in causing Ecstasies besides that of Socrates Bona mentions the like of Carneades related by Valerius Maximus of Plotinus by Porphyrius of Iamblichus by Eunapius and the common instance of Restitutus in S. Austin who fell into an ecstasie when he pleased Thomas Aquinas reckons up three causes of Raptures Bodily distempers Diabolical and Divine Power but Cajetan saith there is a fourth cause acknowledged elsewhere by him viz. a vehement intention of the mind which he therefore omitted because he spake of causes extrinsecal to the mind it self § 10. 2. There can be no certainty by the Rules laid down by themselves that the Ecstasies and Raptures or Visions and Revelations of Persons do come only from divine and supernatural Causes For they grant that in all these cases there is reason to suspect Ecstasies and Raptures 1. If the Persons natural temper be very melancholy This is the first Rule in Cardinal Bona for saith he those who are troubled with this may easily fix their minds so upon one object as to suffer an alienation of their senses from any other Ioh. à Iesu Maria a great Mystical Divine makes this his fourth Rule to consider whether the Person have a good understanding or be troubled with any distemper in the head or with Melancholy or be subject to any vehement passions which Cardinal Bona likewise adds and therefore Cardinal Cajetan well notes that the various motion of the heart arising from some apprehension or desire moves the body and alters it according to different qualities which alteration of the body doth again affect the imagination and appetite from whence we may observe that those accidents which often happen to persons under Ecstasies are Originally caused from their own apprehension although afterwards custome being turned into nature makes them fall under them whether they will or no. which is seen by this that if they turn their imaginations with all their force quite another way those accidents forsake them as saith he I have found by certain experience which is a plain discovery that these things are produced by natural causes F. Baker himself puts that down among his Rules whether the persons be not addicted to Melancholy from which Rule there is great reason to suspect those who have complained of being oppressed with a most profound Melancholy as M. Teresa did and we have reason to believe it of all those lovers of Solitude that forsake all conversation of mankind as the Aegyptian Eremites did 2. If their proficiency in vertue be not very great This is the first Rule laid down by Fortunatus Scacchus Prefect of the Popes Chappell in his Book of the Qualifications necessary to Canonization viz. that we examine the life and actions of the Persons who pretend to Ecstasies and Raptures if they have been such as have come up to an Heroical degree of Perfection it may be believed that they come from God but if not they come either from a natural or Diabolical cause especially saith he if they happen in women who may seem to aim either at the fame of Sanctity or some advantage by it Great Caution saith Cardinal Bona is to be used in judging the Raptures of Young Beginners for the very Novelty and Sweetness of Divine Contemplation is apt to put such into Ecstasies it is like strong Wine which they cannot bear without intoxication Besides saith he it ought to be inquired into whether their Souls be capable of such favours what purity and humility they have attained to whether their lives be as much above the world as they pretend their souls are if not they are no true raptures but illusions of the Devil to the same purpose the rest speak What must we then think of those Raptures which M. Teresa had when she said she was very backwards and but in the beginnings of vertues and mortifications 3. If they are not able to give any good account of what they speak in their ecstasies this Cardinal Bona layes down That if when they come to themselves they know not what they said in their Ecstasies but refer the hearers to what they spake then or if they speak whether they will or no there is great reason to suspect them For this saith Cardinal Cajetan is a condition of true Inspiration that the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets in this that they do not speak with any disturbance of mind as though they were acted by another but from their own sense with a quiet mind understanding what they speak therefore saith he they that speak in alienation of mind or after it do not remember what they spake in it have no true inspirations From whence it appears saith he that those who in their Ecstasies speak in the Person of Christ or of some Saint as though they were acted by them are either seduced or do seduce And yet the foolish world is astonished and admires and adores these words and actions But this rule although as much grounded on Scripture and Reason as any is as far as I can find very carefully omitted by the Mystical writers for a very good Reason which they well know 4. If they have weakned themselves by very long fastings for so Cardinal Bona saith that very great weakness may bring them to fainting sits and Ecstasies and he tells us from S. Teresa that she cured a Nun of her Ecstasies by making her leave her Fasting and bringing her to a good habit of Body It is great pity the same experiment had not been tryed upon her self Some saith Bona have made that an argument that their Ecstasies were supernatural because they continued many dayes in them without eating or drinking whereas many have undergone long fasts without a Miracle and some of the Indian Priests have â—asted twenty dayes together but because in those parts the heat may take away their appetite therefore Paulus Zacchias produces many instances of very long Fasts in these European parts without any miracle besides what Licetus Horstius Kornmannus and Sennertus and others have related to the same purpose and such Instances have been lately known among us in England 5. If they be very frequent and ordinary and happen upon any slight occasion For saith Paulus Zacchias since Divine Raptures have the nature of something miraculous in them we are not to suppose them to be very common and as often as any one pleases therefore saith he when we see a person fall frequently into Ecstasies we may justly presume that it is something natural since God doth not commonly work miracles Cardinal Bona saith that Sales thought the meer frequency of having Divine Revelations was enough to make them suspected And for persons to fall as often as they please into Ecstasies is saith Scacchus an evident sign of a Diabolical illusion so the Maid of Saragoza and Magdalena Crucia were discovered And what shall we then think of the
nor as many of her Friends did as one deluded by the Devil but I see nothing in her case but what might be a natural effect of an over-heated Imagination in a Person of a very melancholy devout temper especially being before-hand possessed with the Notions of Mystical Divinity And for the approbations given to her Visions I do not wonder at them since there was a Design to Canonize her for a Saint and she was the Foundress of a new Order and that there was something relating to this in the penning of her Visions seems to be not obscurely intimated in the last Page of her Book where she desires him to whom she writ it to make haste to serve his Majesty that he might do her a Favour for it seems by her own relation her Order met with great contradiction at Court And for the approbation of her Books I do no more wonder at that than I do at others that proceed upon the same principles viz. of Mystical Theologie But I do exceedingly admire at those persons who dare to bring the single instance of S. Pauls Rapture to justifie all the pretences to Visions and Raptures of the Melancholy and distempered Women of their Church If we had not so great reason to put such a mighty difference between them as to the Wisdom of the Persons the reasonableness of their Doctrine the Miracles wrought to confirm the testimony of the Apostles it would be as Cardinal Bessarion said of the Canonizations of new Saints that it made men Question the old so these new Raptures and Visions would expose the credit and Authority of undoubtedly Divine Revelations Therefore let Mr. Cressy and O. N. have a care while they are so ready to charge me with blaspheming Gods Saints that by making the case so parallel between the Prophets and Apostles and their new Saints they do not lay in the way of all considering men of their Church one of the greatest temptations to Infidelity § 6. But O. N. hath not yet done for he brings all those phrases of Scripture that relate to the sanctification of mens souls by divine Grace and the comfort of Gods Spirit and the extraordinary Revelations which came by the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and their Disciples to justifie the expressions of Mystical Divinity which are all extreamly impertinent unless he can prove from any of them such an Union with the Divine Essence as excludes the use of ratiocination in the soul wherein the perfection of Contemplative prayer is placed and all the other phrases are to be understood with a respect to this And what though there be two Spirits working within us and there be degrees of spiritual persons and the Spirit assists the souls of men with good motions which ought not to be resisted and what if some have a greater measure of this Assistance than others what if excellent minds may attain to an assurance that they are under the conduct of the Divine Spirit and may have great comfort and satisfaction therein nay what if I should grant that a State of Perfection were attainable in this life yet all this were nothing to his purpose unless he can prove that the supposing the perfection of a Christian to be consistent with laying aside the Use of all ratiocination as it is in the Mystical Union doth not expose men to the greatest Enthusiasm and most Fanatick Delusions imaginable I mean that state which himself expresses by those supernatural elevations wherein are communicated to the soul many times Celestial Secrets and Divine Mysteries and future events by internal words and Revelation all which things are received by it with a great tranquillity and attention and cessation of the natural use of its Faculties Sensitive or Intellectual nor seems it in its own disposal while it hath these touches And this is that he tells us which the Mystick Divines express by the terms of a supernatural or rather superessential life a Deisormity or Deification of a sense or fruition of Gods presence in the fund depth or center or innermost part of the soul or also in the Apex or supream point of it of Passive Unions wherein is to be understood not an exclusion of all acts whatsoever but an exclusion of any discursive and laborious acts and any primary moving of it self to action This explication I accept of and undertake to make it appear that in it is contained the greatest height of Fanaticism For what can be imagined greater than to exempt all pretenders to Enthusiasm and Divine Inspiration from any tryal by humane reason For if no persons are competent Iudges of these supernatural elevations but those which have experience of them as they assert if by virtue of these elevations men come to the knowledge of Divine Mysteries and Future Events by internal words and Revelation what is to be done with any Person who pretends to these elevations Must their Confessors judge of them But why for either they have not experienced these things and then they are no competent Iudges or they have and then they are pretenders to the same things and ought as much to be judged by others but how by the acts of reason and the rules of it how is that possible when they are supposed to be above all acts of Reason and Discourse and to do it without reason will be as little honour to the Iudges as it will be Vindication to the pretenders But the Church is to be Iudge Why so since the Spirit can no more deceive one than a thousand and they have satisfaction in themselves that it is the Spirit of God in them as much as it is possible for any to have that the Spirit of God directs the Church nay much greater for the other is only the certainty of reason and discourse but this is an inward Certainty of Experience above all ratiocination But how again shall the Church judge of this If the Church pretend to the same thing she is lyable to the same accusation if she does not she can have no pretence to judge of things that are to be known only by experience So that if men speak consequently and agreeably to themselves there is no way of tryal left for pretenders to these things And what should hinder every Enthusiast from this pretence or something very like it viz. Divine Inspiration Why should the pretence to the Spirit be more lyable to the tryal of other mens reason or Authority than the pretence to Mystical Unions Cannot they make use of the very same places of Scripture to justifie all the Fanatick pretences to immediate impulses and motions of the Divine Spirit Cannot they tell men as easily that they that are unexperienced are no Iudges in this case and that the sensual man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God Nay these have been the very pleas of all our Enthusiasts and there is scarce one place of Scripture
mentioned by O. N. which they have not been before-hand with him in producing to the very same purpose I cannot then find out the difference between the highest of our Enthusiasts and theirs and the very same pleas which serve for the one will justifie the other also What have they ever pretended to but to understand celestial secrets divine mysteries or future events by immediate Revelation Now all these things are owned defended and justified by the Roman Church and yet they not lyable to the charge of Fanaticism § 7. No saith O. N. Enthusiasm or Fanaticism doth not lye in speaking things hard to be understood nor yet the pretending high and mysterious effects Visions Revelations c. for all these we believe may be and are often wrought in Gods Saints by the Holy Spirit and his special presence in their souls and that we say in a much higher and more admirable way than any of Satans infatuations can imitate or ascend to but Fanaticism is a false pretence of these or the like when having no just ground to be credited they pretend to them So that the main point is yielded up to the Fanaticks viz. Visions and immediate Revelations and unaccountable Impulses from the Spirit of God all the dispute is whether the Popish Enthusiasts or those among us are only pretenders If O. N. were to convince a Quaker who pretends to such an immediate impulse of the Spirit this must be his method of proceeding with him Friend I perceive thou talkest much of the Spirit of God moving thee and revealing the hidden mysteries of his Kingdom to thee but thy pretence is vain and thou art deceived by thy own fancy if not by an evil Spirit No saith the Quaker I know I am not for I have the testimony of the Spirit within me that I am not deceived but thou art deceived and lyest against the Holy Ghost and blasphemest the Spirit of God working in his Saints Not I saith O. N. I grant that the Holy Ghost doth work in his Saints such supernatural elevations whereby they understand divine Mysteries and have Visions and Raptures and Revelations more than any of you but all ours are true and yours are false Thou lying Prophet replyes the Quaker Gods speaks truth by thee as he did once by Balaams Ass and Caiaphas but thou through the Wickedness of thy heart dost condemn the Generation of his Saints among us as hypocrites and wouldst have the Spirit of God dwell only among you that are the Sons of Mystical Babylon and partake of all her defilements that are the seed of the Beast and the false Prophet that commit adultery with Images and set up the Man of Sin in his Throne that have covered the face of the earth with your abominations and still go about to deceive the Nations You have the Spirit of God among you You pretend to the seeing hidden Mysteries and immediate Revelations and Mystical Unions with God! No yours are the Mysteries of Iniquity the Revelations of Antichrist and unions only with Mystical Babylon You have the Spirit of God among you No yours is the Spirit of Enchantment and Divination the Spirit of lying and deceit the Spirit of Antichrist and not of God I say again saith O. N. that we have the Spirit and you have not And I say by the Spirit that you have not saith the Quaker And is not this a fair conclusion of this Dispute Hath not O. N. extreamly got the better of the Quaker But O. N. pleads yet farther that they make use of Notes and Rules of discerning of the pretences to Inspiration which I shall consider afterwards but that which O. N. and Mr. Cressy do most insist upon is this that if such pretenders to Inspirations do speak or do any thing against the Catholick Church as they call it then their pretences are to be rejected as Satanical illusions Very good This is a way to preserve themselves but what is this to the preventing the delusions of such fanatick pretenders to Inspirations who may be grosly deceived and yet never speak or do any thing against their Church but it seems the least touch that way presently marrs all If Mother Teresa had but chanced to let fall a word against the Power of Holy Water in driving away Devils or chanced in one of her Visions to have seen Bread upon the Altar after consecration away with her a meer hypocrite and Impostor one deluded by the Devil and it had been well if after all her Visions and Raptures she had escaped the Inquisition For can it possibly be so certain that she had Divine Visions as that Holy Water drives away Devils or that she had Mystical Unions as that no bread remained upon the Altar after consecration No no. If melancholy Women once offer to meddle in those matters they must then be told of their weakness of Iudgement and strength of Imagination and delusions of the Devil but if they admire every superstitious foolery and see strange effects of Holy Water and in some Visions can discern the very flesh and blood of Christ in the Eâ—charist then O heavenly Visions O Divine Saint Then her Confessor must sooth and flatter her and suffer her to be deceived by her own imagination at least if not by something worse So that this whole business of Visions and Revelations among them is managed by Politick Rules if they can serve to strengthen their interest they are encouraged if not the persons are presently discountenanced and if they persist in their pretences in great hazard of the Inquisition But may not weak and Melancholy Persons be deceived in judging the effects of a strong Imagination to be the Inspirations of the Spirit of God What then say they these do no hâ—rt to the World But is it no injury to their souls to suffer them to be so deluded Is it no dishonour to Christian Religion to make the Perfection of the Devotion of it to consist in such strange unaccountable Unions and Raptures which take away the use of all Reason and Discourse Is it nothing to have Persons Canonized for Saints and admired and worshipped chiefly for the sake of these things In which case not only the particular persons while they lived were suffered to be abused but the whole Christian World as much as lyes in them is imposed upon and the effects of a strong Imagination and Mystical Unions are recommended as the perfection of the Christian State § 8. But whatever Rules they go by I shall now shew that such kind of Ecstasies and Revelations as the Mystical Divinity pretends to have been condemned by the Christian Church in former Ages which will yet farther discover how far it is from being a part of the Cristian doctrine â—o far is it from being the perfection of a Christian State And the Instance I shall produce will be such a one wherein the judgement of the whole Christian Church was seen viz. in
the ecstatical Visions and Raptures and Revelations which Montanus and his followers pretended to Baronius proves from the testimonies of Philastrius Epiphanius Theodoret and others that Montanus and his companions were good Catholicks and great practisers of fasting and mortifications and were in great esteem in the Church for a more than ordinary degree of sanctity when they wee in this reputation they pretended to have extraordinary Visions and Ecstasies wherein they suffered such violences as Mother Teresa describes and were under such a force upon their minds as they thought divine which deprived them of the present use of ratiocination in which state they said they had many Revelations from God Now here we have the very case of Mystical Unions and we all know that this Spirit of Montanus was rejected in the Christian Church as a Fanatick Enthusiastical Spirit but it will be worth our while to shew that it was upon this very ground because the Montanists pretended to such Ecstasies and Revelations from God which deprived men of the use of their Reason Claudius Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis apprehending the dangerous consequences of these Enthusiastical pretences to Ecstasies and Revelations goes to Ancyra in Galatia to give himself full satisfaction as to the nature of them and being returned he writes this account to his friend Marcellus that Montanus was wont to fall into sudden transports and ecstasies in which he became Enthusiastical and uttered strange things and prophesie which saith he is a thing contrary to the constant tradition and practice of the Christian Church the same he saith of the two female Enthusiasts Prisca and Maximilla and all the account he gives of their separation from the communion of the Church was because the Christian Church all over the world refused to give any entertainment to their Enthusiastical Spirit and that the Churches of Asia having met together and examined this Spirit they condemned it as impious whereupon they were cast out of the Church upon which Maximilla cryed out I am driven away as a Wolf from the Sheep but I am no Wolf but the Word and the Spirit and the Power Miltiades as appears by Eusebius writ a Book against the Montanists on this subject that God did not communicate Revelations in Ecstasies wherein he shewed that Montanus was wont to fall into his Ecstasies which ended in an involuntary Madness and then proves that none of the Prophets either of the Old or New Testament ever prophesied in Ecstasies or when they had no use of their Reason But no one speaks more punctually to this business than Epiphanius who layes down this as a general Rule that whatever Prophets spake they delivered with the clear use of their Reason and Understanding and afterwards saith that the Montanists were very much deceived in pretending to such Visions and Revelations because God had sealed up his Church and put an end to those extraordinary Gifts While there was any need of Prophets holy men of God were sent by him with a true Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great steadiness of mind and a clear understanding and afterwards makes this the characteristical difference of a true and false Prophet that a true Prophet speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great consistency of ratiocination and consequence Thus Moses thus Isaiah saith he thus all the Prophets Do not you see saith he that these are the words of men that understood themselves and not of men that were ecstatical but these pretenders to Visions and Revelations speak dark and perplexed and obscure things viz. much like to Mystical Divinity which neither they understood themselves nor those that hear them As any one may see in him by the fragments he hath preserved both of Montanus and Maximilla But they pleaded Scripture too for their Ecstasies and Raptures viz. Genâ— 2. 21. Gods sending upon Adam a deep sleep which was rendered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which Epiphanius answers that that was only a binding of his senses by natural rest and not any force upon the mind but they had another place too as impertinent as this but as impertinent as it is it is the very same phrase that my Adversaries produce Ego dixi in â—xcessu meo which Epiphanius proves cannot be understood of any such Ecstasie as the Montanists pleaded for and in Truth he needed not take much pains to do it But they could not follow the Montanists exactly unless they abused Scripture too to justifie their Visions and Ecstasies So one Ferdinandus de Diano a Venetian Divine writing a Book purposely in Vindication of these things on the occasion of the Ecstasies and Visions of a Certain Nun which were sent to Paul the fifth and which were taken by her Confessor for fourteen years together makes use of the very same phrases of Scripture as the Montanists did but exceeds them in impertinency for to prove Raptures he produces all the places where the word raptus is used raptus est nè malitia mutaret intellectum ejus Sap. 4. Mens illius ad diversa rapitur Job 26. rapiemur cum illis in nubibus 1 Thess. 4. but above all commend me to Holofernes his Rapture to prove the Raptures of the Popish Saints Holophernis oculi à sandalibus Iudith rapti sunt ejus cor sensus cum illis rapta sunt Jud. 16. Can any man be so hard hearted to withstand such manifest proofs as these are But to return to Epiphanius we are not to understand saith he any Rapture or Ecstasie of the Prophets so as to suppose them to be deprived of the use of their reason and them So he shews that S. Peter in his Ecstasie had still the free exercise of his Reason which he absolutely affirms of every Prophet both of the Old and New Testament What would Epiphanius have thought then of the glorious frenzies and heavenly follies of M. Teresa in which she spake she knew not what What of the Mystical Unions wherein the operations of the understanding are suspended What of all the holy Violences she underwent wherein both understanding and memory were distracted No doubt he would have declared them all to be downright Montanism and condemned by the whole Christian Church Neither were these the only Persons who delivered the sense of the Church in this matter but S. Hierom saith the same thing The Prophet saith he speaks not in an Ecstasie as Montanus and Prisca and Maximilla fondly imagine but what he prophesies is the Book of the Vision of one who understands all he sayes So of the Prophet Habakkuk he understands what he sees contrary to the perverse doctrine of Montanus and speaks not as a fool nor gives as distracted women do a sound without any signification Whence it comes that the Apostle commands that if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by the first should hold his peace for saith he presently after
God is not the Author of confusion but of peace whence it follows that he who holds his peace to give way to another to speak he can either speak or hold his peace at his pleasure but that he who speaks in an Ecstasie i. e. against his will is not at liberty to speak or to be silent And to the same purpose he speaks in other places in which he saith that all the Visions and Revelations which came â—rom God were full of Wisdom and Reason and not like the Extravagancies of Montanus Nay S. Chrysostom goes higher and imputes all Fanatick Ecstasies to the Devil who breaks in upon the Soul and blinds the Understanding and darkens the Reasoning Faculty but the Spirit of God doth not so but suffers the heart to know what it sayes The Devil as an enemy fights against the humane soul but the holy Spirit as taking care of it and ready to do it good communicates his Counsel to those who receive it and reveals unto them divine things with Understanding And elsewhere he makes this the great difference between Divination and divine Revelation that the one was done in Ecstasies and Rapture with violence to the mind the other â—â—dately and composedly and understanding whatever they spake for God did not press them by violence nor darkned their understandings but did advise and teach them leaving them still Masters of themselves whence Jonas fled and Ezekiel put off and Jeremiah excused himself S. Basil utterly denyes that the humane understanding was ever suspended by divine Revelation or that men were by the Spirit of God deprived of the use of Ratiocination For how does it stana with Reason that through the Wisdom of the Spirit a man should become as one besides himself and that the Spirit of knowledge should deliver things incoherent for neither is light the cause of blindness nor does the Spirit Cause obscurity in mens minds but raises the understanding to the contemplation of things intelligible cleansing it from the stains of sin nor is it improbable that through the design of the evil Spirit who layes his Ambushes to ensnare humane Nature the mind is confounded but to say the same is done by the Spirit of God is impious From all which testimonies nothing can be more evident than that the Visions and Revelations the Ecstasies and Raptures which S. C. and O. N. do plead for were condemned by the whole Christian Church and the most eminent Lights of it as the very height of Fanaticism But O. N. would have men believe that the antient Church did very much favour such Ecstasies and Visions to that end he produces the Testimony of Tertullian concerning the Sister that fell into an Ecstasie and had the Vision of the Corporeity of the Soul as though Tertullian were not known to have taken the part of Montanus in this matter and in that very place in the next words to those cited by O N. he pleads for the continâ—ance of Visions and Ecstasies in the Christian Church and in several other places of the same Bâ—ok And I desire O. N. and his Brethren to consiâ—er a little better what they say when they charge me with making all Antiquity Fanatick upon the same grounds that I charge Fanaticism on their Church for it is most evident by this Discourse that I have the best and purest Antiquity and the full consent of the Christian Church in the case of Montanus clearly on my side And I declare freely that I value this consent above all the Writers of the Lives of Saints from S. Antonies downwards and it is the only considerable thing which Diano saith on this subject if we do not allow of Visions and Raptures and Revelations what will become saith he of all the Lives of the Saints and the Legends which are full of them as may be seen in Lippoman Surius Baronius and the Monastick Histories of the Dominicans and Franciscans What will become of the Speculum exemplorum of the Promptuaria the Liber Apum the Legends of the blessed Virgin and a thousand such excellent Books Truly it is the least part of my concernment what becomes of them and I think it had been much more for the honour of Christianity if they had never been writ And if as O. N. saith it be now too late to cry such things down I am very heartily sorry for it and it is a plain discovery that the Spirit of Montanus hath too much possessed that which they call the Catholick Church But O. N. besides Tertullian produces several passages of S. Augustin to justifie these supernatural and extraordinary Graces and caresses received from God for those of S. Gregory and S. Bernard are not of so great weight in this matter to deserve a particular consideration where the consent of the Christian Church is so fully proved already S. Augustin is brought in by him as acknowledging his Conversion from Manichaism to have been from a divine Revelation concerning Gods incorruptibility and immutability but what were this to the purpose if the free use and exercise of his Reason were continued therein yet no such thing doth appear by any thing said by S. Augustin In the dispute with Fortunatus he doth say that he would answer that which God would have him to know that God could suffer no necessity nor have any violence put upon him which Fortunatus saith God had revealed to him and in the conclusion making use of the force of that argument he saith by that he was divinely admonished to leave the Manichean doctrine And what is all this to Mystical Divinity What immediate Revelation or Vision or Rapture was this for a man to acknowledge there was something divine in the force of a particular argument to convince him Do I ever call it Fanaticism for men to acknowledge the Grace of God in the illumination of their minds when some particular arguments may perswade them at some times which at another might not have done it And to let us see that S. Augustin meant no such thing as any particular Revelation in this case in the seventh Book of Confessions he gives an account by what steps and degrees he was brought off from Manichaism and as much by the exercise of Reason and understanding as we shall easily meet with in any person And as to this particular argument as though he had a mind to prevent any such imagination he saith he had it from Nebridius at Carthage But I cannot but wonder at the bringing in the Nesciens unde quomodo and hoc uno ictu in the foregoing Chapter where he speaks expresly of the manner of his forming a Conception of God as a Spiritual Being upon which he saith that although he could not tell whence or how yet he was certain that a corruptible being was more imperfect than an incorruptible and therefore his heart did rise against his imaginations and with
buildings and therefore bids them build poor and mean lodgings for themselves which they ought not to dwell in as their own but to lodge in them as Travellers And he makes it one of the inviolable Rules of his Order that they should have nothing appropriated to them neither house nor place nor any thing And as the Carthusians zeal was against flesh so S. Francis his was against Money which he strictly enjoyns those of his Order never to touch as though the soul were infected at the Fingers ends As for working he leaves it to those to whom God hath given the Grace of working which he perceived to be not near so common a Grace with them as that of Idleness if they did chance to work hard they might receive necessaries for it for themselves and their Brethren but by no means money and the height of poverty he tells his Disciples would certainly bring them to Heaven This was to be their portion in this world to which they must stick close Which was a portion easily left and which they were very willing to part with although S. Francis took as much care to secure it to them as man could do For the Rule concludes with a heavy imprecation of the indignation of God and his Saints against those who should presume to violate it And in his Testament he earnestly recommends to them the strict observation of his Rule and forbids all Glosses upon it and saith that as he had written it simply and plainly so he would have it understood by them without any Gloss. And to make this hard lesson to go down the easier it is evident by the whole management of it that S. Francis had a mind to have his Rule received as from divine Inspiration which we do not find S. Benedict himself ever pretended to for he concealed his own Rule and ingenuously conâ—esseth at the end of it whom he had profited by but S. Francis very formally in imitation of Moses goes up to a Mountain and there in the cleft of a Rock abides for forty dayes together fasting only with bread and water there he pretends to have his Rule dictated to him by the Holy Ghost after the forty dayes down he comes to Assisium and brings his Rule with him and gives it to Br. Elias to whom he delivered it to be kept Elias did not like the severity of it and pretended to have lost it up goes S. Francis again to the Mountain and brings it down new made Elias and his Brethren were hugely troubled but knew not how to help themselves at last they agreed to go to him together and tell him they could not keep it for Elias knowing his Spirit and Self-will told them plainly he durst not go to him alone S. Francis suspecting the matter and seeing them coming towards him assoon as they had got to the top of the Mountain leaps out of the Cleft of the Rock and with a fierce countenance asked Elias what the matter was he very submissively tells him he came to him in the name of them all to intreat some abatement of the severity of the Rule S. Francis immediately expresses a mighty passion against them and calls them in a â—olemn appeal to God an unbelieving and disobedient Generation Forthwith saith their Annalist a bright Cloud appeared and upon it Christ himself O horrible blasphemy saying why art thou troubled Man as though this were thy work Art thou the Law-giver Art thou the beginner of this Way Are not all the Precepts prescribed by my self were not the Tables formed by me thou wert only the instrument and pen of the Writer I know what I dictated and what I would have observed the strength of men is known to me I know what they can do and what assistance I can give them I will have this Rule observed to a Tittle to a tittle to a tittle without any Gloss any Gloss any Gloss. All this while S. Francis was kneeling and they trembling then he tells them Brethren you see how you have resisted the will of God if your ears do not tingle yet I will make the same Voice to be heard again at which they were confounded and affrighâ—ed and fell upon their faces and upon their promise of obedience be descended saith Wadding like another Moses carrying the Tables of the Law with his face fiery and shining but according to the Vulgar Latin it should have been horned too Notwithstanding all this they were at it again and and desired that at least they might have something in common for their numbers increased so fast it would be impossible to keep strict poverty S. Francâ—s goes up the Mountain once more and returns with a promise only that God would provide for them if they would keep to their Rule then they all submitted to it Wadding and De La Hay take great pains to prove that this Rule was immediately given by Christ himself not only from the Testimony of S. Brigitt but of several popes viz. Gregory the ninth Nicholas the third and fourth Clement the fifth Iulius the second Upon this away goes S. Francis begging to Rome when he comes there the pope told him his Rule was too strict but upon his solemn affirmation there was not a word in it of his own but it was all dictated by Christ himself it was confirmed by Pope Honorius and he denounces a Curse on the breakers of it Surely if the pretence of Divine Inspiration for the Monastick Rules be received in the Roman Church S. Francis bids much fairer for it than S. Benâ—dict for it is plain he had a mind to have it believed not only by his Bâ—ethâ—en bâ—t by the Pope and Cardinals who joyned in the confirmation and by theâ—r whole Church § 14. Let us now see what this perâ—ection of Poverty soon came to and whether any such respect hath been shewn to this Rule as if they did believe it to have been from God Not long after S. Francis his death Elias being made their General â—btains priviledges from the Pope for receiving of money by a third Person directly against the letter of the Rule and soon after he lived splendidly and fared well kept Horses and a retinue and told them all this was necessary for the support of his Government But this was too gross and would presently have spoiled the Reputation of their Order and therefore upon the complaint made of it at Rome he was discharged and another chosen Who was no sooner in but disputes arose among them about the sense of their Rule and they appeal to the Pope although S. Francis had declared there should be no Glosses made upon it and that they should not obtain Letters from the Pope upon which Popâ— Gregery the ninth published a Bull declaring that they were not bound to admit of no Glosses What! although Christ himself in person declared that none should be made From whence it is
in Hell or in Purgatory And Persons seized upon with this ecstasie will continue for a long time in the very same posture it took them without any motion so Plato reports of Socrates that he stood a whole day without any alteration in the same Posture his mind being abstracted with pure contemplation and at night some Ionian Souldiers having observed him lay down by him and they found that he continued without any motion till the next morning Favorinus in A. Gellius saith that Socrates did this often which Cajetan imputes to the vehement intention of his mind but he saith Aristotle layes it upon the disposition of his body for he thought him besides himself saith Cajetan possessed saith Fortunatus Scacchus but neither the one nor the other appears by Aristotle who only saith that all extraordinary men in any way had a deep tincture of Melancholy for which among the Philosophers he doth instance in Empedocles Socrates and Plato which temper he saith hath much in it of the nature of Wine which is more apt to heighten and inflame mens spirits than Hony or Milk or water it first makes men talkative then eloquent and bold then it stirs them to action then it puts them into a rage and at last by custom makes them meer Sots all these several qualities some men have by their natural tempers some saith he are much given to deep silence as those whom Melancholy makes ecstatical which temper although naturally cold is capable of a greater degree of heat as water being once heated is hotter than the flame it self and Stones and Iron heated become hotter than the Coals so saith he it is with Melancholy if it be over-heated it fills them with joy and singing and makes them ecstatical and because thus heat comes very near the seat of the mind it is apt to make men distracted or enthusiastical thence the Sibylls and the Bacchae and such Enthusiasts became such not by a disease but by a natural temper And to that which is said in the Life of S. Teresa of one that made verses in an Ecstasie Aristotle hath a very fit parallel of Maracus a Syracusian Poet that never made so good Verses as when he was really Ecstatical and for the great inequality of the tempers of such Ecstatical persons Aristotle saith that Melancholy as it produces very odd and irregular distempers so it is very unequal of it self sometimes very hot and at other times very cold which the Mystical Divines call the State of Desolation but this temper being apt again to be inflamed of a sudden it fills them with strange pleasures especially the Imagination being fixed upon an Object of Love which this temper Aristotle observes is more particularly disposed to but because whatever makes persons Ecstatical deprives them of the use of their Reason therefore these Mystical Unions which have so much Ioy and Pleasure are said to be with a suspension of all the Discoursive Acts of the mind Which things are not to be thought extraordinary especially in Persons not only of a Melancholy temper but whose temper hath been heightned by the power of diseases great severities solemn silence and retirement and whose Imagination hath been possessed with such Notions as do highly gratifie an Enthusiastical Disposition viz. such as relate to a more immediate Union with an Infinite Object of Love So that there seems to be nothing in this State of Pure Contemplation of which a reasonable account cannot be given from a natural Temper heightned and improved by the force of Imagination And that this may seem the less strange I shall produce an instance of this kind which I believe will not be denyed to have been either effected meerly by Imagination or at least by something under a Divine Power which is lately reported by a very credible and intelligent Person and one who lives in the communion of the Roman Church Monsieur Bernier in his Letter to Monsieur Chapelain dated Octob. 4. 1667. concerning the Gentiles of Indostan gives an account of certain Orders of Religious among them who make vows of Chastity Poverty and Obedience living in Convents under Superiours who are commonly called Iauguis i. e. united to God who used themselves to many hardships and were looked on as so many Eremites by the People being accounted true Saints illuminated and perfect Iauguis These are people that have entirely abandoned the world and sequestered themselves into some very remote corner or garden like Eremites without ever coming to the Town If you carry them any meat they receive it if they do not 't is believed that they can live without it and subsist by the sole Favour of God in perpetual fasting prayer and profound Meditations for they sink themselves so deep into these raptures that they spend many hours together in being insensible and beholding in that time as they give out God himself like a very bright and ineffable light with an unexpressible joy and satisfaction attended with an entire contempt and forsaking of the world For thus much one of them that pretended he could enter into this Rapture when he pleased and had been often in it told me and others that are about them affirm the thing with so much seriousness that they seem to believe in earnest that there is no imposture in it Which therefore Bernier imputes to an illusion of Imagination caused by Solitude and Fasting and this he calls the great Mysterie of the Cabala of the Jauguis and adds that their extremity of Poverty and Fastings and Austerities contribute much to it wherein he saith the European Fryers or Eremites are but Novices in comparison with them I leave Mr. Cressy now to consider whether theâ—e Mystical Unions and Raptures be such priviledges of Saints Whether Solitude Abstraction from Worldly cares rigorous Abstinences and such like things which he admires the contemplative life for be so peculiar to their Church When we find the very same things among the Gentiles of Indostan And the Author of the Book De Sapientiâ divinâ secundum Aegyptios who seems to have been an Arabian Philosopher sets down these as the words of Plato and not as his own experience as Cardinal Bona relates them Being often in the depth of contemplation my body being left behind I seemed to enjoy the chief Good with incredible Pleasure Wherefore I stood as it were astonished finding my self to be a part of the upper world and to have obtained immortality with the clearest light which cannot be expressed with words nor heard by ears nor understood by the thoughts of men and then he describes the sadness he felt at the decay of that glorious light and the pleasure which returned with his former Ecstasies This Cardinal Bona thinks might either come by the natural force of contemplation or the illusion of evil Spirits but herein are all the same appearances that are pretended to in Mystical Unions And to shew the Power of Imagination