Among the mystic divines, is a total suspension, or ligature of the intellectual faculties, in virtue whereof the soul remains of itself, and, as to its own power, impotent with regard to the producing of any effects. The passive state, according to Fenelon, is only passive in the same sense as contemplation; 1:e. it does not exclude peaceable disinterested acts, but only unquiet ones, or such as tend to our own interest. In the passive state the soul has not properly any activity, any sensation of its own. It is a mere inflexibility of the soul, to which the feeblest impulse of grace gives motion.
See MYSTIC.
Despite a stated reliance on the plain meaning of the Bible and the dictates of common sense, Buck's Theological Dictionary, first published in London in 1802, seeks to provide a textual basis for the evangelical community. By combining brief essays on orthodox belief and practice with historical entries on various denominations, Buck provided an interpretive lens that allowed antebellum Protestants to see Christianity's almost two millennia as their own history.Wikipedia
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