he shall giue it us through Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XLIX Whence it proceeds that humane wisdome will not attribute all things to God And in what manner they ought to bee attributed to him FOR three Causes I understand it men being deceived by the judgement of humane wisdome will not confesse that every thing comes from God The first is that they might not deprive themselues of the merits of their own good works understanding that they should depriue themselues of them when every thing should be attributed to God in as much as in their good works the goodnesse of God would be that which was to bee considered and not that of men The second Cause I understand is because men judging of Gods works with the selfesame judgement with which they judge their own proper works they hold that for evill in God which they would hold for evill in evill men And it seeming to them an evill and absurd thing to attribute any evill thing to God who is soveraignly good and is goodnesse it selfe they resolue that they will not attribute every thing to God The third Cause as I understand is because they think that if men believed that God did all things they would become dissolute in their lives licentious vitious and insolent and remisse in succouring helping and favouring their neighbours every man saying of himselfe if I liue ill it is because it pleaseth God that I should liue so and he himselfe when it so seems good to him will make me to liue well and saying of their neighbour if such a one be needy tribulated and afflicted it is because it so pleaseth God and when it shall please God that he should not be so he will draw him out of necessity and out of tribulation and out of affliction and therefore it is not necessary that I should meddle therâ—…with To these three Causes or reasons of humane wisdome I understand that a man may fully answer in this manner To the first that if men knew themselues they would know in themselues rebellion iniquity and sin and in their works selfe-loue and selfe-interest and so they would not pretend to obtain merit through their own works and not pretending it the first cause of impiety would be taken away in which they doe easily fall that are in the eyes of the world just and holy for they properly are those that seek Meritin their works From this inconveniency they are free who knowing the being and the nature of man renounce their own merits cleaving only to the justice of God executed in Christ. To the second Cause and reason it may bee answered that if so be it seem to men an absurd evill thing that God should harden the heart of Pharaoh making him to sin in not suffering the people of God to depart that God should command Shimei that he should sin by cursing David and that God should make them to sin to whom the Scripture saith he gaue the spirit of errour and that he should ordain that Judas should sin by selling Christ and that God should blinde them of whom S. Paul Rom. 1 speaks that they should fall into silthy and abominable sins And if like wise it seem an absurd evill thing to men that which God doth to many men in the world it is not because the things are in themselues absurd and evill but because they are works of the holy spirit and men judging with humane wisdome with which they cannot understand the divine secret that is in them come to judge falsely of them being herein towards God as rash men are towards their Princes judging evill of them when for the good goverment for the common profit they doe something which turnes to the dammage of some particular not considering nor peircing the intent which the Prince hath in such like things For if they did consider and understand they would judge well of those things and of the Princes that doe them I would say in the selfesame manner rash men because they understand not the intent which God hath in his works they judge them evill and then pretending piety they will not attribute them to God and if they did know and understand the intent that God hath in those things which they judge evill they would hold and judge them for good and so they would not come to deprive God of his particular providence in every thing And certainly if these men did consider that God hardning the heart of Pharaoh that he should sin not letting Gods people goe did pretend to illustrate his glory and to make manifest his power in favouring his people they would accompt the hardnesse of Pharaohs heart amongst the works of Gods mercy for as much as that which the people of God desired was thereby effected and this selfesame judgement they would make of the curses of Shimei and of Iudas his sâ—…lling Christ and of the sins of them of whom Saint Paul speaks in the first of the Romans and they would make the selfesame judgement in all the works of men not doubting to attribute them all unto God searching out the secret judgement that is in them even as pious persons search them out to whom it oft-times happens that they hold something of their own or others for an errour because they know not the intent that God hath in it And afterwards by time knowing the intent that God had in it they hold it for a very certain thing And to the selfe same persons it oftentimes befals that they hold a thing for well done which afterwards by tract of time they knew was ill done This sometimes happens to them when they stand not very attent to consider the judgements of God and sometimes because it doth not alwaies please God that they should understand that which he pretends in his works as peradventure it did not please him that Moses and Aaron should understand that which he pretended in the hardnesse of Pharaohs heart to the intent they should not cease to be very instant that he would let the people of God to goe out Whereupon it seems that mans piety consisteth in applying his minde to understand that which God pretends in his workes especially in those which seem absurd and evill and to venerate and approue those which hee doth not understand holding them all for holy just and good To the third cause and reason which men finde not to confesse that God doth all things it may be effectually by our own proper experience answered that those men who belieue hold for certain that God doth all things for this selfe same cause that they abide in this certainty are pious and iust and being pious and iust are in themselues most temperate and most modest and are towards their neighbours most mercifull most diligent and most liberall in as much as piety and iustice doe as well mortifie in them the appetites of sensuality that might make them vitious and insolent as
should pretend to have them all of him 42 In what sort a pious person ought to governe himselfe in the state of prosperity and in inward adversities 43 How a pious person may assure himselfe to have obtained piety and justification by the spirit and not by humane wisdome 44 In what manner a man shall know what frâ—…it heâ—… hath made in mortification and what is the cause that they who apply themselves to piety are sollicited by affections and appetites with which they were never before sollicited 45 Whenâ—…e the feare of death proceeds in pious persons and that it is a signe of Predestination for a man to content himselfe that there should be another life 46 That they who walke through the Christian path without the inward light of the holy spirit are like unto them that walke in the night without the light of the Sun 47 Foure Countersignes to know them by who pretend piety and the spirit not having either tâ—…e one or the other 48 That he who prayes and workes and understands doth then pray worke and understand as he ought when he is inspired to pray to worke and to understand 49 Whence it proceeds that humane wisdome will not attribute all things to God and in what manner they ought to be attributed to him 50 In what the depravation of man doth consist and in what his reparation doth consist In what Christian perfection doth consist 51 In what manner God makes himselfe to be felt and in what manner God makes himselfe to be seene 52 That a Christian ought to put an end to the affection of ambition which doth consist in growing and also to that which doth consist in conserving 53 In what matter the men of the world attending unto honour are lesse viâ—…ious then attending unto conscience 54 That prayer and consideration are two bookes or interpreters very sure ones to understand holy Scripture and how a man ought to serve himselfe of them 55 Against curiosity and how the holy Scriptures ought to be read without curiosity 56 Which is the most certaine and most secure way to obtaine perfect mortification 56 Whence it comes to passe that by the knowledge and sence of the things of God the flesh is mortified 58 Eight differences between them who pretend and procure to mortify themselves with their proper industry and them who are mortified by the holy spirit 59 That in the motives to pray the spirit doth certify a man that he shall obtaine that which he demands 60 Whence it proceeds that the superstitious are severe and the true Christians are mercifull and pitifull 61 In what manner a pious person governes himselfe in those things that befall him 62 That humane wisdome hath no more Jurisdiction in the judgement of their works who are Sonnes of God then in the judgement of the proper works of God 63 That the holy Scripture is like a candle in a darke place and that the holy spirit is like the Sunne this shewed by seven conformities 64 In what manner Jesus Christ our Lord will bee followed and imitated 65 How that is to be understood which S. Paul saith that Christ reigneth and shall reigne untill the resurrection of the just be made when he doth consigne his kingdome to his Eternall Father 66 In what manner the malignant spirit is more Impetuous then the holy spirit 67 That in the regenerate onely by the holy spirit there being experience of the things of God there is also certification of them 68 That the desire of knowledge is an imperfection in a man contrary to the judgement of humane wisdome 69 That a man ought alwaies to acknowledge himselfe incredulous and defective in faith and that there is so much faith in a man as there is knowledge of God and Christ. 70 In what those three guifts of God faith hope and charity doe consist and in what their eminency amongst othâ—…r guifts doth consist and the eminency of charity amongst the thee guifts 71 Upon the most holy prayer of Our Father 72 That man pretending that part of the image of God which did not appertaine unto him lost that part which did appertaine to him 73 That the Vnion betweene God and man is made by love that love growes from knowledge what a kinde of thing knowledge love and Vnion is 74 That it betides to pious persons in spirituall things as it befalls in outward things â—…o him who having beene blinde begins to see 75 How it is understood that God coummunicates unto us his divine treasures by Christ how God reignes by Christ and how Christ is the head of the Church 76 What thing scandall is and in what manner Christian persons ought to governe themselves in the scandall 77 Two contrarities betweene them that live according to the flesh and them that live according to the spirit 78 Two griefes one according to the world and the other according to God and two weakenesses one according to the flesh and the other according to the spirit 79 How perilous the errours be which men doe pretending piety 80 What Gods intent is demanding of mâ—…n that which of themselves alone they cannot give him and why he gives them not at once all that which he will give them 81 Two weaknesses in Christ and his members and Two Powers in him and them 82 In what properly consisteth that Agony which Iesus Christ our Lord felt in his Passion and in his death 83 Five considerations in the resurrection of Christ. 84 That only the incoporation in Christ is that which mortifies 85 Foure manners by which a christian knowes God by meanes of Christ. 86 To know the inward motions when thâ—…y are of the holy when they are of the malignant spirit and when of a mans proper spirit 87 That all the creatures were spoyled in mans depravation and that they shall be restored in mans reparation 88 What the cause may be that God commanded man that he should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill 89 Six causes for which it seemes necessary that the Sonne of God should live in tâ—…at manner and that forme of life wherein he did live 90 In what the christian perfection the duty and dâ—…corum doe consist 91 That onely the Sonnes of God have certaine satisfaction in every thing 92 In what manner mortification is the proper countersigne by which we know our selves the Sonnes of God 93 That that suffering is most christian and most acceptable to God in which he that suffers findes least of his owne will 94 Three sorts of conscience one by the law naturall the other by the written lawes and the other by the Gospell 95 That men are incapable of the divine generation of the Sonne of God and of the spirituall regeneration of the â—…onnes of God 96 That then a man knowes himselfe a Pilgrim in this world when because God loves him the world persecutes him 97 Whether justification be a fruit of piety and
it when wee gaue it unto him and that as we haue an evill conceit when we perceiue him to be sorrowfull grieved and weep and thereupon we oftentimes upon this occasion knock and beat him so God willing to make proof of a pious person and of his mortification giues him a Son when he sees him joyfull takes him from him And if the said person leaue his son when God takes him away with the selfesame joyfulnesse with which he receaved him when God gaue him he giues good signe of his piety and holinesse if he be sorrowful grieved and weeps he giues an ill signe of his piety and a worse of his mortification and sometimes it comes to passe that God for this cause the more sharply chastiseth him even in that which most grieveth him One difference there is that wee giving the thing to the childe and taking it away intend to prove him to know him and God in bestowing a sonne upon a pious person and taking him away intends that the said person should know himselfe that hee should understand how far he is proceeded in piety how far he is proceeded in mortification and he intends to exercise him in mortifications And it is a much more easie thing to God to giue a son to a man and to take him away then for a man to giue a Peare and take it away Together here with I understand that it belongs and appertaines to a pious person to demean himselfe with God when he deprives him of any thing which he hath given him how deare soever it be unto him as a well inclined child demeanes himself towards his father when hee takes from him the thing which he had given him But to this piety none ever come but they only who enter in at the gate and that is our Lord Iesus Christ. CONSID. XXIII That to him whom God disenamours of the world enamours of himselfe the selfe same things befall as doe to him that disenamours himselfe of one woman and enamours himself of another FInding my soule altogether barren and dry and as it were estranged from God understanding that this proceeded because God had hid his presence from me I thought to remedy this necessity of mine by reducing my memory that it should not think upon any other things then God Scarce had I made this deliberation â—…carce had I begun to put it in execution but I perceaved that although it be in my power to exercise my memory in God as in another thing yet for all that it is not in my power to make that my minde should feel the presence of God and so free it selfe from its barrennesse and drynesse and estrangement from God Furthermore I understood a very great difference between the state in which the soule that labours to haue God present findes it selfe from the estate in which it findés it selfe when God â—…auseth it to feel his presence And being willing to know in what this difference consisteth I understood it consisted in this that in one estate mans spirit worketh and in the other the holy Spirit worketh And so I resolved with my selfe that between these states there is the same difference that is between Flesh and Spirit Passing on further I understood that those men who upon their own designes for their own interresses desire endeavour to disenamour themselves of the world and enamour themselves of God not being inspired nor moved thereunto from the holy spirit are much like to those men who for their own designes and for their own interresses doe labour and endeavour to disenamour theÌ„selves of a base and vulgar thing and to enamour themselves of some other thing that is qualified with much worth not being incited thereunto either by the sway of their own proper affections or by the desire of the thing it selfe to which they would affectionate themselves I would say that the difficulties the distasts and the troubles are much alike which the one and the other make experience of and that neither these nor those doe ever obtain that which they pretend Furthermore I understood that those men whom God would disâ—…namour of the world and enamour of himselfe are much like to those men whom a qualified person would withdraw from another base and vulgar person and make enamoured of themselves I would say that almost the selfe same things befall to the one as to the other that with the same facility the one and the other both disenamour and enamour themselves and that almost the selfe same things betide the one and the other and that there are almost the selfe same conceits in the one and in the other For as the one is forwarded to unlove and to love by favours and cherishments and by outward demonstrations so the other is forwarded or to speak better is constrained to unlove and to love by favours and cherishments and inward demonstrations spirituall and divine One notable difference I finde that the one because he loves changeable things remaines alwaies with feare and the other because he loves stable things hath driven all feare from himselfe Furthermore I finde that the one of them hath his satisfaction in his owne power touching that which he loves by meanes of remembrance and the other stands alwaies at the mercy of God it not being in his owne power to be able to take or feele more satisfaction then that which God will give unto him causing him to feele and tast his presence And I understand that when the Person whom God would disenamour of the world and enamour of himselfe applies himselfe by his owne industry and by his owne exercises to enamour himselfe of God he doth experiment in himselfe that which he proves who for his own designes and for his own interresses would disenamour himselfe of the world and enamour himselfe of God In such sort that they who God disenamours and enamours can giue testimony of the estate of them who labour to disenamour and enamour themselves but these caÌ„not giue testimony of the state of those others Whereupon I understand that men toyle themselves in vaine that seek for their own designes to disenamour themselves of the world and to enamour themselues of God Furthermore I understand that they may judge themselves to be most happy who know that they haue not been moved of themselues to disenamour themselues of the world and to enamour themselves of God but haue been moved thereunto by the spirit of God Furthermore I understand that they who goe about disenamouring themselues of the world and enamouring themselves of God loose their labour when without being moved by him to loue they by their own industry by their own exercises seek to discover Gods presence when he hides it from them And when God withdrawing himselfe from them they for their own satisfaction would haue him present And above all things I understand that the proper exercise of them whom God would disenamour of the
serving God and Christ in those things which are not required of them nor are acceptable unto him and by which they doe peradventure more procure the wrath of God against themselues In this errour I understand it all men come who govern themselues in Gods affaires with humane wisdome not knowing God nor knowing Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XXXIX That Quickning answereth to Mortification and the glory of the Resurrection answereth to Quickning THis is certain that as soon as a man being inspired of God accepts the covenant of justification by Iesus Christ our Lord he begins to dye unto the world and to liue unto God to dye unto Adam and to liue unto Christ to come out of the kingdome of the world and to enter into the kingdome of God And that at that time which a man dyes the soule being separated from the body hee doth accomplish his dying to the world his dying to Adam and his comming out of the kingdome of the world and that when he shall arise again his soule returning to unite it selfe with the body he shall liue perfectly and entirely unto God he shall liue unto Christ and shall abide in the kingdome of God Whereupon considering the difference that is betwixt the state of a man however much mortified he be to Adam and to the world whilst his soul remaines with his body and the estate of another man already dead his soul being severed from his body I understand the difference that shall be between the estate of a man how much soever mortified he be to God to Christ whilst he continues in this present life from that estate in which he shall stand being raised to God to Christ in eternall life understanding that there shall be without all compare greater difference between the state of the Resurrection and that of Vivification then is between the state of Death and that of Mortification although this should be never so great I would say that much greater is the difference between a man raised up and him that is quickned then that which is between a man that is dead aâ—…d him that is mortified understanding that the mortified stands as it were dead standing â—…rucified unto the world and unto himselfe rather in the other life then in this and that he who is quickned stands as it were not raised up standing subject to passions and to death from all which he is free in the Resurrection And understanding all this I use so to call Mortification an imperfect death and vivification an imperfect resurrection And I understand that such shall the resurrection â—…e in eternall life as the Vivification is in the present I would say that the glory of the resurrection shall answer to the perfection of the Vivification Whence I gather that since Vivification answereth to mortification in this present life and that the glory of the resurrection in eternall life shall answer unto vivification it belongs to the pious Christian who desires to liue eternall life to attend to mortify himselfe much to become much like to Christ in his death that he may be likewise much like to Christ in his surrection in which a man shall perpetually abide in the kingdome of God together with the son of God himself Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XL. Two Wills in God one Mediate and another Immediate IN God I consider two Wills one Mediate and Generall and another Immediate Particular With one I understand it he governs the universe And with the other I understand he governs those who are redeemed by Christ. Of the one I understand all the creatures are the executioners every one in his degree and office and of the other I understand the holy Spirit is the executioner and the persons which are partakers of the selfe same spirit Furthermore I understand that men doe oftimes grieue themselves for those effects which result from the Mediate Will of God because it seems to them to redound unto their dammage And I understand that of those effects which result from the Immediate Will of God those persons to whom they appertain doe alwaies rejoyce because they alwaies redound to their good The effects of the Mediate Will I understand to be those which result from the heavenly influences and other naturall causes which following the order that God hath set doe sometimes hurt and sometimes help This order and this course I understand is sometimes altered by the Immediate Will of God and I understand it is sometimes restrained by the selfe same Will And in this alteration and restraint I understand that one part of that Will of God which we call Immediate doth conâ—…ist because it followeth not the common and generall order The other part of the Immediate Will of God I understand consists in those things which he himselfe doth by his word and by the holy Spirit such as are the Creation of the world and particularly that of Man the Reparation of mankinde by Iesus Christ the Vocation of the participation of this good the Iustification with all the other spirituall knowledges and feelings To this Immediate Will of God I understand a man was subject in his first creation And I understand that in sinning hee made himselfe subject to the Mediate Will of God under which subjection I understand all evills doe consist and all troubles to which our humane nature is subject amongst which death is a most principall one In this discourse that hath been said I understand two things the one that Adam disobeying God made us subject to that Will of God which is Mediate and theâ—…eupon to evils and to death And that Christ obeying God returnes his to the subjection and to the Will of God which is Immediate and therefore he frees them from evils and from death From death he frees them habilitating them unto the Resurrection in which they shall liue an eternall life And from evills he doth sometimes free them causing that those should not touch them which should touch them according to ordinary course At other times depriving them of the feeling of them and othertimes mortifying them therewith In such sort that the evill is converted into good in such sort that like as he doth not in such manner free them from death that they should not dye but he doth abilitate them to a most happy everlasting life so neither doth he free them from evills in such sort as they should not touch them but hee doth abilitate them to draw good out of these evills The other thing which I understand is that the continuall sighing of a man that feels or begins to feel in himselfe the benefit of Christ ought to be desiring and demanding to be freed from the subjection of Gods Mediate Will and return under that Will which is Immediate For God being soveraignly good or rather good it selfe in that Immediate Will of his there can be nothing but that which is such as he himselfe And I think assuredly
also the affections of the minde that might make them interressed and lovers of themselues and consequently remisse with their neighbours This mortification in them proceeding partly from that union which they hold in their hearts with God never forgetting themselues of God and principally from that incorporation with which they stand incorporated in the death of Christ who killing his own flesh on the Crosse did likewise kill the flesh of all them who believing in him are made his Members And they who remain in this never come to excuse their licentious liues in the liuelinesse of their mindes saying it pleaseth God they should be so nay rather finding in themselues any vice and finding in their minds any liuelinesse they know the reliques of their own iniquity rebellion and sin and demand of God that he should mortify them in them as he hath mortified the rest nor doe they ever become remisse in helping and favouring their neighbours except in as much as the affections that are according to the flesh and humane wisdome dying in them and those which are according to the spirit reviving they doe not move with an anxious affection of the flesh but are moved with a moderate desire of the spirit And in as much as they doe not feel in themselves any motion to help succour their neighbours they know that God will haue it so This I say because those persons that stand in this piety keeping good account with their inward motions hold those to be wills of the flesh which are not according to that which they knew to be the will of God And they hold those to be the will of the spirit which they know to be conformed to the will of God making this judgement by that which is the due of piety and that which is the due of justification and by that which the holy Scriptures New and Old teach and standing attent hereunto they overcome the motions which are according to the flesh and execute those which are according to the spirit And albeit they haue their imperfections by Gods will their desire is to become perfect And although they hold the sufferings of their neighbour to bee the will of God they hold likewise their motions to help and favour them to be the will of God And knowing in their own imperfections and in the sufferings of their neighbours the will of God which is with wrath and knowing in their own desires of perfection and in their motions to succour their neighbours the will of God which is with mercy loving the will which is with mercy and flying from that which is with wrath they doe attend unto perfection and doe attend to succour their neighbours remaining quiet when they doe not perceive any motion understanding it that God would haue them to remain quiet Having said that which moveth men not to attribute all things to God and that which may be answered unto it now I will say that which I think thereabout remitting my selfe to more perfect and spirituall iudgement In God I consider two wills as at other times I haue considered it one Mediate in as much as it workes by these which we call second Causes And the other Immediate in as much as it works by it selfe Vnto the Mediate I understand men stand subiect through original sin and from the Mediate I understand that men are exempted and freed by regeneration but in a certain manner I suppose that in a mans flying those things which by this Mediate will might doe him harme and in applying himselfe to those things which by the selfe same might doe him good a mans freewill doth consist all those things appertaining to good or ill being exteriour corporall to vertuous or vitious living in the outward To the Immediate will of God I understand generally all men are subiect God working in them in some with loue in others with hatred in some with wrath in others with mercy in some with favours and in others with disfavour And this will of God I understand is that unto which S. Paul saith men cannot make resistance and this I understand that God useth illustrating his glory and shewing his omnipotency in them that are his in such sort that in this Will of God there are two parts or two wills one of Hatred of Wrath and disfavour and the other of Loue of Mercy and Favour The first as I understand fell upon Pharaoh upon Shimei and upon them to whom God gaue the spirit of errour and upon Iudas and vpon those whom God delivered over to a reprobate sense And this selfe same I understand fell upon all those which are vessels of wrath as was Nero and as all they haue been and are and shall be who with malignity persecute the Christian spirit in those who are the Members of Christ. All these as I understand doe the will of God without understanding themselues that this is the will of God For if they did understand it they would cease to be impious and they would be pious That will of God which is of loue of mercy and favour I understand it in Moses and Aaron and David in the Saints of the Law and I understand it in S. John Baptist and in the Apostles and in the Martyres and likewise in all those who are called of God to the participation of the Gospell all which I understand doe fulfill the will of God for herein consisteth piety And I understand that neither Pharaoh nor Iudas nor those who are vessels of wrath could cease to be such nor Moses nor Aaron nor Paul nor those who are vessels of mercy in such manner that Iudas could not forbeare to sell Christ nor S. Paul could not forbeare to preach Chrîst Finally I understand that in those things which are done in the world by Gods Mediate will they who are vessels of wrath know the naturall order and know the goodnesse or malignity of men And I understand that in the selfesame things they who are the vessels of mercy know in the naturall order the wil of God who set this order and in that which is or seems to be goodnes or malice of men they know with the will of God the goodnes malice of men In the self same manner I understand that in those things which are done by the Immediate will of God they who are impious doe not know but only their own proper wills and those which are of them that doe them and I understand that in the selfe same things they who are pious know the will of God attributing all things to God considering in those who are the vessels of wrath as were Pharaoh Shimei Iudas and Nero the will of God with wrath with hatred and with disfavour and knowing in them who are vessels of mercy as those of the Hebrew people and those of the Christian people the will of God with loue with mercy and with favour And in this manner without doing iniury to
depravation and that they shall be restored in mans Reparation REading S. Paul I finde hee toucheth many secrets worthy of much consideration And amongst others I esteemed it for most worthy that which hee toucheth of the Restauration of the creatures in the glorious resurrection of the sonnes of God into the consideration of which secret I haue ofttimes entred and it hath befallen me that by how much the more I would haue understood it so much the lesse haue I understood it My spirit came to this understanding that as man in his dèpravation marred all the creatures so in the reparation of man all the creatures shall be repaired That the first Adam subjecting all men unto misery and unto death marred all the creatures and that the second Adam Iesus Christ our Lord conducting men unto felicity and to eternall life shall repaire all creatures But as I did not understand in what sort all the creatures were marred in mans depravation I did not neither understand in what sort they shall be repaired in mans reparation In which thing that secret which S. Paul meanes doth consist which secret it seems Isaia had formerly understood chap. 65. where God promised to create new Heavens and a new earth And the selfe same secret it seems S. Peter understood in the last chap. of his 2. Epistle And the selfesame seems to bee understood in the Revelation chap. 21. Then I understand that God having â—…reated man in a state of immortality and soveraigne happinesse he created all things with such order and with such temper that they did all of them accord to make man immortall and most happy Farther I understand that man subjecting himselfe to misery by eating the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good evill and committing himselfe to death in having been disobedient to God eating the fruit of the tree against the commandement of God and it was necessary that all the creatures should leave their being and their temper with which they were created to make man immortall and most happy and take another being and another temper whereby they should all accord to make man miserable and mortall From hence I understand proceed the evill influences of the Heavens and the poysonfull and unhealthfull things which the earth brings forth all which augment mans misery And from this that all creatures took upon them to make man miserable and mortall I understand that S. Paul saith that all of them doe anxiously desire to be free Vnderstanding this I come to understand that men being to be immortall and most happy in the Resurrection of the just all the creatures shall return to recover that being that temper and that order with which they were created to make men in their reparation immortall and most happy as in their depravation they did pervert their being their temper and their order to make them miserable and mortall In this generality of creatures I doe not understand the good Angels to be comprised for not being marred they haue no necessity of being repaired nor the evill Angels for not having been marred with man to make man miserable and mortall they shall not bee restored with man to make him immortall and most happy In this consideration more then in any other of these which I haue hitherto considered me thinks I see the most high obligation which not only all men in particular but all the creatures in generall haue to Christ. For as much as through Christs obedience men shall return to that being of immortality and felicity which they lost by Adams disobedience And by the selfesame the creatures shall return to recover their being and their most perfect temper which they lost through the disobedience of Adam And so this remaines imprinted in my minde that Adam disobeying God depraved all men and condemned them unto death and marred all the creatâ—…res and subjected them aâ—… S. Paul saith to vanity And that Christ obeying God repaired all men and gaue unto them immortality and restored all the creatures and put them into their firme and stable being I speak of this that shall be in the Resurrection of the just as though it were already for as much as to Godward it is already after Christ raised up And by how much I the more remember this so much the more doe I abhor all manner of inobedience to God and so much the more doe embrace my â—…elf with all manner of obedience to God And I feele that in as much as I goe applying my selfe to this so much the image of Adam goes abating in me the image of Christ goes on reforming and likewise that of God to whom be glory everlasting Amen CONSID. LXXXVIII What the cause may be that God commanded man that he should not eat of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evill OFâ—…times I haue deliberated to understand why God when he set man in earthly Paradise commanded him that He should not eat of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evill not being satisfied with that which commonly is understood that God commanded this to the end man should acknowledge him for superiour which cause shall not be sufficient to me albeit I refuse it not and as oft as this desire hath come upon mee I haue as often driven it from me holding it for curious as I hold for curious all the desires which go seeking out the wherefore in Gods works And it is befallen me that having been now free from this curiosity reading with other intent the first chapters of Genesis I suppose to haue understood what I desired For the first I understand that God created man in an entire perfect estate in which he had the spirituall light which served him for that for which the naturall light now serves him which was the selfe same that the knowledge of good and evill Farther I understand that in the midst of that earthly Paradise there were two Trees of which the Scripture calls the one the Tree of life and the other the Tree of the knowledge of good and evill In which I understand God had set this naturall vertue that the one of them should make them who eat thereof immortall and that the other should giue the knowledge of good and evill to them that did eat thereof And understanding that as the immortality was supreme felicity so the knowledge of good and evill was extreme misery That which I say of the Tree of life I understand by this that God having given man the curse for his sin the Scripture saith that he said that hee droue him out of the earthly Paradise that he should not eat of the Tree of life and so liue for ever Neither was God content to have driven man out of Paradise but hee set for guardian a Cherubim whereby it seems that this Tree had that naturall vertue to giue immortality That which I say of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill I
to satisfie themselves I come to declare my selfe in this manner I say in this that I understanding by experience that suddenly whe◅ a man is called by God to the grace of the Gospell and enters into it and is incorporated in Christ and is therefore dead with Christ and risen with Christ he feels finds himselfe inwardly much changed in his designes and purposes in such manner that he hates that which he loved before loues that which he hated before I am of this opinion that Mortification and the hatred of the world of himselfe is the proper counter signe whereby a Christian knows himselfe to be the Son of God and therefore the heire of eternall life But I doe not understand that this mortification nor this hatred are at one throw ◅rfect and entire in the mind and in the body of a man who becomes the Son of God by acceptation of the Gospell and by incorporation in Christ. Nor doe I understand that they are perfect and entire no not in the minde only But I understand that the incorporation in Christ works this effect in a man who accepts the grace of the Gospell For as before he accepted it he delighted himselfe and reioyced with his minde and with his body in the honours in the dignities of the world seeking them and procuring them and keeping his intent principally on them neither tasting nor rejoycing of the principall and divine things nor having any intent unto them and therefore neither seeking nor procuring them so after that hee hath accepted them he hates in his minde that which he formerly procured and sought and loues that which before he despised and fled changing altogether his intent And albeit his body repugne and contradict being not as yet altogether mortified it sufficeth that his minde stands changed as much as concernes the intent conformable to his knowledge That which I say of men of the dignities of the world I say also of the delights and pleasures of the world understanding that as the man that accepts the grace of the Gospell before hee doe accept it is intent to seek and procure his pleasures and his contents delighting his sensuality and would if it were possible haue as many other corporall senses for to content and satisfie himselfe sensually in the use of the creatures and is grieved and resents himselfe when any of his corporall senses fayl him or are in any kinde marred so after he hath accepted the grace he doth not onely not attend to that which he formerly attended but on the cōtrary he is altogether intent to deprive himselfe of all that which may giue content and satisfaction to his sensuality and is grieved that he is necessitated to satisfie it in any thing for the sustentation of of his life therefore would be deprived of his five senses and rejoyceth when he finds himselfe deprived of any of them or findes himselfe with any defect in any of them All this I say a man begins to feel in himselfe suddenly as he accepts the grace of the Gospell becomming the Son of God And I say farther that as a man goes on growing in the incorporation in Christ so he goes growing in his Mortification in his hatred in quality and in quantity in quality hating every day more that which hee hath begun to hate because he knew it estranged from Christ and unworthy of a Christian person incorporated in Christ hating it likewise with his body as well as with his minde outwardly and inwardly as are the things which in themselves are foule and unclean which things also men will hate who with naturall light pretend to be iust and holy and in quantity hating much more those those things which he hath begun to hate For he begins the spirituall light being more cleare in him he going on more distinctly knowing the things which appertain to a Christian man and those things which doe not appertain to him he goes on hating more things first hating them with his minde and reducing himselfe by litle and litle to hate them also with his body and labouring that his hatred as well of the minde as of the body may goe on increasing in him And this is properly the exercise of a Christian man for the whole time of his life From all this discourse this is well gathered that the countersigne whereby I know that I am the son of God that I am dead on the Crosse with Christ is not the totall mortification the totall hatred of the world and of my selfe with my minde and with my body in all things but the ◅eginning of mortification and of the hatings and in some principall things when it is come without being procured or sought with humane industry and when it continues in the mind albeit the flesh the sensuality will seek and procure the contrary and albeit in that which is offered to it it rejoyceth and delighteth it selfe the minde standing free from that rejoycing and from that delight feeling displeasure and trouble in those things of which it is ◅orced through the frailty of the flesh to take more then is sufficient to supply to its corporall necessities in such manner as the body receives those things and not the minde a man feeling together with the satisfaction of his body affliction of the minde And in this that is for a man not to take more of the creatures then that which sufficeth to serue to his corporall necessities I understand cōsisteth that hatred which Christ wil that they who would be his members should beare to their proper life And I understand that S. Paul standing in this combate of his minde would not that his body should take more of the created things then that which sufficeth to maintain him aliue and his body would take more of them to satisfie and delight its sensuality Hee felt that which he wrote to the Romans Ch. 7. And since that went so with S. Paul which hee himselfe in that place saith and confesseth no Christian person is to esteem him selfe an alien from Christ nor from the Christian Sonneship because he feeles a livelinesse in his flesh and because he feels not in every thing and altogether the hatred of the world and of himselfe which it behoves him to have that he may be perfect but feeling part of this Mortification and of these hatreds as hath been said hee hath good cause to hold himselfe for the Son of God incorporated in Christ dead on the Crosse with Christ and to attend in such manner to mortification that it may so much grow that hee may become like to Iesus Christ our Lord who as S Paul saith Pleased not himself To him be glory for ever Amen CONSID. XCIII That that suffering is most Christian and most acceptable to God in which he that suffers finds least of his own will ALL that we suffer in this present life who attend unto Christian perfection whether in the body
to giue me an abhorring of corporall things humane and of the world the which albeit I doe not altogether abhorre I am at least come to this that I doe not loue them I doe not procure them I doe not desire them as I was wont And in this manner by experience of mortification he shall confirme himselfe in the Christian truth Fiftly he shall think thus If I knew any other better thing then this or at least that were equall to this with which I might appeare before the iudgement of God I should indeed haue cause to doubt of the truth of this Now I knowing no other thing better nor other thing such as it is I haue no cause to doubt And in this manner he shall certifie himselfe that he is come upon the gaine and not on the losse and that in persevering in this Christian faith he cannot loose but gaine And if it shall come into his fancy to say that he might loose much in case that which the Gospell saith were not true in as much as hee should attribute that to Christ which were not due to him and it not being due to him hee should come to offend the glory and the maiestie of God he shall instantly haue recourse to experience and think thus After that I know my selfe pardoned through Christ and reconciled with God through Christ acknowledging my selfe dead with Christ and raised up with Christ and expecting my glorification with Christ I know and feel and finde in me the beginnings of mortification through the despisall of the world and of my selfe and I feele the beginnings of vivification through the loue and affection to God to the glory of God and to the will of God And these principles are good And it being true that from an evill cause never comes a good effect it is true also that the cause is good whence this effect is growne And therefore it is most certain and true that which the Gospell publisheth and affirmeth That God having put on Christ all our sins and having chastised them all in Christ he hath pardoned us all and hath reconciled us with himselfe by Christ which pardon and reconciliation all they which believe enioy Here the Christian person shall stay himselfe who willing to embrace himselfe with the iustice of Christ shall be disturbed with the perswasions which shall sollicite him to doubt and shutting the dore to them which may come shall recommend himselfe to God saying with Hezechias Lord I suffer violence answer for me Isaia 38. And let him be sure that God will help him fulfilling with him that which he promised by David where hee saith I am with him in trouble I will deliver him and bring him to Honour CONSID. CIV That Baptisme through the Faith of the Gospell is efficacious even in Children who dye before they come to the age to be able to approue their being Baptized TAking occasion from that which S. Peter saith That the Ark wherein Noah saved himselfe in the floud was a figure of our Christian Baptisme I haue considered that as Noah giving credit to the word of God did believe that the floud would come and did believe that himselfe and his should be saved in the Ark not by vertue of the Ark which could not naturally work this effect but by the will of God who used this Ark for an instrument of safety to him and his so we also giving credit to the Gospell of God believe that Christ shal come to iudge the quick and the dead and we believe that all our sinnes being chastised in Christ we and ours shall bee saved in that iudgement being Baptised not by vertue of the water which cannot naturally work this effect but by the will of God who useth the water for the meanes of our salvation God could well have saved Noah in the floud without the Ark and it seems hee took the Ark for the means to condescend unto the frailty of Noah who more easily believed that he should be saved in the Ark then he would have believed that he should haue been saved without the Ark. Albeit he did not trust in the Ark but in the word of God who promised to saue him in the Ark and so not the Ark but Faith was that which saved Noah with which he made the Ark and put himselfe in it In the selfe same manner God could well saue us in day of judgement without the water of Baptisme and it seemes he takes the water for the meanes to condescend unto our frailty which causeth that wee doe more easily believe to be saved by Baptisme then we should belieue to be saved without it albeit wee haue not confidence in the water but in the word of the Gospell of God which promiseth to saue us by Baptisme And so we shall be saved in the universall judgement not because we are Baptised but through the Faith with which we are Baptised Where I understand two things The one that to all of us who are Christians it appertaines to secure our selves in the iudgement of God with the remembrance that wee were baptised as Noah secured himselfe in the Floud with the remembrance of the Ark the Ark being to him that which Baptisme is to us The other that wee who are baptised being children are to assure our selves that we are then really and indeed baptised when the yeares of discretion being come and feeling by the will of God the voice of the Gospell we reioyce to be baptised in such sort that if so bee we were not baptised we would then be baptised That betiding tous which might haue befallen a man who had bin put into the Ark of Noah whilst he was asleep who being awaked and finding himselfe in the Ark would haue thanked Noah that had put him in the Ark affirming that if he had not been entered therein and could haue entered therein he would without all doubt haue entred therein In such sort that as that man being entered into the Ark not by his own proper faith but by the Faith of Noah should haue saved himselfe in the Ark by his own proper faith esteeming it good that hee had entered into the Ark So we who in out infancies were baptised having entred into Baptisme not through our own proper Faith but by the Faith of them who put us therein shall be saved in Baptisme by our own proper faith approving and holding it for good to be Baptised Another thing also may be said that as the Beasts which Noah put into the Ark entred in by the faith of Noah were saved in the Floud by the faith of Noah they having neither knowledge of good nor evill to enter into the Ark nor to approve their entring in but being put into it So the children of the first Christians who enter into Baptisme by the faith of their Parents and come not to the age to be able to approue or reprove that which their Fathers haue done they