Faâ—her of Power to give you his Heavenly Strength so to make War with â—he Enemy of your Souls as to overcome all his temptations to fight manfully and couragiously with your selves with your own desires affections self-love any corrupted Reason and your own Wills These are the potent Enemies of Christ that keeps him from his Right to Reign in your Souls here you are to help the LORD against the mighâ—y which is Sin Flesh and the Devil which you are to engage War withal old Adam the Dragon and Lucifer which you are to adventure your Lives Liberties and Estates to overcome and they that looses their lives here shall find them and they that holds out to the End here shall be Saved and they that forsakes these shall receive a thousand fold â—oth in this Life and that which is to come These are the sufferings you are to join with Christ in here you must be equal workers together with him mark that not without him for without him we can do nothing poor miserable nothings from the Greatest to the Least but â—f we wait upon him in the contempt of our selves in self-abhorrence â—oor Impotent Creatures waiting at the Pool of Bethesda John 5.45 6 7 8. for the Angels moving the Waters here 's the place where Jeâ—us comes with his Mercy and healing Power and Vertue which makes â—he Lame leap as an Hart the Blind to see the Deaf to hear the Dumb â—o speak the Dead to live and heals all your putrified Sores but have 〈◊〉 care your Eve is not to Man for help you must not seek to the Creaâ—ures for that was Asa King of Juda's Sin who rested on the King of Aram and not on the LORD therefore said the Prophet Hanani to King Asa The Host of Aram is escaped out of thy Hand and when he was afflicted with an extream Disease in his Feet he sought to the Physicians and not to the LORD and so died 2 Chron. 16. and not to the LORD to take away the Sin which was the cause of God's afflicting hand upon him yet a King that did many noble acts to pull down Idolatry and made a Covenant to seek the LORD with his whole Heart and Soul and made a Law that whosoever would not seek the LORD GOD of Israel should be Slain whether small or great Man or Woman yet in this thing he greatly transgressed himself See what a dangerous thing it is to rely upon Man for help either for Soul or Body either in spiritual or temporal Affairs 't is no less than a dis regarding the LORD and believing his Omnipotency to be insufficient and how this can be answered let the wise in Heart judge but the remedy for this raging pestilential Disease is the foregoing Instructions to be emptied of our selves to be made nothing to forsake our own Wills these are Sufferings indeed all other outward Sufferings of what sort soever are but shadows to these though you give up your Bodies to be burnt that doth but reach the Flesh but these reach the Soul those takes away the Life but these the Sin for example How many hundreds or thousands suffers outwardly variety of ways as Poverty Sickness and Death c. and as wicked as ever but the internal Sufferings reaches the Heart and changes it from evil to good Therefore these are the Sufferings that brings Christ to reign in the Soul here whilst it is in the Body in the Life and then hereafter for ever wherefore here we are to imitate Christ our Pattern in his Suffering Life Phil. 2.6 7 8. Let this Mind be in you said the Apostle which was in Christ Jesus who being in the form of GOD thought it no Robbery to be equal with GOD yet made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross Here 's our Pattern he that was LORD of all became least of all although he was GOD equal with the Father yet he emptied himself of all his Glory and humbled himself to an Ignominious Death which signifies a death to all your Honours and Glories you must empty your selves not only of all Sin and Iniquity as Pride Arrogancy Deceit Malice Hatred Covetousness and the like but of all your best Endowments excellencies of Graces Parts and Wisdom your good Works that are really good in themselves works of Mercy to your Neighbours and fellow-Creatures or whatsoever Excellency doth atttend a Heavenly Life that thou thinkest thou oughtest to think well of it or thy self for doing it away with those Thoughts hate and abhor such Thoughts thou oughtest to run away from them Thoughts as Christ did from the Jews when they would have made Him King For what hast thou done that was not commanded thee therefore the good that thou dost is none of thine thou hast nothing thou art nothing nothing is thine but Sin thou never didst a good action nor never thought a good thought shall I therefore ascribe to my self the glory of doing any good to rob GOD of his Honour GOD forbid all good is GOD's but Sin Evil and Wickedness is thine therefore down proud Worm down Dust and Ashes down with your Crowns before the Lamb and Him that sits upon the Throne and confess and ascribe in the deepest humility and profoundest adoration from the bottom of your Souls all Praise Power Might and Dominion Honour and Glory to the LORD GOD Omnipotent from Everlasting to Everlasting Amen Wherefore if you will find GOD it must be by lesning your selves making self of no Reputation by emptying your selves of all your Glories and Excellencies whether external or internal and take nothing to your selves but shame and confusion of Face Dan. 9. and that in a broken and contrite Heart judging and condemning your selves to be unworthy of the least of all his Goodness and this is the Breast-plate of Judgment that must be upon Aaron's Heart continually before the LORD then you learn of Christ who emptied and humbled himself in all things to be tempted as we are yet without Sin and thus Man comes to be restored to GOD out of the Fall for as in Adam all died so in Christ all are made alive to Righteousness and true Holiness If we put him on as t is written Put ye on the LORD Jesus and make no provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lust thereof This is that that recovers Mankind out of the Fall to put on His Righteousness His Humility to put on His Obedience to the Father His Self-denial His Justice His Mercy and to be cloathed with all His Heavenly Vertues This is better than an adherent or an imputed Righteousness which without this we are never the better for but here we eat His Flesh and drink His Blood that nourishes and gives life to our Souls and causes us to
which signifies the Mount of Regeneration where the Soul is retired and shut up in GOD from all the hurrings and busiles of the World and the deeper its gets into this innermost Center the more dead it is not only to the World and the Concerns thereof but to it self in all things whether External or Internal it serves the very necessity of Nature with Grief thinking all time to much that is spent in any thing but in waiting upon GOD alone and this is its continual Exercise to enter into it self there to abide with GOD in perfect Unity and Resignation and being so disinterested and taken off from self that though it should fulfill all the Commands of CHRIST that concerns GOD and its Neighbour and should leave nothing undone of the Duty of a true Christian yet it makes no account of all this before His Divine Majesty nay tho' they being in such an Estate as to receive many wonderful Gifts and supernatural Graces yet they are not lifted up with vain conceit nor prides themselves in these rich Robes but are just as if they had received nothing being always humbled in the depth of their own unworthiness and ever kept in a holy Fear and inflaimed Love to GOD which shews that the Creature exhalted in Gifts is Lucifer But the Soul thus adorned with Heavenly Graces in the Humility is CHRIST JESUS come again in the Flesh therefore this is the Spirit that is to be uppermost whether in Prosperity or Adversity if you would have GOD to be your Teacher for the humble GOD will teach I mean the Humility of CHRIST who emptied Himself of all His Glory both Heavenly and Earthly and humbled himself to the death both in Body and Mind John 30. Luke 22. and 44. both in Soul and Body were his sufferings And if we are his Disciples we must tread in His steps we must first die to self before we can live to God the true Figure is a Corn of Wheat saith CHRIST John 12.24 and the more dead the Creature is in it self and to it self the more it shall know and please GOD but if it doth not mind this continual denying of self and internal Mortification it will never arrive at this state of perfection but through this Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost this inward Hearts-breaking Soul-suffering these Faithful Ones comes to wash there long-suffering Robes and makes them white in the Blood of the Lamb for these are redeemed from the Earth and all perishing and transitory Things and therefore have the Harps of GOD in their hands to sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb for from these internal Soul-sufferings comes the Eternal Heavenly Triumphant Joys therefore lift up your Heads ye tribulated Ones that are surrounded with Sorrows both within and without look up to the Rock whence ye are hewn but look not to Man for help whose Breath is in his Nostrils for then it will be just with the Highest to say to you as he did to them of Old Jer. 2.28 call upon your Gods let them deliver you but look unto me saith the Everlasting all ye ends of the Earth and be saved but look not at the Creature howsoever they may be suffered to try and prove you but keep your Eye to your Saviour's Beauty which is Patience Meekness and Long-suffering let these be ever in your Eye but cast not your Eye upon the Instrument who or whatsoever they may be for that will beget anger and wrath in your minds and then you will loose the end of your Sufferings for all these things are suffered to be to wean you off the Creatures to let you see the emptiness and nothingness of all things that hath a begining even to your selves and this is the way to make GOD all and the poor empty Creature nothing But whatsoever your Tryal is or with whomsoever be shure you keep in the Love that thinks no Evil no not to the greatest of all your Enemies and then you will be ready upon all Occasions to do them any Office of Love as the Power is in your hands and their Necessity requires and thus you will fulfill the Royal Law of CHRIST your Lord who said love your Enemies do Good for Evil overcome Evil with Good that you may be the Children of your Heavenly Father who causes His Glorious Sun to shine upon the Just and the Unjust and so your Prayer shall be heard when you say Lord forgive us our trespasses against thee as we forgive them there trespasses against us and thus will the Righteous Judge of the whole Earth take the Cause of the Innocent in His Hands and plead it with their Enemies for vengeance is mine saith the Lord and I will repay for it is as Dindimus said to Alexander the Great He is a Judge of all injuries and the Sighs of those that are injuriously treated become the pain of those that injure them But as was said before to you Servants of the LORD whom he hath counted worthy to be partakers with Him of His Internal and External Sufferings to be rejected of all denied condemned and tempted within and without in Fears and Dreads in Weakness in Watchings and Fastings with Tears of sorrow Night and Day led into the Wilderness and there tempted tried in the Night with great Temptations led in a Way you know not nor see no way out but as it were passing by the Gates of Hell and none pitty nor take your part Hear your Love to GOD will be prov'd to the uttermost whether you will follow your beloved LORD and holy JESUS in His suffering Life who trod the Wine-press alone and of the People there was none with him who was compassed with Sorrows on every side He that was in such a Labyrinth of sorrows as never Man was he saw no comfort neither in Life nor Death above him nor below him from God or Men were our Condition as bad as his if it were possible that we were in the very midst of the heat and fire of Affliction when the flood of Temptation arises an hundred fold above your strongest hold yet here you may be at rest in your beloved LORD in an assured confidence that all things shall work together for your good that loves the LORD although you may cry out and say as I know a Soul that did Was ever any Sorrows like unto mine Did ever any go this Way before me The immediate Answer was Yes Moses and all the Prophets and JESUS the author and finisher thereof Therefore thou art compassed about with a cloud of Witnesses when upon an invisible sight I said O my God Must there be yet more fire then He said unto me In the Fire and in the Water I will be with thee and make thy way thorow all I believed the LORD and was strengthened and his powerful Word was my Salvation Therefore you that are brought into these fiery Trials have a care you murmur not neither
up your rest in your sights tho they should reach to the Third-heaven without this life of Christ I have been a treating of and this I can assure you it will be more for your profit when you come together to sit in Dumb-silence than to spend your precious time in Discourses of your Attainments for what are all your Attainments but airy Notions if you come not to the life of Christ for how many have seen the good Land that never entred it and this know That Visions and Revelations may cease for how many have I heard of and knew some that have had all these and yet lives evil Lives witness Balam who from his sight desired to die the Death of the rightous and that his last End might be as his yet through Coveteousness which is Idolatry by his Counsel caused Israel to commit Sin against the Lord tho' to his and their own Destruction Therefore this is a sandy Foundation to build on but if you build on CHRIST the Corner-stone the tried precious and Elected-stone chosen for that use whom the Master Babel-builders have rejected which is the cause of all their Confusion these have conceived a Faith in the air and therefore bring forth nothing but Storms and pestious Winds striving without Foundations and so are driven to and frow but brings nothing to perfection and therefore must be all thrown down and not one stone left upon another before the Holy City the New Jerusalem which cometh down from God can be but therefore as was said Sights Visions and Revelation are little worth but to condemn those that have them if they do not answer the End for which they were given them to wit a holy pure and undefiled life which is the End of all gifts And farther I know a Soul could write a Volume of Sights Visions and Revelations which she hath had above these thirty Years and some that were given highly to justifie her Ways and Works when she was little in her own Eyes and nothing in her own sight it may be Judging and condemning her self for that which he in his Exalted Power hath justified her and for confirmation hath taken her upin to the bosom of his love where she injoyed close and amorous Embraces His sealing to her the precious promises of His Glorious Life and Eternal Love And now among the many Sights Visions and Revelations she may instant one in three Years abstainency somtimes fasting two Days and two Nights together sometimes three Days and three Nights and at the time of this sight three Days and three or four Nights together she being at this time in great Travail of Soul and suffering in Body with conflicts of Spirit she poured out her Complaint before the LORD and said Oh! my LORD If I have found favour in thy sight and what I have done be pleasing unto thee shew a Token of Good to thy Hand-maid that may be as an Anchor to my poor troubled Soul And that very Night she had a Vision of an invisible Glory which is too long to insert here but how it was with her is as followeth Her Sences were all shut up in GOD she was in closs Communion with the LORD she was as she thought wholly desolved out of the Earthly into the heavenly she thought she was as an innocent Child new born and though she had fasted so long together yet she was filled as with new Wine and the heavenly Manna by the strength of which she declared the great things of GOD's holy Law of his Royal Acts and of his heavenly Power and she was filled with his Praise and then no Tongue can tell nor Pen write how it was with her for she was as if she had had a new Body given her in Innocency Joy and Content as it were quite translated out of the Old into the New all over in ravishing Joy filled with unutterable harmonious Praises so lying for many hours in this heavenly Transportation a heavenly Silence came over all and in this Silence these Words were spoken aloud to her This is the Rest wherein I will cause the Weary to rest this is the Life of the Innocent Swain And this was the Token of Good she required which the LORD in his endless Love Answered This and above a hundred times more which she never took up her Rest in though her Sights were attended with his ravishing Life for these heavenly Mansions are given as a Loadstone to draw the Soul of the down-ward Earth up-ward to fix it self in GOD the Fountain of all these ravishing Streams and Beams that comes from his glorious Son of Rightousness lifting up himself in the Soul to draw it after him as Himself said When the Sâ—n of Man is lifted up He will draw all Men after Him But the time is not yet come that He will draw all Men after him therefore we must wait for the Day of his Power we must wait at Jerusalem for the Promise of the Father which is that He will pour out His Spirit upon all Flesh Jâ—â—â— for hetherto the highest Attainment that hath attended the Life of CHRIST hath been but a glimps of that Glory that is ready to break forth were we but ready for it But is this the way for the Bride to make her self ready to meer the Bridegroom for her to pride her self with the Bridegroom's gifts and that her rich Attier should be the cause to take her Love and Affections off her Bridegroom who should be clean humble and chast to meet her Lord Thus the Harlot having oâ— this Attire is taking for the chast Spouse and virtuous Bride but the Day of her Discovery is at hand wherein she shall be stript naked and bare and then her shame will appear to all But to the aforesaid Attainments the greatest of which hath been but as the Voice of one crying in the Wilderness prepare the Way of the LORD and make straight ways in the Desert for all that hath been hetherto must lay their Mouths in the Dust and say as Iohn Baptis I am not be nor worthy to unlcose his Shooe-latchet because I must Decrease but He must Increase Therefore this is the Work of our Day to know the increase of his Grace of which there shall be no End to know in our Souls and Bodies the fellowship of his Sufferings and to be Baptized into his Death and then we shall know the Resurrection of his Glorious Life the Lamb of GOD that taketh away the Sins of the World who shall change our vile Bodies and make them like his glorious Body to praise Him Evermore World without End Once more I have discharged my service to GOD and Duty to you not of my one Mind or Will for had it stood with my Will I had never been concern'd more with this Generation after I had delivered the three first books to the King and Queen but having delivered the last of the three Titled to Queen Mary going in