly in respect to some amongst us That they who assert this Doctrine without Distinction or Caution are not much to be regarded and if they be Men of Learning and may be presumed not to be ignorant what Cautions and Rules are given by Learned and Experienced Christians to distinguish the Impostures of Evil Spirits from the Conduct or Motions of the Good are much to be suspected to serve another Interest then what they pretend to those they mislead and that they all expose People to the Delusions of Evil Spirits which readily embrace such Advantages 6. That there were special Reasons why God ordered Moses to smite the Waters and the Dust with the Rod and to take handfuls of Ashes from the Furnace and sprinkle it towards the Heaven and to erect the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness c. to produce the intended effects and why our Saviour made Clay with Spittle and anointed the Eyes of the Blind Man and then bad him wash and many other such things for which perhaps no Man did nor doth know the reason and yet undoubtedly if these Orders had not been observed the Effect had not follow'd 7. That it is but reasonable that God should give Orders without declaring the Reason for Tryal and Exercise of the Subjection of the Intellectual Faculties of his Creatures and that in such Case if the Orders be not observed it is not likely the Effect should follow and that if there were no more than this Exercise of humble Submission to the Wisdom of God in the Christian Sacraments it could not be imagined to be the Spirit of Christ that should lead People to despise or neglect these Orders and Institutions of Christ But in them there is more for Instance in that of Baptism it is the Solemnity and external Act of Declaration of our Engagement in Covenant with Christ and the Refusal of it is as much as to refuse to Seal and Deliver a Bond which whoever should refuse to do and yet pretend to give Bond might be looked upon as a Knave or a Cheat and in that of the Holy Communion there is a great and Solemn Duty of Recognition of the absolute Dominion of the Father by Right of Creation and of the Son by Right of Redemption over us and all we are and have a Symbolical Oblation of our selves and of all we have to God in a Commemorative Sacrifice and Representation of the Passion of Christ before the Father as the Great Propitiation for the Sins of the World of as full import to all intents and purposes to Christians as were all the Sacrifices of the Jews to them which were but Types of the same a Holy Rite of Address to God the Father by Christ the Mediator through the Merit and Satisfaction of his Passion by which alone our Prayers and Thanksgivings have acceptance with him and of Spiritual Communion with God in Christ whereby a Divine Power and Vertue is as really communicated to Souls duly disposed as Vertue went out of him and healed the People and the Woman who touched the Hem of his Garment And these have been the
Sentiments and this the most solemn and peculiar Worship of the Christian Church all over the World from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same performed every day in most of the great Churches and every Lord's-Day in all from the times of the Apostles till the last Age. It is an Ordinance of so great Honour to our Saviour and Benefit to Souls duly dispos'd that there can hardly be a greater Evidence of the Prevalence of the Spirit of Antichrist and of Satan transformed than Disrespect and Neglect of it under pretence of a more spiritual Worship For nothing can be more grievous to that envious and malicious Spirit than to see that Passion which he had most maliciously procured to be so honoured all over the World and applyed to his Confusion and therefore hath he oppos'd it with all the Subtilty and Malice he could possible Besides for People to slight it under pretence of Christ being come to them in the Spirit is a manifest and dangerous piece of Spiritual Pride so to set up themselves above the Primitive Christians and St. Paul himself who had so great a Manifestation of the Spirit with them and therefore another pregnant Evidence of the Spirit of Delusion And if we do well consider what decays of Charity and Unanimity among Men and of Piety and Devotion to God hath in all parts attended the Neglect of this Holy Ordinance that may be another Evidence of what Spirit they are of who do neglect it whatever their Pretences be But for all Separatists and Sectaries in general it is matter of great Caution that the Scriptures are so full of Admonitions and Prohibitions against Schisms and Divisions and of Predictions both by our Saviour himself and by his Apostles both of the Variety of them and of the Danger in that some of them have that specious Appearance as to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. And if we look into the History of the Church in former times we shall find little or nothing of the true Spirit among any of any Party of Separatists but much of the Spirit of Error or Delusion And therefore when we find a Manifestation of the Presence or Energy of some Spirit and a Concurrence of divers of these Indications or Signs we may be assured and confident that it is an Antichristian Spirit be its appearance never so specious in other respects And in these two things especially have such as have been partakers of the true Spirit found themselves to be sometimes strangely assaulted and tempted by the subtile Adversary viz. to Spiritual Pride and undervaluation of other Persons and to neglect of the Ordinances of Christ as needless to them The Way whereby the ancient Religious Christians were generally preserved from these and such like Snares was that they were trained up as the Sons of the Prophets of old under ancient experienced Christians in all kind of Exercises of Humility Subjection both of Mind and Will and constant discovery of the Dispositions and Motions of their Hearts to their Superiors and of all Grace and Vertue But where both Doctrine and Practice hath been neglected it is not strange that amongst many Appearances and Pretences there should be found little of Solidity especially where those noble Heroick Virtues of Abstraction and Contempt of the World Heavenly-mindedness and continual Attendance to God c. are rejected as Monkery and Superstition but all their goodly Appearances and Pretences end at last in Emptiness and Scandal And therefore it concerns all who have any Care of their Souls to beware of all such as are out of the Way and Method of the Ancients But on the other side to take such Offence at the Miscarriages of such as have been led into Error by any seducing Spirit as therefore to oppose the Conduct of the Spirit of Truth or any of its Operations and elude the Holy Scriptures and undermine the Doctrine thereof is as certainly the Effect of the Operation of the Spirit of Antichrist and in truth as much Fanaticism as the other in the contrary Extream For the Good Spirit is as absolutely necessary to be had as all others to be avoided for without it we canot be genuine living Christians but meer empty formal Professors of which sort it is much to be feared are the greatest part both of Conformists and Non-Conformists amongst us if Judgment be made according to our Saviour's Rule of their Fruits and Fruitfulness But lest any well-minded Soul should be troubled with any doubts in this respect we must distinguish between Having the Spirit and the Manifestation of the Spirit and between the Operations of the Spirit the Gifts of the Spirit and the Graces of the Spirit and know that as there may be the Operations of the Spirit where there are not the Gifts of the Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit where there are not the Graces of the Spirit so on the other side there may be the Residence of the Spirit where there is no sensible distinguishable Manifestation of the Spirit For the Operations and Communications of the Spirit are often so subtile and secret in the manner both in Illumination and Power and Inclination of the Will as are not manifest by Sense but by Faith only and we know not how they are wrought in us But as the most desirable Graces of the Spirit are Regeneration and Effectual Sanctification so the Fruits and Effects thereof are the most infallible Notes of the Presence of the Good Spirit which always leads to Mortification of all Carnal and Earthly Affections and to the Perfection of all Coelestial Angelick and Divine Dispositions in the Soul But to Souls duly prepared purged and disposed for it that Blessed Guide doth often manifest his Presence by Sensible Attractions and Restraints upon the Heart and plain Suggestions to the Mind and to such as once find that I can give no better Advice then what we have Ecclesiasticus 4. and 6. which I believe was part of the Mystick Theology of the Ancients FINIS AN APOLOGY For and an INVITATION To the PEOPLE call'd QUAKERS TO Rectifie some ERRORS which through the Scandals given they have fallen into WHEREIN The true Original Causes both Humane and Divine of all the Divisions in the Church and Mischiefs in the State and among the People are plainly and briefly opened and detected LONDON Printed for the Author 1697. ADVERTISEMENT THAT whole Bodies or Societies of Men are subject to the same Infirmities which the Individuals of which they consist are and often Sick of the same Diseases and the very worst of all those of the Mind Blindness Conceitedness Perversness Obstinacy Incorrigibleness and Impatience of Reproof or even Friendly Admonition the Experience of all Ages doth abundantly manifest but in none is it more manifest than in the People of the Jews whom God raised up to be an Example Admonition and Warning to the rest of Mankind Their whole History and all
sad Truth but Truth it is and a Great one too and very manifest to all whose Eyes are open That our Vniversities and Church Preferments which were designed by our Pious Ancestors for the promotion of true Piety as well as Learning are by the Subtilty of Satan and Neglect of true Piety and Devotion to God become very subservient to the Kingdom of Darkness less to the Kingdom of Light From which corrupt Fountain hath proceeded one way or other not only all our Divisions but most of all the Evils which do now afflict either the Ecclesiastical or Civil State and if some very good Care be not speedily taken more and greater yet are more like to ensue than these be removed Of all the Sects which have sprung up amongst us there is none more considerable in this respect whereof I am speaking or less considered as it ought to be than that of the QUAKERS as they are abusively called begun by GEORGE FOX a young Man born of mean but honest and religious Parents at Drayton in Leicester-shire in the Year of our Lord 1624. and educated from his tender years in the Fear of the Lord but to no more Humane Learning than only to read English and write indifferently He was in his Youth disposed to Virtue and Piety and when upward of Nineteen retired from his Relations and Acquaintance and lived in divers places where he was not known working at his Trade of a Shoe-maker with his hands for his Livelyhood but exercising his Mind in serious Meditations both while at his Work and at other times of Leisure especially In the Year 1646. he understood That Vniversity Learning was not enough to qualifie Men to be Ministers of Christ and thereupon instead of hearing them used to retire with his Bible into Solitary places joyning neither with the Ministers of the Church nor with the Dissenters but relying wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ for his Inward Teaching At another time he understood That God who made the World did not dwell in Temples made with Hands but in his Peoples Hearts And in the Year 1647. having been for some time exercised with Temptations and Troubles in his Mind he came farther to understand That all was done and to be done in and by Christ and How he conquers and destroys the Tempter And some time after he went among the Professors at Duckenfield Manchester and declared Truth as he calls it amongst them and also at Broughton in Leicester-shire and Mansfield in Northampton-shire and then People came far and near to see him And here his Preaching seems to have commenced And in 1648. were divers Meetings of Friends in several Places And this was the Beginning of that Sect which is now become so considerable in outward Appearance and I wish more considerable in a true inward Power than it is For as all Man-kind are apt to relapse and sink down again from the Elevation to which God at any time raised them so I doubt are this People now relapsed very much into a Form only of a different sort and appearance The Beginning of George Fox seems to have been by and under a true Divine Conduct such as Abraham was led by such as Moses was driven by from the Court of Pharaoh into the Wilderness and such as the Holy Prophets of Old and greater numbers of Holy Christians afterwards were partly led and partly driven by into the Wilderness Solitary places and Retirement from Relations Friends and Acquaintance as our Saviour saith to forsake Father and Mother Brother and Sister and House and Land for his sake and in those Retirements he did receive Openings as he calls it of Truth indeed and when he came from his Retirement and went into the Meetings of Professors he did declare Truth indeed as he expresseth it For it is a certain Truth that University Learning that Preaching and Praying at Churches or elsewhere that the Studying of the Holy Scriptures that the Profession of Faith in Christ the Use of the Sacraments and most frequent and constant use of the great and chief Solemnity of the Christian Worship nay even Zeal for Christ and doing Miracles in his Name and Reliance upon his Merits are all though good in their kind and very necessary and some absolutely necessary yet are all short and deceitful to those who rest in them and seek not in all and above all that inward Principle of Light and Life which is Christ in them who receive him in Sincerity and Purity and retain it by faithful and ready Obedience to his Conduct This George saw very well and rightly And if he did in the heat of Disputes either through Transport or any humane Infirmity or through the Subtilty of Satan getting any Advantage of him over-shoot himself it is no more than what Luther and Calvin and the rest of the Reformers have done who whether they have reformed or deformed most may very well bear a Dispute and he and his Party deserve to be pitied and helped out by gentle and kind means And great reason there is for it upon two accounts at the least 1. Because the Scandals given were the occasions of their Errors 2. Because Christianity having before been pull'd to pieces and no where compleat intire and clear from Corruptions and Abuses to be found in any Church or Party of People in the World they of all the parts chose the better the Soul leaving the Body as a dead Carcass to the rest It is true this is in a great Measure to be imputed to those who by their Empty Formality gave the Occasion yet it was a Fault in Them who took such Offence at it What God hath joyned together Man must not presume to put asunder If the Leaper be commanded to wash in Jordan 2 King 5.10 he must not think that to wash in the Rivers of Damascus will do as well If the Blind Man be commanded to wash in Siloam Jo. 9.7 or even Moses to cast up Ashes into the Air Exod. 9.8 the Command must be obeyed and observed or the Effect shall not follow If People be commanded to be Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus that their Sins may be forgiven and that they may receive the Holy Ghost Act. 2.38 41. if they presume to neglect and cavil at the Command their Sins are more like to be increased and faster bound than forgiven and they more like to receive Satan transformed in a Spirit of Delusion than the Holy Spirit of God and to die in their Sins though with many false Comforts than to come to true Rest in the Lord in any other way than he hath prescribed God's Command if it be but the forbearing of an Aâ—ple Gen. 2.17 3.3 6 11. or the doing that which our Reason cannot understand must be observed punctually Disobedience to the Wisdom of God is no less a Sin than Disobedience to his Will And therefore I dare not excuse this People in this for their
their being cast out of the Synagogues as part of the Persecution they were to suffer It is also certain that our Saviour did foretell that many false Prophets that is false Teachers should come in his Name and deceive many and gave great Caution not to go out or believe them and that his Apostles did the like and did with great earnestness exhort all to beware of Divisions Schisms and Separations in the Church And accordingly in all Ages for Men to take upon them the Office of Elders or Ministers of the Gospel without a Regular Ordination derived by Succession from the Apostles or to draw away people after them and engage them in Separate Parties hath been looked upon as a heinous Sin and whoever have done so have been Infamous in the Church ever since And therefore if our Dissenters did continue daily with one accord at our Temples as the primitive Christians did and did continue their Assemblies at their own Meeting-places for Instruction and Edification without any Separation from the Church provided there was nothing but true Christian Doctrine taught amongst them I do not see but they might be of very good Use and deserve not only an Indulgence but Encouragement from the Publick Authority But they who make a Trade of it to engage Separate Parties I do verily believe have much to answer for before God and those who desire to be Christians indeed had need to beware of them And this I must in justice say after all I have said concerning what is amiss amongst us that thanks be to God we have those amongst us who for good Learning for profitable Preaching and for sincere Piety Devotion and all Virtue are no way inferior to any of the Dissenters if to be equalled by any of them and yet I cannot say they are so many but there may be reason enough to receive those Labourers also into our Lord's Harvest And I heartily wish it was well considered How they may be made more serviceable in so important and needful a Work without any thing of a Separation and that they would consider Who They are who sit in Moses or rather the Apostles Seat and What our Lord doth require in that respect And now to come more particularly to the PEOPLE of that Party call'd Quakers I must first acquaint them that I have not only had several Conferences with the Principal Persons of their Party whom they call Ministers but have also sent them several Letters and Papers to their Second Days Meetings And as our Conferences have hitherto been managed in a very friendly manner so I do desire to proceed in the same manner with them also and therefore what is directed at first only to the second days Meeting I shall desire them now to receive as intended from the first for them all though I thought it most fair and decent to proceed in that order And it is as followeth To William Penn and the rest of the Friends with him at their second days Meeting in Grace-Church-Street William and the rest of the Friends with thee MY Hearts desire and Prayer to God for you all is that ye may be saved for I am perswaded that you have a Zeal of God at least many of you though not according to Knowledge in some things Nevertheless whereto ye have attained in that I desire ye may be established and that God will be graciously pleased to reveal the rest to you that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing For which purpose I come I trust by the Grace of God with a Message of Grace and Peace to you I am well satisfied that it is no meer Humane Project or Artifice that at first raised you up and hath conducted you hitherto but a Supernatural Power and that it is of the Lord some way or other as was the Separation of the Ten Tribes from Rehoboam 1 King 12. for Correction and Reformation of something amiss in this Church And therefore I dare not presume either upon my own head or by my own Ability to intermeddle in it But my Heart is inlarged towards you upon these Considerations 1. That ye do assert one of the Great and Chief Principles of the Christian Religion which I have observed to be very unworthily and even despitefully treated by too many who have gotten into or seek Preferments and Imployment in the Church without Check or Reproof and so unworthily deserted by most for fear of reproach or disgrace or hindrance in their Preferment that I have not known it generously asserted by above two or three in the Pulpit but those great Men indeed though it be plainly a Doctrine most authentickly and solemnly professed and declared in the Church of England 2. That ye do bear a good Testimony against other Abuses connived at or tolerated amongst us 3. I am moved with Pity towards you that you should have so great Causes of Offence or Scandal given you against the Holy and Established Institutions and Ordinances of Christ for the Ministerial Office for the Admission of Proselytes and for the great Solemnity of the Christian Worship which hath been so long abused with Controversies that I know very few Persons now amongst us who do rightly and compleatly understand it and even against the Person Satisfaction and Merits of Christ himself But when I consider your Notions and Sentiments concerning these things though I am well satisfied that you are under the Conduct and Energy of some Spiritual Power yet What that Spirit is and Whether One or Divers in my Judgment doth deserve very good Consideration Ye know what Spirit it was which God sent between Abimelech and the Shechemites Jud. 9.23 and what that was that was sent from the Lord to Saul 1 Sam. 6.14 and what that was that was commissioned by God in the case of Ahab 1 King 22.22 23. and what that was in the midst of the Princes of Noph Isa 19.14 which was from the Lord too And that such a Spirit hath been among some call'd Quakers is manifest both by their Actions Speeches and Writings nay the very Spirit of the Devil and of Antichrist is apparent and undeniable from the Indignities offered both in word and deed to Holy things But that is not the thing now to be considered what Spirits may have appeared among them For even among the Apostles Satan had power to enter into Judas and it is not improbable but those whom our Saviour told Ye know not what Spirit ye are of and even Peter himself when our Saviour said to him Get thee behind me Satan might not at the time be free from some Impressions of Evil Spirits That 't is likely was a Peculiarity of our Saviour's for the Prince of this World to have nothing in him But the thing to be considered is What Spirit that is which at first excited and hath now the Conduct of the whole Body of this People And not whether it be sent or commissioned from God but
Whether it be one of the Ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation or One of those Seducing Spirits to whom in the latter times that some would give heed was in the times of the Apostles expressly said by the Spirit of God And great Reason there is to take this into very deep Consideration 1. Because of the many and weighty Cautions given by our Saviour and his Apostles and left upon record in the Sacred Scriptures for our warning in these latter times to beware of them and not to go out after them with Admonitions concerning their Subtilty their Energy or Power and their strong Delusions to deceive if it were possible the very Elect and that even Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light that is puts on the Appearance of an Angel of Light 2 Cor. 11.14 and lastly that we should try the Spirits 1 Jo. 4.1 2. Because if the Tryal be by Agreement or Disagreement with the Doctrine Institutions and Ordinances of Christ and his Apostles authorized by him they may seem to have apostatized and gone off or at least fallen short of them in matters of great Moment and special concern those before mentioned and therefore to be Seduced by some Spirit of Error For I doubt not but the Devil himself hath that Malice and Envy against the Man Christ Jesus by whom he hath been Conquered and Vanquished and against the Solemn Memorial of that Victory that could he but keep people from engaging in that Holy Covenant with Him by Baptism and from the Solemnity of that Memorial he would be willing himself to lead them into all other Truth upon that condition rather than fail Yet notwithstanding since they are a Sober People have received retained and do act upon one of the chief Principles of Christianity and have divers commendable things in them and what Errors they have fallen into have been occasioned by the Scandals and Offences given by those of the Church who will have a sad account to answer for it I do hope in the Mercy and Goodness of God that if it be a good Spirit which hath the Conduct of them he shall lead and dispose those who are Sincere amongst them to the acknowledgment of the Truth in those things whereto they have not yet attained and if it be otherwise he shall be forced to resign the Conduct of them to a more powerful and better Guide and that we shall see such a Society of Compleat Christians come out of this despised People as are at this time hardly to be found in any part of the World that I know of These are my Thoughts and Hopes concerning this People in general at present And Hopes I say grounded upon the Mercy of God and Power of God which no Good Being would oppose nor no Evil Power can stand before And in His Name I come unto you knowing assuredly that neither I nor any Humane Ability is able to prevail against the Power that is amongst you notwithstanding the Certainty of the Truths that I have mentioned already and shall endeavour by the Grace and Assistance of God Almighty through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ more fully to explain unto you in due time But as I said if it be a good Power it will favour me and assist me in it and rejoyce in it too and if it be an Evil Power Commissioned it must cease and submit to that Victorious and All-Conquering Name Its Enchantments must be dissolved and its Sophistry and Falacies detected I therefore as an Ambassador of Christ in the Spirit and Meekness of Christ beseech you Be ye reconciled to the Truths of God and receive them with that Reverence and Gratitude that is meet without Cavelling or regard to any Temporal concern I do not invite you to return to the Abuses and Corruptions which you have forsaken but to those Truths and to the due use of those Holy things against which you have been Scandalized by those Abuses and Corruptions Nor do I invite you to dissolve your Society or to leave off your Meetings and drown your selves in a promiscuous Multitude No you have in part born a good Testimony and I would have you do so still But I invite you only to make your Testimony more Compleat Illustrious and Irrefragable by bearing your Testimony to the whole Truth and not any longer a Testimony like the Feet of Daniel's Image partly strong and partly weak by a mixture of Truth with Falshood for that cannot stand long together but to strengthen the things that remain and set in order the things that are wanting that ye may stand for otherwise ye will certainly be Broken to Pieces I invite you but to what I am doing my self with a small Company of Poor people that is bearing a Testimony for God and manifestly under his Conduct But it is neglected by them to whom it hath been offered for a sufficient Time and in a sufficient Manner considering their Learning and pretence to Knowledge And now it is offered to you a despised People that God may humble the Proud and High-minded and confound the Wisdom of the Wise by mean and despicable things in the sight of Men. Be Wise and neglect not the Opportunity and you who were last in the Worlds account shall be first What ever you do you will find there is solid Truth in the Proposal and I wish you may receive it to the Honour and Glory of God and your own Comfort and Salvation and you will then find me to have been Your Sincere and Cordial Friend E. S. 31 Aug. 1696. After this there were other Letters and Papers sent which may be taken notice of hereafter as there may be occasion but the last contained certain Questions which I think fit now to propose to the Consideration of all who are sincere and do desire not to deceive themselves nor be deceived in a matter of so great Importance as the Will and Service of God and the Salvation of their own Souls If any notwithstanding will presume to go on in any false or Erroneous Ways they must answer for it and their Blood if they miscarry must be upon their own Heads For the Design and Vse of these Questions is to examin the case What Spirit they are of the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of Antichrist the Spirit of Truth or some subtile Spirit of Delusion Whether they be Christians indeed or counterfeit Christians that is Antichristians Whether Hypocritical Professors in Words but Renagadoes in Deeds refusing the Solemnities of his Covenant and Worship and the Orders of his Church or such sincere Christians as are ready to follow the Guidance of his Spirit out of their own Wills and out of their own Wisdom and Imaginations and Errors and Mistakes into all Truth and Whether they be in the Way of Salvation or of Delusion and Perdition The Times of this Ignorance God winked at but now commandeth