No. IV. DAVIDISTS. THEY were a fect of Chriftian Heretics, in the fixteenth century, fo called from David George, their leader, who began by giving out that he was the Meffiah, and was fent into the world in order to people the kingdom of heaven, which was quite empty of inhabitants, for want of virtuous and good men; he rejected marriage, and denied the refurrection. No. V. QUIETISTS. THEY are a religious fect, which made a great noife towards the clofe of the last century. Molinos, a Spanish priest, who died at Rome, in the prifon of the inquifition, paffes for the author of Quietifm; and yet the illuminati in Spain had taught fomething like it before. The name is taken from a fort of abfolute rest and inaction, which the foul is supposed to be in, when arrived at the state of perfection, which in their language is called the Unitive Lief. To arrive at this, a man is firft to pass through the purgative way; that is, through a courfe of obedience, infpired by the fear of hell: hence he is to proceed into the illuminative way, before he arrive at perfection: to go through cruel combats, and violent pains; not only the ufual dryneffes of the foul, and the common privations of grace, but infernal pains: he believes himself damned; and the perfufion that he is fo, continues upon him ftrongly for feveral years: St. Francis des Sales, fay the Quietifts, was fo fully convinced thereof, that he would not allow any body to contradict him therein. But the man is at length fufficiently paid for all this, by the embraces of God, and his own deification. * These fentiments of the Quietifts, with regard to God, are wonderfully pure and difinterested. They love him for himself, on account of his own perfections, independently of any rewards or punishments: the foul acquiefces in the will of God, even at the time when he precipitates it into hell, infomuch, that instead of stopping him on this occafion, B. Angelo de Foligny cried out, Hafte Lord, to caft me into Hell: do not delay if thou haft abandoned me, but finish my deftruction, and plunge me into the Abyfs.' At At length the foul, after long travail, enters into reft, into a perfect quietude, Here it is wholly employed in contemplating its God; it acts no more, thinks no more, defires no more; but lies perfectly open, and at large, to receive the grace of God, who by means thereof drives it where it will, and as he will. or In this ftate it no longer needs prayers hymns, or vows; prayers, where the fpirit labours, and the mouth opens, are the lot of the weak and imperfect; the foul of the faint is, as it were, laid in the bofom, and between the arms of its God, where, without making any motion, or exerting any action, it waits, and receives the divine graces. It then becomes happy, quitting the existence it before had: it is now changed, it is transformed, and as it were, funk and swallowed up in the Divine Being, infomuch, as not to know or perceive its being distinguished from God himself. Vide translation from Fenel. Max. des Saints. No. No. VI. RECHABITES. THEY were a kind of religious order among the Jews, inftituted by Jonadab, the fon of Rechab, comprehending only his own family and pofterity. Their founder prescribed them three things: First, not to drink any wine: Secondly, not to build any houses, but to dwell in tents: And Thirdly, not to fow any corn, or plant vines. These rules the Rechabites obferved with great strictness. No. |