Bayle, that this monfter of indifferency is the darling doctrine of the quietifts, and that according to them the true felicity confifts in nothingness. He then quotes from Bruyere"Then in the three-fold filence of words, thoughts and defires, finding himself in a fpiritual fleep, in a myftical drunkenness, "all the fufpended powers are recalled from the circumference "to the centre. God, who is that centre, makes the foul feel "him by divine touches, by a tafte, by illapfes, by unspeakable "fuavities;" and the words of Madame Guyon-" a spiritual "foul ought to be indifferent in all things, either for the body "or the foul, or for temporal or eternal goods, and leave "what is past in forgetfulness, and things to come to the Pro"vidence of God, and not to enjoy the prefent, &c. &c."

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Vid. the ftrange opinion of certain Grecian Myftiques about the poffibility of a man (fcil. a faint) receiving and poffeffing the very entire substance of the Holy Spirit-Beaufobre's Hiftoire de Manichees, &c. part 2, liv. 1, chap. ii. in fine, p. 268. For further examples of myfticifm confult the writings of Jacob Behmen, whose disciples acknowledge, or rather glory, that they are unintelligible. Vid. Arnold Hift. Theologiæ My

fticæ, p. 592.

4thly. The Doctrines of Fanatics, particularly their

Supra, P. 220.

moral Doctrines.

"Enthufiafts teach men to seek "and pray for fecret illuminations, &c." "Moral "rectitude and practical piety are defpifed or under"valued"" hence the vices in which fanatics "have fometimes indulged themselves, &c.-" they "feldom exhort to fober felf-government, feldom "enforce the duties of focial life."

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P. 225. They are prone to believe they have "already attained the fummit of moral perfection."

P. 227. They defpife external helps to religion."

P. 236.

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P. 236. Fanaticifm has generally carried with "it a levelling principle in political affairs.”

P. 241.

Fanatics are fevere in condemning

"thofe who differ from them."

P. 273. The devotion of fanatics is gloomy and "extravagant ;-their principles of focial conduct "unnatural ;-their ideas of felf-regulation harsh and "unpracticable, &c."

Of the principles of the myftic theology among the Chriftians, which was derived from the fanaticism of the modern platonics, Vid. Mofheim de Reb. Chriftianis ante Conftant. P. 314. He gives this account from Philo-" The foul rifing

above every perceivable exiftence, or fenfible effence, is feized with the love of the fpiritual world, and having con"templated in that the patterns and ideas of the fenfible ob jects which it here beholds, and the admirable beauties of thefe ideas, it is hurried away by a fober intoxication, and, "like the Corybantes, full of inspiration, is then captivated by "another far more exalted love, by which, raised to the sum"mit of all intelligence, it feems to tend to the fupreme king,

and then upon the foul defirous of contemplating it, is દ poured a pure and unmixed ray of light like a torrent, so "that the eye of the foul is overpowered by its fplendor, &c. " &c."

Of the rife of the Afcetics, who adopted, as means of perfection, watching, abftinence from wine, flesh and marriage, and who would not engage in commerce, Vid. Mosheim Eccl. Hift. Cent. 2d, part 2d, chap. 3d, they derived their rules from the fanatical difcipline of the modern platonics. It is remarkable, that they were the first Christians who used pious frauds. Vid. Bingham's Antiquities of the Chriftian Church, b. 7, chap. i. Ib. chap. ii. It is worthy of notice, that, according to Bingham, "the Afcetics were men of an active life, "living in cities as other men, differing only in this, that they were more intent and zealous in attempting greater heights " and heroical acts of virtue.-It was not till the 4th century “that monks arofe, who retired from the business and conver

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"fation of the world, for they either lived in cells by them"felves, or in monafteries, in mountains and wilderneffes-fome

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fpending years ftanding on the top of pillars, &c. &c. Bingham notices the Sarabaitæ, an order of monks, who "did not, like the others, retire to the wildernefs, but lived chiefly in cities and castles, where every thing they did might be feen and valued of men.-They fafted to an extra"ordinary degree; but if ever there came a feast day, they "indulged in riot and excefs." Bing. b. 7, chap. ii. fect. 4. For a more full account confult Mofheim de Rebus Christianorum ante Conftantinum, Sæculum Secundum, sect. 35, p. 310. Montanus was one of the most remarkable and the earliest enthusiasts in the Christian church ;-he gave himself out as the immediate organ of the Paraclete or Comforter;-he pretended that Christ and his apoftles, to indulge the infirmities of men, had left an imperfect system of morality;—he added great aufterities; he looked upon it as criminal to fly from persecution; he was a declared enemy to philofophy, arts, and learning. For an account of the Montanists, confult Mofheim's Eccles. Hift. Cent. 2d part 2. chap. v. Eufeb. Eccles. Hift. b. 5. chap. xvi. and indeed all the writers of the early fects, efpecially Mofheim de Reb. Chrif. ante Conftantinum Sec.. zum. fect. 66, and a History of Montanifm by Mr. Lee, annexed to the 4th edition of Dr. Hickes's Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcifed, printed in Lond. 1709. This is a very full and curi ous, and feems to be a very candid treatise."

Montanus had amongst his followers two women, Maximilla and Prifcilla, who uttered prophecies with agitations and convulfions. They prophefied calamities to the Roman empire, and the confummation of all things to follow their deaths.

Mofheim in his Eccles. Hift. cent. 12, par. 2, chap. v., "tells us, that a number of fanatics at that period infested the "Greek and Eastern churches-who profeffed to believe in a "double Trinity, rejected wedlock, abstained from flesh, treated "with the utmost contempt the facrament of baptism, and "the Lord's fupper, as alfo all the various branches of external "worship, and placed the effence of religion in internal prayer alone, &c.”

Stillingfleet

cr

Stillingfleet ut fupra, p. 100, quotes abundant authorities to prove that St. Benedict was a hater of human learning." He "remained three years in a cave absorbed in devotion ;-he "conquered his carnal defires, by rolling himself naked among "thorns and nettles. St. Francis, whofe father had confined "him with dark rooms and chains, but on finding no amendment, at length discharged him, when St. Francis (fays Bonaventure) ftripped himself stark naked, and faid thus to "his father, "hitherto I called thee father on earth; but henceforward "I can furely fay, our Father which art in heaven; as if, adds Stillingfleet, his duty to God and his parents had been in"confiftent."-Bernard, who joined him, opened the gospel three times, and the first three fentences he faw were to be the rule of their order.

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For instances of enthusiasm favouring vice, confult what Stillingfleet proves of the mendicant friars, and the Evangelium Eternum, published by them, A. D. 1254, p. 105.

Of their most innocent opinions, one was, that the New Teftament was to continue in force only fix years from that time. -That there were none fit to instruct the people who did not go barefoot ;-that Chrift and his apoftles were not perfect in the contemplative life;-that the order of the clergy shall perish, &c. &c. &c.

Of the doctrines of the Beguini, the Fratricelli, and the Beguardi, who arose in Narbonne, in the time of Clement V.. and whofe leader was Petrus Johannes, Stillingfleet gives this account. Their doctrines may be reduced to four heads

ift. Evangelical poverty. They faid that the apostles had nothing proper or in common, because they were perfectly poor, and that the enjoying any thing, though in common, takes off from the perfection of it, &c. &c.

2d. They maintained the abfolute unlawfulness of fwearing. 3dly. The doctrine of perfection-which was "that a man "in this life may attain to so great perfection, as to live with"out fin ;-that a man who hath attained to fuch a degree is "above ordinances, i. e. he need not fast and pray as others "do;-that fuch as are perfect have the spirit of liberty, and are not fubject to human ordinances, either of church or "ftate; that every intellectual being hath enough within itself

"to make it happy, or a light within, so that it doth not need any external light of glory in order thereto;-that to live in "the exercife of moral virtues, is an argument of a state of imperfection, and that one truly perfect is above them; from hence they accounted all actions which, were defigned to "fatisfy natural inclinations to be indifferent, and so looked on "unclean mixtures as no fins.-The Beguardi fometimes said, "that a perfect foul being reduced to God löfeth its own will, "which being fuppofed, they fay, they may do any thing which "their affection puts them upon without fin, because they have "no will of their own, &c."

"Not very diffimilar to these were the Pfeudo Apoftolici in ❝ Ítaly, in the end of the thirteenth century who went up and "down in the streets barefooted, and what they eat was pub"licly, and only what was given them. The pope Boniface "the VIII. inftituted a crufade against them;-they were with ' great difficulty fubdued, for they bore all extremities of "hunger and cold in the Alps rather than yield.-They main"tained that they only were the church of God ;-that no one. can be faved who is not of their order ;-that no layman "ought to pay tithes to prieft or prelate, who lives not in the "fame perfection and poverty which the apoftles did, &c. &c.

In the beginning of the fixteenth century arose another fect of enthusiasts in Spain, named Alumbrados and Illuminati. Spondanus gives this account of them, "that under the pre"tence of mental prayer and divine contemplation, and union "with God, they defpifed the ufe of facraments, of preaching, "the fcriptures, and all holy exercises, and did extol the others "fo highly, that by this means they said that would not be fin "in them which was fo in others, and by this means they "committed impurities."

For inftances of the immoralities of fanatics, Vid. Bayle's Dictionary, Article Prifcelliani-notes.

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