in the death and not in the life of the flesh it much more behooveth him to possess use know and behold the creature in the same death of the flesh for if this is to be done inwardly as to God much more ought it to be done outwardly as to the creature for all things must be beheld and applied in death and not in life if it be to the rightly done Whilst therefore we are not yet dead but are yet alive we ought to be lifted up on the cross and lay down such a life under a just judgment For else we cannot be conversant in or with the sight of God unless when we lye down in death and our conversation which is without death is no conversation in the sight of God and though in the sight of Men it may have a semblance yet it cannot stand before God But when life is as was said so laid down we are by the resurrection of Christ raised up again into a new life for unless the resurrection of Christ should be we should remain eternally in death When the thief on the right hand leaving all did turn himself unto Christ he begged to be heard of him in his Kingdom Therefore he yielded up himself into conformity of the death of Christ wherefore also he was conformed also in the resurrection He was crucified by Law which like a just Magistrate did not desist from him till it had thrown him into death and then he had finishâ—d his office and so became justified from â—in he also revived not any more into â—hat life to which he dyed by the Law â—therwise the Law would have had power over him again But Christ vivified him another way and in his resurrection raised him up again into eternal life which is God himself Then the Law had no more power over him for that life for which Satan by means of the Law accuseth a Man is judged by and thorough death and is taken out oâ— the way All that came out of Aegypt must dye in the Wilderness but their Children came into the Promised Land by these particulars that fruit is denoted which follows upon a going out When a man comes into the Land of Promise and there grows fat and gross if then he doth not behave himself rightly he is again expelled into the Land of the North where much misery grief and pain 〈◊〉 sustained till the Lord doth bring him from thence again then he enters into again by another way viz. with a greâ—ter glory and riches then before anâ— then he shall never be cast out again Fâ—â— though they which Returned from Babylon did not find that in the temple which they had before yet the Glory of thâ— last temple was greater then that of the first CHAP. XXVIII WHen a Man loseth himself he nevers finds himself the same again as he was when he lost himself and he knows not the fruit as yet of that losing of himself when he as yet hath not seen it or experienced it When corruption is present Fruit doth not presently appear for that does grow by degrees even to its full ripeness He that is free from all persons hath need that he be free also in his own person and that not only notionally but also essentially When a man hath lost is body he never findeth it the same again but in his Soul he finds a supernatural understanding Light and Claritude and whâ—â—â—â—ver then he understands of Gods is 〈◊〉 â—et God but rather the contrary 〈◊〉 A â—herefore he hath found his Soul so 〈◊〉 also â—ust he again lose it as before he 〈◊〉 did is body so as he shall never firâ—â—â—'d it such a Soul again But the calamity of this destruction and death is vast but out of these a man comes into the true essence viz. God and then that is much more essential then it was at first when he was to lose himself with so great an anguish and Death CHAP. XXIX WHen a man loseth himself as to the body he afterwards findeth himself as to his Soul in the supernatural understanding knowledge vision and use then when he again loseth himself as to his Soul he is stripped of all these again and then ariseth great calamity Hell and Misery yet if he goeth forth out of them then he findeth himself in the vision of God and in such wisdom understanding and claritude as the former understanding vision and use of his Soul when he first â—ost his body could not comprehend Christ therefore so assumed humanity 〈◊〉 that he was united therewith But 〈◊〉 after that the inferiour Powers also aâ— to be assumed by him there is yet need of another death Then a Man stands in a full purpose of persevering in Christ and never to go back again from him just like him who sitting at a Table spread and filled with various and delicate sorts of Food desires not to depart from thence or like him who living well and sound desires not to kill himself How much misery and difficulty of death is required before a man is purified â—s known to them who have experienced the thing and when a man is purged and prepared for the seed of God that â—t may be sown yet he does not hitherto apprehend nor perceive that seed and knows not that he is sown therewith until it cometh up nor yet doth it come up until it be corrupted in the Earth How great miseries and anguishes in dvâ—ng are required to that corruption of the â—eed is also known to them who have â—elt it This death of the Soul happeneth â—fter the death of the Body is past for a â—eath also belongeth to the Soul both which deaths must be fulfilled in a man When the body is lost the Soul also must be lost And this is that same Talent which the Lord required of the man besides those Ten for both sums are due unto him and he will have both paid unto himself That which was said before concerning the seed sown in a purified mind which is not perceived until it be corrupted and growth forth the very same thing doth more clearly appear from the similtude of the Field sown with Corn. CHAP. XXX IN a man from whom sin is taken away and who is purged again from sin no more motions thereof are found in the bottom of the mind for from a root cleansed from all sins how can any evil spring forth For that would be â—â—sign that somewhat was still deficient there and that the bottom was not wholly purified If Plato had had his foundâ—tion thoroughly purged he had not indulged his anger over his servant Whâ—â— motions soever happen in them that aâ—â—urified proceed not from the bottom of their minds but from without only and such do presently drive them out again whether it be anger or honour or ambition or such like To a man once purified there is yet need of a closer purification â—nd after that of another yet more close Death and
they who are in death do utterly want CHAP. XVII THey who are not yet dead ought with great diligence and severity to abstain from lusts whereas they who are dead have no such matter For those means in which lusts do make their abode are by the good help of judgment so shattered and broken that delectation wholly ceaseth in them because these men are dead as to these matters and whatsoever they do whether they eat or drink or speak c. they do all in death and with affliction also this death is a sensible death nor is it like that in a post that wanteth sense neither also is it such a death which being once accomplished then ceaseth but it is an incessant death every day for they sensibly dye every particular day But for the others who still abide only in continency they as I said have not this death but are still alive For those means in which lusts do abide are not in these men as yet condemned to death and therefore they ought to abstain under the labour of the Law and sedulously to beware because they can scarce do any thing which is not done by the use or help of life But they who are dead do the same thing in death with misery and affliction And therefore as was said above he who liveth must not regard him that is dead to imitate him until he himself also is arrived at this state of death then are those things granted unto him and are become pure unto him which whilst he was alive were impure Yet is it not here so to be understood that one may therefore think that unjust things are lawful for him or are pure as at this day some erroneous spirits David George and Henry Nicholas do profess who think such things are lawful for them which are not of themselves lawful but are wicked and unjust before God and the Elect by which they demonstrate that they salsly boast themselves of their dying and death Let all those who desire to find out God beware of these kind of men In the book of Psalms it is said Thou shalt change them but thou thy self art still the same and thy years shall not fail c. He who feeleth this mutation for his part and a permanency on the part of God that man feels some-what Let no man so much esteem of the sufferings of the Soul as to contemne the afflictions of Nature for the matter upon examination is otherwise found When a man standeth in the trial between God and Nature and is equally on both sides grievously afflicted so as that he must deny one or the other Let I pray that man bear up and let him deny nature and not God Let him I pray bear up vigorously and not shrink for God helpeth him CHAP. XVIII WHen a man's props fall from under him by which he was born up it is a sign that he himself will quickly fall into ruin and then it is said Alas how long will this endeavour of appropriation last shall this my Meity or mineness always endure and then misery and affliction rush in when that net of propriety is to be unloosned because that is to done by the means of many sufferings He who knoweth grace rightly is in great affliction for he is wholly made sin and hath nothing in wch he can be at rest By how much the less one hath of grace glory Illumination devotion and of strength when he suffers the mortification of Nature by so much the more excellent and worthy is that esteemed in the sight of God But when one suffers with the glory of an exceeding high grace with devotion and with virtue c. the thing is easy nor is it so highly esteemed as when one labours under want of all those excellencies and yet is afflicted yet is not one better then another for he that lies in the sun how I pray is he better then another who doth not lie in the sun except it be because he hath need of greater humiliation which must be done for him by and thorough so much mercy so that he must bow himself down under the feet of all men and submit himself unto them Conscience is our next neighbour with whom we are to be reconciled before God will accept our offerings therefore we ought rather to suffer the loss of our own selves then to keep an evil conscience yea all adversities are rather to be accepted then that Conscience should torment us He that hath an evil conscience cannot be advanced forward An evil conscience is a great burden We must therefore use all diligence that our conscience be brought into an innocâ—ncy but that can never be effected without affliction and without the want of all things pleasant He who is full of lusts is often afflicted when those things are not done which he desired It is not wisdom to reveal the folly of another unless one hath a very lawful cause else the business of another is not to be discovered The art of God is God himself and it is taught by God and infused without any means although some certain things should preceed which have been useful so to dispose a man that God can immediately touch him It 's no art to have no care in great abundance but by care to abstain in want comes to this at length not to be sollicitous If the eye be shut to lust and appetite we may endure much Affliction can bring it so to pass as any one can deny himself in great things which without affliction he could never have renounced He that is free from many hath need also to be set free from himself not that he be a captive to himself but be freed from himself Many think that they have discretion which notwithstanding they have not yet He in whom discretion is to be found both bitter and sweet things must have been tasted by him To be free in Conscience from those accusations which are wont to be made dayly is a great gift of God and that liberty can advance a man unto a notable growth if he can use it rightly No man knows what he hath but when he hath lost the thing then at length a man acknowledgeth what he once had A man is full of the study of appropriation so that he always thinks that this or that is due unto him and to be his and that he hath a right unto that He that standeth in God walks speaks thinks and operates as in the sight of God nor is he sollicitous how men do receive it Men are willing to hide under an evil and false worship those defects in which they are therefore involved because they have not satisfied their consciences And that false worship is therefore accounted for the true and remaineth unknown but when one satisfieth his conscience then it is detected to be a false worship for when one satisfieth conscience there conscience is cleared and illuminated and there a man is
death that is knowable to the humane wisdom And because aâ— to their own strength in which they live they dye not in body and soul being wholly condemned before God hencâ— it is that they usurp to themselves as theiâ— propriety that intellect of God that is that they themselves might by the benefit of that thing conserve life which properly ought to be the condemning sentence and the death of their ipseity For if the Truth of God should enter into them in by a certain essential state it would be impossible that a man could endure one spark thereof without being melted quite down Therefore we must dye not only as to our wisdom in the highest degree but as to our own proper Salvation that God alone may be our Wisdom life and Salvation This done our ipseity is condemned before God and thrust down into a death according to the flesh which is as it were essential whence nothing can again bud forth either in respect of God or of the Creature so that whatsoever had bin ours ought to be altogether made subject to its death judgment and sentence of condemnation That same small last Chapter is contrary to that writing inasmuch as it determineth that sometime calm seasons may be gained even according to the flesh for so I transfer it even as the writing its self speaketh so as they then may esteem themselves pure because they who are purified know how to apply all things to a true use Which I also affirm but in its own meaning but that at which this writing aimeth is contrary to my mind for the liberty of Christ belongs to the inward man and doth only affect the mind unto eternal salvation in Divine Truth but the flesh is condemned and suppressed and bound down into death so as that no man can then rightly use the Creatures of God but with grief and misery because that in all these a man may behold his own death in which formerly he had thought to have found life and yet with these very things he is well contented acknowledging this divine judgment for truth and so remains yielded up into death But the Inward man is then conversant in eternal joy being signed or sealed by the Spirit of God I have wrote this in haste that I might satisfie thy desire according to the testimony of my mind The Lord have mercy on them on us all and pluck us quickly out of our errors Alas who am I a miserable wretch who thus writeth I beg Grace of the Lord for without his Grace I shall never be advanced nor abide in him EPIST. XXIII A further consideration concerning the opinion of H. N. To his brother A. W. DEarest Brother thou maist read over this small Treatise and send it back again to me because I must treat something thereof with N. that I may oppose him somewhat about those things which he accounts for true for that which he makes his scope is not pleasing to me which they call the Intellect of God in which both heaven and earth are indeed locally moved and every creature vanisheth out of its condition or state and yet in the same mystery and inheritance they conclude nature to be left alive whereas notwithstanding Nature cannot in and by its life arrive at that pass but only and alone by the benefit of its death introduced into it by Christ our Lord and Saviour and that in so much verity that Nature appears no more with its own proper life but remains eternally cast off with the death and curse thereof But that Nature which thay call purged and dead to its reason in my opinion doth indeed only depend on principles of understanding and science but not on Truth it self for hitherto it hath not approached to the essence it self nor is united therewith for though Reason layeth aside its natural discretion that thereby it may be nearer to the divine intellect yet for all that the intellect is not yet then made one with the Essence but is rather contrary to it and as it were an enemy to Truth seeing that that spiritualized Nature hideth it self under the shew of intellect but not of essence and is in that still entertained Who shall deliver a man from these intricacies The Lord have mercy on us anâ— My Brother I therefore write thus that I may also discover to thee my opinion for that man is endowed with no smaâ—â— understanding yet he is deeply seduced and is deeply wise but withal he is deeply to be disputed with The Lord keep us humble in the Truth that that which belongs to death may be also thrown off into death but let him reign and rule to all eternity EPIST. XXIV Being a brief argument that the foundation of the family of Love is laid and built upon carnal liberty To the same person I W. was here and hath utterly and cordially renounced the thing its self because he had experienced found from their presence that they were infected with the venome of carnal liberty and that all issued out of that fountain Also I restored to him the books if haply they might be willing to have them restored again to them he also was most fully satisfied admiring that so sublime an understanding was subject to errours for he confessed that my opinion was beyond all doubt true seeing that a man is always to be subjected to divine terrours But that such elevated spirits do fall into errours is from thence that they too much covet their proper security whence at length springs up boasting and pride and then after that a fall The Lord preserve us all from evil according to his great mercy that seeing it is of grace that we are saved so also in grace are we conserved and not thorough our own selves EPIST. XXV Concerning the Opinion of Plato To the same person MY brother I send thee back the little book concerning Plato which when I had read I found just so as thou writest For the falling of these who call themselves the family of Love is subtile though in that small tract they are mightily defended all things being interpreted for the better yet the excuse relisheth not well with me except I should say that by their ultimate scope to which they think they shall come by the means of Love their wisdom is shameful as in them so also in us yet with this distinction for what in them is righteousness truth and wisdom must be to us unrighteousness falsness and foolishness if so be that glory to the Lord must spring up thorough us all which yet they are willing to reserve and ascribe to themselves as also did the Jews though in a more excellent degree Now it behooveth a Christian to dye as to them both and by the Lord to be condemned to death viz. as to wisdom and righteousness Moreover may the Lord also freely bestow on us his grace according to his most holy will EPIST. XXVI A Christian consideration concerning
the creatures shall do unto him he ought not to intangle himself with them because they are all of God whose he is When one runneth so long that for want of breath he lies down then he dispiseth whatever is his own and so at length room is made for faith To stand therefore in faith is a most miserable thing for then is man's estate quite consumed so that he lives upon the savour of another from whom he expecteth that which he wanteth Paul saith If ye live according to the flesh ye shall dye They who are in death if they would draw life from else where yet have they no time for to be accused because judgment is forthwith ready at hand and the sword slayeth them But others who are yet accused are not yet in death A Malefactor who hath already suffered punishment and is dead is no longer accused for justice hath pass'd upon him and now because of that he is justified from whence was his accusation God freeth a man but not so as to take him from the cross but to leave him there God reconcileth a man's enemies to him so as that he patiently endured them as sent unto him from the hand of God Before acquiescence a man is unbridled but in acquiescence he beholdeth the will of God and there finds rest Nothing is so strong and powerful in a man that God is not above it and which he cannot overcome and drive out and so set the man at liberty For nothing is prevalent against the Lord before whom all things must fall and be as nothing that the victory may be to God and all things be confounded before him Before justification by death sin hath the dominion in man but not after justification because then it is crucified in him CHAP. XI WHere the new creature is God assumeth the Spirit of man who then becometh a stranger to himself nor stands no longer in his own place inasmuch as God taketh it up who is over him and keepeth him This man is saved out of grace and he stands with fear and trembling before God on his part wanting all prop as having God only for his upholder and then he is held up as it were by a hair only trembling with uncertainty as on his part nor hath he any thing in which he can glory besides his infirmity which he always beholdeth all things else are loosned from him and stand on God's part and do arrive at him only thorough grace and yet he must not look upon them for â—â—e ought behold nothing but his infirmities Far be it from such a one to say he cannot fall for he that says that is either fallen already or very nigh unto falling He who meditates what way things will go with him he understands not the thing it self as that which is pleasant but thinks it to be against him and is frighted with death When a man comes under grace then also he comes under the cross for then the natural man is in a continual death When a man understandeth what he is to lay aside he speaks not of corruption rashly and with joy There is such a thing as a resurrection but it is not so gross a thing as is believed God indeed pardoneth infants if they speak foolish words but he doth not so to others for far be it from them to speak like infants Now such are infants who have not yet been exercised by God A cut finger is cured again but a heart wounded is never cured That which is in the state of abstinence can return into the first state of life but that which is dead riseth not again in that state in which it is dead CHAP. XII THe torments of the Martyrs are the glory of the death and resurrection of Christ for these have demonstrated that a man is to be led in a certain way above Nature thorough the death and resurrection of Christ which way is impossible to Nature We must then die to all humane strength that the virtue of Christ may operate all these thing Whence it is that they are called the lights of mankind because they are led above all the strength understanding and will of men And all these things can the virtue of the life death and resurrection of Christ perform if it be not without a man but really cometh into him Where there is a real death and corruption there also succeedeth a real life and salvation but where that is not really done but notionally only and remains without a man there also life and salvation is not real but notional only and without a man The Martyrs in their torments gave glory unto God Glory is not given to God before that a man arriveth at or cometh unto his death and is estranged from himself and God doth take up his room or place who keepeth governeth leadeth and exerciseth him above all reason which reason here neither sees nor knows any door of escape but is held captive under the obedience of faith because a thick cloud and a dark mist hath covered the eyes thereof that it cannot see the way whereby God is wont to lead a man This is here that passive state when a man dyeth and suffers God But in the active state under the Law when life still is present it was not so for then a man was governed by reason to whom was added Will and Knowledge about the actions and omissions of a man though all things are directed by divine help and in divine claritude which struck reason down so that a man could govern himself conduct and conserve himself day and night yet when all these are taken away he must at length come into death that God may come and take his place and administer all things himself Then a man is drawn another way then what he walked before and it is that which excels his own will knowledge and strength This man is become passive and God operateth in him As the conscience and the mind was captivated and sadened when it was well with the flesh so when the flesh came into death the mind and conscience was exhilerated and set at liberty Many and great gifts of the Holy Spirit do come really into a man which yet are not Regeneration But they go and come Whereas that is Regeneration when where God hath planted his habitation and God is become one with man In God neither the world not pleasure nor joy is suffered Nature must want all these when the mind standeth in God They who stand under grace their outward man is always conserved or kept by a deadly judgment their internal man by vital nourishment thus they are always kept by God Into the mind which standeth in God no motion to joy or grief can penetrate But there comes a great sorrow which descends into the flesh that the mind may remain free What is patience is it or not when a man suffers and complains to no man no no for this is
only continence but not real patience But this is patience when a man can imprecate no evil upon another by reason of any adversity but if any one hath injured him he prayeth heartily for him note he hath a kindness for him and loveth him and if one hath taken any thing from him he yieldeth up and giveth all these things to him as unto his own self and is upon it of a chearful and not of a sad mind And this is the fruits of the spirit but continence is the work of the Law and cannot justify a man in the sight of God and is precedent unto righteousness which follows afterwards through faith in which all things are real which were before notional for in old things did abide the shaddow but the real things are of Christ himâ—elf Paul saith The Law could make nothing perfect but was the bringing in of a better hope There was no rest to the Fathers till Christ did come as the Prophet saith concerning Sion Isaiab 62.1 That if one would be made one with the truth it cannot be done whilst non-corruption lasteth and whatsoever is said or understood of it whilst it lasteth is without experience Non-corruption hopeth in vain for it cometh or arriveth not unto God For no man receiveth God without death and destruction Every natural man is in the desire of God or the creature and yet neither is due unto him for if he could come at God as he does to the creatures he would alike abuse him as he abuseth them viz. with appropriation These may be thus observed every imagination which is in man concerning God or the truth before purgation or death nature is ready to appropriate it to her self and to rest contented therein with delight that she may upon that account receive honour and respect and notwithstanding this conversation is still but according to the flesh which is followed by death For this rising up cannot abide this bridegroom must be taken away before the real truth can appear The Apostles possessed Christ before his death imaginarily but after death really Whence Paul writeth That he knew Christ no longer after the flesh but after the spirit and the truth and that he walked according to that spirit and not according to the flesh and that they were now become invisible to evey natural man whence they can be judged by none but are able to judge all that they were now sanctifyed or made holy by the Holy Spirit after that Christ was risen again from the death before whose death and resurrection no man could be holy The Holy Spirit maketh holy as the Lord saith Vnless I go away the Holy Spirit the Advocate will come unto you And no man putteth new wine into old bottles c. To renounce all creatures that nothing may remain but God and to set God only for the end and aim Nature and Flesh do hear it with terrour for they are amazed at this when they hear that all things must be taken away from them So that if the flesh can but retain one only thing though the vilest yet would it put or place its whole life therein and would adhere thereunto But in truth it cannot be so well done for it for all things will renounce it which way soever it tendeth Whence at length it must without any support let it self down into death and plainly dye to all things When a King and a Beggar are starved to death the death of either is the same and alike but yet with a distinction He that is in corruption beholding other good men still standing in non-corruption thinketh thus Alas in what condition are you O how much still can you be satiated and exhilerated with God when I can neither be so nor desire it To be at rest no where but in God it 's requisite before all things that one should become poor The sufferings of Job are not hid from me but that which followed after it cannot make me glad The Lord saith What will it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul and what advantage would it be to a man to know all things and yet he experienceth them not nor are they fulfilled in him and therefore we ought not to take care of that to know or understand much but that we may sensibly apprehend and experience much Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth faith the Apostle Experience supplieth all things in man and is adequate to knowledge And thus also the man is made humble CHAP. XIII WHen death is known it is also feared And by how much the more profoundly death is known by so much the more doth it terrify and is it feared If Death must be true it must be true as to all things When Nature is once dead as to corporal things it ought to remain dead and as to them never to revive again But then life ascends in the Soul and there seeks nourishment But Death follows it thither also and cuts off the thred of that life also that it may there also remain always dead nor can it ever revive again So that at last the life ascendeth above all creatures yea above the Angels also by how many degrees it is to ascend into life by so many deaths it is to dye and always to abide in death If one abstaineth from any thing he may take it up again but according to what any one is dead unto that ought always to remain dead so as that it can never be re-asumed I never possess piety and whatsoever I receive from God by my piety I am plainly robbed thereof and I can boast no where neither before God nor before any man nor before my own self for I live by free-grace alone This state is so miserable that no man knoweth it but he that is touched therewith And though I must live by free-grace yet I know of no grace nor can I comprehend or understand nor know nor find where that grace should be nor whence it should come although I have often felt it Therefore ought this grace to be both given and taken above and beyond the understanding knowledge and comprehension of all men yea above all merit or godliness that is in a man as also above all intellect and illumination but as for the justice of God judgment hell and damnation these I can most exactly know and understand whence they can come for they alwayes do handle me very severely But the will of God is my chiefest Salvation As long as the will of God overshaddows me I can bear all though I should be roasted or boyled annihilated or slain in Body Soul and Spirit But when the will of God hideth it self for some time that I do not feel it over me I fall into such streights as an unexperienced person cannot believe My whole hope is that the Lord will lead us all thorough all though the case be full of sorrows for his arm is all powerful
he yet stands in the creature He that standeth in God he hath no business with the creature but with God and knows him to be faithful and just in judgments To such a man no injury can be done for whatsoever happens unto him he knows it to be decreed by God Jordan is the River of jugdment to it judgment is due over it judgment hangeth thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness said our Lord when he was about to be baptised in Jordan He who understands any thing which he hath not experienced hath no real understanding thereof For he is like to him who speaks of a fair Country in which he never yet was CHAP. IIII. NO man can have humility without affliction Herod the fiery dragon and the mountain lifted up would have killed the little infant under the shew of devotion or worship The greatest danger is hanging over our heads from Pride which dares kill every birth Christs humanity is the highest of figures I desired and I sought but whatever I sought and found it now lies in death and suffers destruction together with all that that was gain to me and that too without all hope of recovery For that which must rise again is not the body which is sown for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and therefore must a man be slain according to the Flesh for it 's according to the Flesh that a man dyes and is made alive again according to the spirit If a thing should rise again as it dyes it would rise again in nature and would be natural but it is not so done Paul faith It is sowen a natural body Nature partaketh not of the Kingdom of God hence it is that the death thereof is without all hopes The natural man hopeth to be the heir of the Kingdom and thinks that the promises of God belong unto him and applies all that is written to himself but then afterward the thing comes to be otherwise apprehended when one is lead whither he would not and God is glorified in and by his death There nature is renouned and it must be robbed of all salvation and be denyed That which the natural man applied to himself another taketh They that went out of Aegypt desired to come into the promised Land and did divide it out to themselves but they abode in the wilderness and dyed there and their posterity only entred into Palestine Whatsoever therefore the natural man understands or sayes concerning these things yet all this is against him for it speaks of a sword which is to kill him Now they which are in this exercise and speak any thing thereof they speak it with affliction and not with delight nor can they ask for more then formerly because it belongs not unto them seeing all things tend to corruption and death and into death a man is unwillingly dragged he conveighs not himself thither for if it stood at his dispose he would never choose this state or condition but he is catched and put thereinto by another who is above him and stronger then himself Just as it is now with the death of the body so the matter is also carried in this other death of which it is said viz. When any one thinks he hath found his Soul and that he is confirmed in life yet must he be subjected unto death Now the Lord suffers him first to grow and to increase and grow ripe in youth but when he is accomplished in that youth he plainly careth not for death and though he knows that a time of dying must come yet lie laies it not close to heart till he be grown old then death frights him and stands before his eyes and yet neither then does he know how much misery there is there to be met with for if he knew it he would dye aforehand for mere grief They who depart from earthly things according to the testimony of conscience that they may seek the salvation of their Souls and to arrive at true ripeness of youth rejoyce in this death when they hear of it and understand it because of the fruit that springs from thence But they who are in this death are destitute of that joy for if they could yet have any joy they would still have life and consequently could not be in death because what ever dyes is separated from all life Posterity only lives and rejoyces Nothing is due to corruption but death and destruction and in death all things are removed as faith and trust and hope and charity and all joy and every thing that is founds is to be forsaken Now if it be to be forsaken and lost it must first be found out and taken up for that which one hath not he cannot give up Now that which here is thus to be forsaken is also destitute of hope as was said and therefore this desertion is donâ— not with delight but with great aâ—â—â—ction The first desertion indeed is doâ—â— with joy because then some better thing is hoped for But that hope is not here but in this point there is a total forsaking and a being made naked oh all sides Gain as they say makes labour sweet But mat labour out of which no gain is hoped for is without doubt a matter hard and bitter and sharp Labour at first was sweet because gain sprung therefrom viz. that the life or soul might be found which also was found But when this life is found it is lost again in that same dying and a man is alienated from himself and God possesseth the place of self and there is no more mountain or valley but God alone for Nature is quite shut out CHAP. V. IF sin were not neither would death be if death were not neither would there be a resurrection therefore all things work together for good for the elect Now that which first departed from earthly things is presently after elevated into divine and so remains in it self without death For though it may dye as to its gross earthly nature or creature yet as to its self it is without death as having only changed one state into another and standeth still in its own life and yet is but the natural man in his own propriety though in a more pure estate And thus he proceedeth from state to state from a lower to a higher from a pure one to one more pure And although all that is here said of states are by the means of death and corruption accomplished yet the man himself remains yet in himself without and beyond death and corruption for he is still the same and cannot forsake his propriety and stands in desire as to God as he before stood inâ—desâ—â— as to the creature and thus he ascendâ— and goes forwards until he arriveth at the most pure and nobler state it is possible for him to arrive at And all this 〈◊〉 still but a figure and a notion but a purer and noble figure but if we must come above
are outwardly in affliction and captivity For these if they could kill their keeper they would readily do it that they might get loose yea if they could break the windows gates and walls But this other sort do not thus behave themselves but are subjected unto the will of God and in it do quietly rest and although they could do as other do yet that they cannot desire there is therefore a great difference betwxt the coaction of those and of these CHAP. VII GOd himself is the uncreated Salvation which spreads it self forth round about just as the Sun is every where dispersed abroad where it can be received But where it cannot be received the fault is not in it self If therefore this universal uncreated Salvation which is God himself ought to take place in man then must the proper included and created salvation of man perish for this is not God himself and therefore it cannot stand in the sight of God and a man must on that score be cast into death and destruction and be deprived of his Soul which he had with much labour saved and when by his labour he was come so far that he could not get further then was it time for God not be at rest but to cast him into death that so he might by grace establish that in the man which the man by the Law could not gain thorough much labour For whatsoever Christ represented in life and doctrine is impossible to be actively fulfilled yet it must be fulfilled in death It behooveth a Man to dye that God himself may effect the matter and that the glory thereof may not be Man's It is not labour but Regeneration Christ bringeth grace and that which is grace is not the labour of man and afterwards a man having passed his own proper created Salvation comes unto the universal increated Salvation which is God himself and this Salvation knoweth God and with this a man can stand before God for God can stand before himself And this man no more judgeth any one For this Sun hath nothing strange in it with this salvation a man hath communion without appropriation And here it is that the communion of Saints taketh place Life repulsed by one flees to another in which it lives till it self also dyeth When the life dyeth as to the creature it is nothing esteemed off in respect of that life which dyes as to it self for there life yet remains alive and receiveth other and greater objects then it had before and in them it then liveth and hath only changed one for another and instead of a worser hath received a better nor is it dead in it self but is still the very same life but when a life dyeth to its own self there is affliction unspeakable when it can have nothing whereby it can be sustained and which can refresh or comfort it for the destruction thereof is without hope for when it falleth can rise up again no more because it falls a natural thing and it riseth again a spiritual thing and therefore like seeketh like the old bottle cannot contain new wine a new patch agreeth not with an old garment therefore we must dye to deformity when conformity is to be performed It is very necessary to have discretion but no man can have it but he that hath the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit of which the Prophet speaketh and the last of them is The fear of the Lord for when one receiveth the former gifts then at last he is round about filled with the fear of the Lord and the Lord is feared in all CHAP. VIII ABout the prophetical promises of God we must always observe whom they respect for they belong not to the natural man and he participateth nothing of them but only his destruction Whatever is extent in the Prophets and the Apostles have wrot is praised as that which is beautiful yea and it is beautiful but to the Natural man it is death and he participateth nothing thereof Although therefore he shall praise it as that which is beautiful yet it is his death yea and therefore he must come into death if it must be applied unto him But Christ is constituted by his father to be the Saviour that he may apply all that and fulfil it by the cross No man that is not dead cometh under grace and the Gospel therefore they falsly boast who glory that they are under grace without death A man not dead is first to be subdued by the Law and therefore is to be prepared for death by means of which he is freed from the Law and comes under grace as long as he is alive he belongs to the subjection of the Law but when he is after that dead he is under grace for Christ is not the servant of sin that he might leave our sins in their own state but he came that he might free us from sin which is done by the means of death Sin is punished with death And Christ is no defender of the natural man that he should remain alive For if he should do that we should come without death into God which is impossible Let every one therefore abstain from false boastings and defend no unrighteousness for that thing will never find success The whole world is full of false boastings concerning Christ but we must not be conformed to the word as Paul saith A man is secretly besieged by many things of which he is ignorant and he then at last comes to apprehend it when they are withdrawn from him Also a man sometimes apprehendeth a defect in himself and is ignorant what it should be which oftentimes is so great that it must be qualified by the Lord. The misery defect and death of nature is rather to be born with then to fly to complaints anger and murmurings Suffer and hold thy tongue and thou shalst be advanced with help and assistance Break not out into words but repress their motion Flee not from the affliction of thy Nature for come it from whence it will it will bring with it great gain unto thee and will be a benefactour to thy heart If thou shalst not do this thou shalst have a disturbed mind and shalst hot be advanced forward by any exercise There are many things in which a man followeth concupiscence where yet he pretends to another fair outside show Whatever is beyond necessity is contrary to God and to all righteousness yea and to a man 's own self No man ought to boast of his exercise before others but to walk in the fight of God and to rest quiet in him For it s enough if God seeth it All high-mindedness is to be avoided least we be esteemed for some body before others Exercise thy self before God To be able to tolerate ignorance is wisdom It is the part of grave old men to wink at the folly of youth When any one lies in death and is filled therewith and both inwardly and outwardly is without rest
both day and night and seeth others full of life there it is expressed what lies hid in him whither life or death That which hath renounced time cannot assume death nor acknowledge it although it cannot flee from the same The death of all things is to be promoted CHAP. IX THere is no need that any one should be sollicitous how he ought to come into death and corruption for it comes in its own time and cannot be supprest as a woman big with child when the hour of the birth comes cannot hinder it Whatever a man knows and understands in this death it is contrary to him for it is as it were a ditch in which he lies putrifying and corrupting No ratiocination nor understanding delighteth him If yet he could be delighted with any thing he would also still live What soever therefore he hath applieth speaketh or handleth it is all done in death and he himself is detained in death that he may putrefie and corrupt even unto the corporal death and this is that ending or conclusion of the natural man Now as this dead man hath understandeth speaketh thinketh and applieth all things infected with death and lies as it were in a ditch in which he putrefieth so on the contrary a living man hath understandeth speaketh thinketh and useth all things qualified with life and as the other is in a grave so this is in the house of joy where he eats drinks dances sings till he also comes into death then all these things cease and he can receive none of them The Natural man never transcendeth imagination and though he becometh so high therein that he dares to touch God yet even then is he overthrown as it is written Though he should build his nest in heaven yet thence will God throw him down headlong Then all is done with him as with that rich man who cloathed himself gorgeously and was fed with the daintiest food but after all that he dyed and was buried and then whatever had been pleasant departed from his Soul and could no longer receive it because his prayers were not heard Yet his mind is in this place separated from Nature by the cross and is taken into God and liveth in him but Nature is detained in death under the law of sin from which the mind is freed by the cross and standeth under grace serving the Law of God and is free from sin from which Christ hath freed him And so is repulsed by the mind in the bottom of the humanity Tawler calls it the lowermost powers out of which the vitiousness is so ejected that it never can return thither again When the natural man did stand in his own increase he did accomplish that work according to his own will that is the will of Man But when God hath gained to be in the place of self he effecteth his work according to the will of God but contrary to the will of man If a man follows his concupiscence in small things he follows it also in great things that which he must do that he cannot omit For it is a thing tried and proved by experience If therefore one would not follow his lust in great things he is not to follow it then in small things for he who is willing to omit great matters will also omit smaller To be deficient to ones self as to Nature and to suffer therein is very pleasant to the mind For whatever is cut off from the flesh by reason of conscience is profitable to conscience We must suffer in Nature for the sake of conscience but not in conscience for the sake of Nature CHAP. X. IF a man should have the impression of the knowledge of himself viz. so as that he should truly know himself there could not be one of the sons of men so vile and despicable beneath whom he would not submit himself yea account himself unworthy to have any converse with him That a man is so evil so troublesome and so morose towards his neighbour proceeds from hence viz. because he hitherto thinks himself to to be something in time and in eternity nor will he be made ashamed To be in indignation because of adversity is a sign that a man is and is willing to remain something which something must notwithstanding be turned into nothing Whatever thereof is contrary to this something must be born with or endured that that may be reduced into its nothing The shortest and usefullest rule for going forward is this viz. that every one should satisfy his own conscience Conscience is a book in which we must study dayly That which every one will bring forth out of the appetite of the natural man by doing omitting or speaking c. that ought to be intermitted though the thing should be lawful in it self unless it were subject to mutability Wherefore we may not imitate them who are in death because they do all things in death which another would do in life For that which is dead is free from every thing Now to be thus free from things is the same as to have no life in things In whatsoever therefore one hath yet a life he is not free from that thing whence it follows that he is to endeavour to his utmost to abstain from it if he would act rightly For we must satisfie Conscience and in all things study to be obedient to it If any one saith that he is free from any thing unless he did it with affliction and grief but not with delight and pleasure he saith not the truth For that is still to him instead of a prison in which he is detained a prisoner so that he is bound and not free therefore let no man deceive himself nor boast before the time He who is to come into a more sublime state must be lifted up thereunto in order and by degrees and it behooveth him to proceed in those ways which lead him thither We must beware of a double heart Whosoever is ingenious hateth it The dissembler and the hypocrit have indeed an out-side fair show yet he will not indeed desist from his lusts For he does not think it to be his concern to be led contrary to his own will Fame and Glory is a short and a vain joy The new creature is not an action but a generation we come unto it by the cross for the ways which lead thereunto are the Cross and affliction CHAP. XI CHrist hath assumed our nature but not our sin That which we so often mention concerning Nature we mean of it as it is corrupted by sin and not as it is in it self For nature in it self is good but it is corrupted by sin and fermented with sin just as when water and blood are mingled together nothing but blood is discerned though both the matter and substance of water be still there Christ hath assumed naked or meer nature as it is without blood that is without sin so he hath assumed our flesh but not
for really it is without judgment nor hath it any need of any means by which it may abstain from judgment because it hath no such thing in it self But proper Salvation hath hitherto carried along with it judgments and if it must abstain from them it must do it by some means which the real Salvation wanteth Now those means are the creatures for the essence is God himself who endureth no creature Before the essence cometh all images must vanish Real salvation hideth or withdraweth it self from no man neither is it separated nor included nor made proper But if any one secludeth or separateth himself he withdraws or hides himself from it then the blame is not to be laid on that but on him who doth it Thus is the man who is in this Salvation and where this Salvation taketh place CHAP. XV. THe chiefest and greatest affliction of all the damned is this that they are separated from God so that he that feels that separation feels the pains of hell God is essentially very good nor is there any good but God he therefore that is deprived of that hath nothing Whence it 's said He is a poor man who goes to hell For some years together all things have fallen away from me yet hitherto the chief and real death followed not thereupon as now it does Death indeed was always present with me but it was never essential death till now For here a man lieth in death and destruction nor can he take or use any discretion nor think this or that nor conceive images unless it be that he lyes essentially in death and that death is really present And when in this misery one begins to talk of these or the other divine things even for that Nature is to be punished again and to be crucified with yet a more bitter death Nature cannot enter in again as she went out for here she took breath again and was recreated and yet there belongeth nothing to her but destruction and death They who lye in this affliction if one propoundeth to them any comfort of life they esteem it for poison and for bitterness and for adversity nor can they listen to it Even as if one who is lead into death looking round about him should see all and every one to be dead all whomsoever he beholdeth yea his kindred and familiar friends Here let it be observed how great is that affliction to be deserted of all and to draw life no where and to be a captive and bond-slave unto death even to the desertion of all creatures But God ennobleth the case by changing it and that thorough a great difficulty of sufferings when they are not ennobled as to an outward fair shew before the flesh but in Spirit The former state is always more noble then the following but not in the sight of God for the tents of Kedar are black but God knoweth them to be otherwise inwardly Christ comes not as it was expected His face is sad like a man of sorrows c. CHAP. XVI THe following combate is always terrible in respect of the foregoing and that which follows that is yet more terrible and so is every other after the former so that the preceding conflicts in respect of the following are always light though they also in respect of those that were afore them were heavy And all this God doth who leadeth a man by and thorough these hard ways till he hath rightly prepared him and rendred him purged from all dross and filâ—h and this a man suffers and God operates A man is overcome by God and passively lead and though at first he was also active under Law yet afterwards he is not so Because thorough this whole state even to the following he suffereth and the state which followeth in respect of the foregoing is horrible whereas before that it did seem to be noble yet in respect of man and not of God For by how much the sublimer is the corruption by so much the more noble will be the fruit for a man is still lead more deeply and deeply into affliction The former state is always more eligible in respect of that which follows so that a man as far as he is in the foregoing cannot account of himself in regard of the following an heretick When Christ saith If they shall say Lo here is Christ go not forth he would say this We must not depart from affâ—ition Into them who lie down in death Life cannot enter They who have not yet lain down in death and yet obey the governance of their conscience stand in the midst between Life and death they are subject to great labour and strife who endeavour by the help of conscience to suppress that life which they have in themselves These men as yet can know no death until they come into that state but yet they believe it They who are in death even their very cogitations do lye in death that they can be delighted with noth ng neither with God nor with the creature For if they could still be delighted with any thing by thinking or cogitation that would still prove to be a life which cannot be in this case It one placed under a naked sword should be asked whether he took delight at that time in any thing without doubt he would answer that he sat in death nor could possibly fancy to himself any other thing but a certain and a real death If such a one should get up on his legs to look about on life and things temporal he would see nothing before him but a cloud that is judgment and death The state of such men is plainly miserable and painful nor is it to be wished for as if perhaps we should say O would to God we were like such or such but this is to be wished that the will of God is to be accomplished in us that we may bear it and be united with it Moreover those men who thus lie in death have little or no comeliness in them but are very much deformed and therefore he who is conversant with them must beware least he imitates their words or behaviours For whatsoever they do or omit to do are silent in or speak it 's all performed in death nor can any life joy comfort or pleasure lay hold of them in this state They are untouched by delectation and are filled with death If therefore he who is without the bounds of this state should imitate their words and actions he would do thus whilst he is still full of life and with a feeling of comfort of joy of pleasure c. and then would he wander egregiously because he would be in no want of delectation in regard he would still remain full of life and therefore let him have a great care and keep his life safely least he put it forth into jeopardy for though he be still often accused in his conscience for negligence yet inwardly he hath much joâ— and comfort which
the Resurrection To the same person DEarest brother we will beg of the Lord that he may have mercy on us and that he will lead us into the power of the Resurrection every one according to the measure of his illumination by the quickning power of his spirit by the benefit of whom all seeds do put forth their faculties in growing For the natural life faculty understanding wisdom and sense do all tend to death in time and though a man deluded by some fair shew may imagine to himself an eternal permanency of these things yet when the sun is risen to a burning strength all these will dry up or wither nor is it possible for them to consist or abide the just judgment of God as being that which melteth all down yea furthermore the very discretion it self of the soul must dye likewise as far as the natural man studyeth to preserve it if that that man according to the testimony of his conscience is willing to satisfy the Law least that soul do tumble down into utter destruction Now because it is not the proper disposition of the natural man to lose any thing but rather with the top of the life of the Soul to preserve all things therefore it is subjected to the divine judgment that is to death and because he is willing to conserve life in himself and in his Soul now there is life no where but in God the soul cannot come at the true nourishment of life but is to be deliveral up to death inasmuch as the natural man properly is death it self and belongeth to death For they are bound up together into one body and both viz. the body from the soul and on the other part the soul from the body are moved together whether it be to grief or to joy yea though it be in the state of the highest knowledge unto which the soul according to the natural rule of life could possibly ascend For she cannot be elevated higher in understanding unless first as to her knowledge by which the natural man is informed by her she shall dye so as that it behooveth both soul and body as one man to dye after that the spiritual conception is now out of that deadned seed is wont to spring forth a new plant enriched with divine fruitfulness which no death can touch any more neither according to soul nor according to body because this generation not of man but without man nor out of his will but without his will not with hope but without all hope arriveth at the state of eternity out of the eternal grace of God so as that it is of God and of life always abiding nor is it corruptible even as also God is in his own nature Every thing therefore returneth to that out of which it first sprung viz. the natural man with its perfect body and in its sphere to death without any resurrection at all according to its own proper nature and the supernatural man in its perfect sphere to eternal life abiding eternally in God and yet as a Creature but glorified in God He who comes to this state cannot deny the truth of the thing but he who partaketh nothing thereof also as a natural man uttereth with truth that he believeth that there is no resurrection and although he should confess it yet even that confession of the resurrection must dye because unto the natural man as such there never even eternally belonged any resurrection even as it is impossible for a seed sown to come to a perfect death unless it be wholly corrupted in its self If therefore it can be brought to pass that a man can give up himself to death with a hope of receiving forthwith another life and as to that state and according to that rule of his knowledge wherein he is dead a better for no man can whilst his present understanding is in being attain to another understanding or life unless the former be first dead then indeed there would be no need to proceed to a further death because it can only follow that which had been in being before Now therefore there is here place for death when by the benefit of corruption through the operation of God a new plant ariseth according to the nature of the corruption done every thing according to its own kind as there is example in all creatures and in the corruptible propagation of them So that by how much the more the natural man affirmeth that there is no more Resurrection by so much the more he confirmeth it because he truly is preparing himself for death and uttereth publickly his Testimony concerning his corruption and his eternal death for there is to be no Resurrection of him and thus also to his may together with the Keepers whom the Pharisees set a Testimony concerning the Resurrection of Christ be given which also by this means is mightily confirmed for them who stand in the very door to such a state and do believe it For when the Pharisees having sealed up the Sepulcher had concluded that they had shut up a kind of dead Corpse and to have kept it in that pit of Death the keepers of the Sepulcher who yet were sent to do mischief became witnesses of his Resurrection although it is not believed to this very day but by his Disciples by the Keepers is meant the natural man My Brother this my own true Epistle will clearly open to thee my mind and will be to thee as it were the hand of a Dial which thou must well eye and consider that thou maist likewise write back thy opinion to me whereby it may appear wherein we agree and wherein we differ if we are careful concerning this opinion The Lord look upon us all in his mercy and bring us into his own clearness EPIST. XXVII A faithful Admonition concerning the Resurrection of the Flesh To his Brother A. W. MY Brother Let us go to that man and let us set before him Death and Life Resurrection and incorruptibility all unfolded in their own degree and nature and it shall be at his pleasure to make choice of any one of these For if he shall choose nature in his life then in good earnest he must perish in an eternal death nor shall he ever arrive at such a life as he seeks but if he will approach unto the truth even as also the thing is he shall live while he dieth and he shall acknowledge the true Resurrection which else is denied to him My Brother May God exhibit to him and to us his mercy according to the variety of his compassions nor may he ever leave us in our miseries but remember us in this life subject to so many sufferings in which we cry out laboriously unto the Lord with many sighs that by his hand we may be promoted to incorruptibility which can by no means be effected but by our death which comprehends in it self the relinquishing of all those things which we know by
THE NARROW PATH of Divine TRUTH DESCRIBED From Living Practice and Experience of its three great Steps viz. Purgation Illumination Vnion According to the Testimony of the holy Scriptures as also of Thomas a Kempis the German Divinity Thauler and such like Of the SAYINGS of MATTHEW WEYER Reduced into order in Three Books by J. Spee Unto which Are subjoyned his Practical Epistles done above 120 years since in the Dutch and after the Author's Death Printed in the German Language at Francfort 1579. And in Latin at Amsterdam 1658. and now in English London Printed for Ben. Clark in George-Yard in Lombard street 1683. A. D. To the Reader If Job and the Psalms Reader thou dost know Then the same truth these lines to thee will show God thee enlighten to sind the Cross-way out Which Christ hath trod thy way to Heav'n no doubt THE PREFACE TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Have determined to collect and put together some of the more Notable Sayings of the Holy Scripture which make for the better understanding of this Book that whosoever shall please to consider them or such like he may be able thereby more easily and without scruple to turn over this small Treatise especially if he come to those places by which the most illuminated Matthew Wyer complained of his Inward Pains and anguish which throughout the Book he frequently did lest the Reader thereby be frighted from them or should account such Pangs and Desertions for absurd and fantastical Therefore by means of these he will remember and consider that this way of the Cross although now adaies it be almost utterly unknown and forsaken was e'n to Christ and all his true members alwaies accustomed and trod in For this is that narrow way and that straight gate by which we must enter into life yea by this same way viz. by sorrows sufferings streights and death our Fore-runner Jesus Christ thorough the whole course of his life walked even to his sepulcher and hath made it plain to and for us all whom he would have to be Imitators of himself for it behooved him to suffer and so to enter into his glory Of him Isaiah saith He had no form nor comeliness and we saw him and he was not of an aspect so as that we could be delighted in him a man despised and the least of men a man of sorrows and knowing infirmity c. Observe and consider O thou devout Reader together with all those who truly love Jesus Christ and desire to be Imitators of him how narrow and sharp and how many Pangs and Desertions is this way filled with which yet Christ entred into after his last supper and has left to us for an ensample For then it was that his Soul was sorrowful even to the death then it was that for very agony he sweat drops of blood and prayed to his heavenly Father thrice that if it were possible that cup might pass from him nor yet was he heard nor wâ—â—â— any helper present with him The wine-press was to be trodden and the cup to be drunk down the flood was to be waded thorough and obedience to be yielded unto the Father even to the very death of the cross upon that he was hanged naked between two Thieeves as the incendary trumpeter of the seditious presently after they divided his Garments by lot even before his eyes many also shaking their heads at him so that nothing else incompassed him round but Ignominy and Reproach and one sorrow trod upon the heels of another Then the Waves of afflictons were so many that they entred even into his soul because he was deserted of his Father that out of meer pressures and dereliction he cried out with a loud voice My God My God why hast thou forsaken me All which are found described at large in the Evangelists Prophets and in the Psalms especially in the 22 Psalm where the Prophet complains in the person of Christ My God I called unto thee all the day but thou wouldst not hear I a am worm and no man Also in Psalm 60. Save me O God because the floods have entred into my Soul I am stuck fast in the deep mire and there is no bottom and so on to the end of the Psalm Moreover in Psalm 88. My soul is filled with evil and my life approacheth unto the grave or Hell c. By which and the like sayings expressing the torments of Christ the whole Psalter with the Prophets are perfectly filled But now if thou shalt say Christ indeed as the Scriptures do testifie did suffer all these things and fulfilled them in his example yet is it impossible that any one can imitate him in such streights and desertion it is answered Christ himself hath said He that taketh not up his Cross and cometh after me cannot be my disciple nor is he worthy of me Also Peter hath said Christ hath suffered for us leaving us an example that we might follow his steps Now if this were impossible would not these and the like Sayings read every where up and down the Scriptures be in vain But what doth Paul say I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me and Christ saith That that which is impossible with men is possible with God For he worketh in us both to wil and to do Yield thy self therefore to God and commit thy cause unto him O man and hope in him that he will perform and fulfill all things in thee for he alwaies even from the very beginning of the World even to this very day hath put an end to the combats of his Peopleâ— and he is faithful and suffereth no man to be tempted beyond what he is able to bear Never yet did such misery touch his Elect but he still together with the Temptation found out a way to escape As it is made manifest in the Example of the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles who all as also the Author of these Sayings were led through Fire and Water through miseries and streights and through a total desertion yet every one according to his measure so as they became as Gold purified in the fire and were purged from their sins Alas how vastly great was that micsey in which David cried out â—nd complained the sorrows of death have compassed me about and the torments of Hell have made me affraid the snares of death have laid hold upon me Also when Jeremiah for meer anxiety and desertion cursed the day of his nativity as we may read them in their own places And who can express in words that both internal and external misery wherewith Job was afflicted from the Lord. Who will give unto me this saith he that thou mayest cover me in Hell or the Grave My dwelling is in Hell or the grave and I have made my bed in darkness c. Also in another place by reason of his continual desertion he openly cursed the day of his birth as did Jeremiah to many more such
Lord hath â—orn with him and with how much ado he â—edged up his way And his returning back â—nto Aegypt and how as it were forced â—nd compelled him and consequently â—ith a certain kind of violence as I may â—y he was brought unto God Nor is â—e Ignorant of such Means applied to him â—y the Lord and therefore he also never â—veigheth with Sharpness against others â—or judgeth Sinners but is Gentle and Merciful towards them and desireth not their Deaths but rather that God may convert them If this is to be done towards the Viler and Harder fore of Sinners whom no repentance toucheth much more Gently will He act with his weak Neighbour who being in the state of repentance seeketh the Lord This person surely he deservedly beareth with in all his defects and Infirmities and Sustaineth him even as the Lord Sustained him when he endured much about his Conversion yea even as also that very Neighbour himself hath formerly Sustained and born with his errours He that doth this he meteth to his Neighbour in the same Measure which was not only from the Lord but from his Neighbour also measured to him He who will not bear deserves not to be born with And he who will alwayes shew himself unmerciful and Judge and reject others he ought in like Manner to expect from God Indignation Judgment and Rejection CHAP. IX THe person of any one is not to be respected but he who is in the Person and operateth from it that is God whose only is the Glory Respect of persons is the worst of things as if the person it self should be that that should know and do any thing when yet it is not the Man but God in the Man and therefore to him alone is due the glory of Wisdom Justice Virtue Strength Triumph and Victory and all these are not to be attributed unto us but to God alone in us and in our Neighbour For in us nothing is to be respected but our empty nothingness for this only is proper to us otherwise nothing belongs to us neither God nor the Creature Consequently also no injury can be done to us by any Man although they should take away from us our goods and Life yet is not that which is ours taken from us but that which is God's for our Life Spirit Soul Body and all goods are God's and not ours Wherefore we are not to be angry but whatever God hath ordered to Fall upon us we must alwayes acknowledge to be well and Rightly done Hence also no Man is to be Hated nor are we to envy any one nor to detract from any mans reputaion but we must rather exercise mercy Furthermore a Regenerate Man cannot be provoked to be Angry nor to be Proud or of a Haughty Mind seeing he himself is purged from such like vices and is become a New Creature and is detained in the Regeneration every ways given up to God and is contented with whatsoever God shall do with him or determine to come upon him either in time or in eternity either inwardly or outwardly either by Means or without Means he receives all these from the Hand of God and yields the whole direction of himself up to God God as is above said who inhabiteth in the person is to be respected but not the person himself else when the person fails he also would fail who should respect the person Nor is God's honour attributed to him if respect of persons should be applied letting therefore the person go nothing but God only is to be looked at CHAP. X. WHether a Man be freed from the Creature is then at length acknowledged when he Seems to be willing that it should be taken from him A Man gives up himself to every Creature and to every other thing and desires it so as that without it he cannot live And if so be he cannot at length obtain it then is nature enraged and sometimes Falls into a Disease and the Mind is vexed with many other Cares Let us therefore renounce all things thorough Death and give our selves up to the dispose of God and possess our Souls in Calmness and true peace and we shall have Eternal Life So long as a Man hath not plainly yielded up to the Creature and renounced it the Ideas of that Creature alwayes enter in upon the Mind but when that Creatrue is perfectly denyed then the Ideas thereof vanish away So soon as ever any thing is yielded up it loseth that strength it had to force a Man and then it is an easie thing for a Man to pass it by which before to do did seem difficult yea impossible When a Man gives up his will to God then he belongs to God and if so be a Man is sometimes willing to put this in Practise and to abide by it God doth otherwise order it for him and will have him enjoy that which is his Behold this comes of that free yielding up as a Man may clearly perceive in himself now God detains him least he should slip into worser things They who are lead have not any longer any will nor Desire nor Choice but God willeth desireth and chooseth in them By how much the more a Man is fixed in the Old Adam by so much the more it seems Impossible to him and by so much the less can he believe that he can become Righteous So long as a Man does any thing Violently against his own Conscience whether it be of Small or of great Moment yet he cannot get forwards He that is a Transgressour in one sin is guilty of all sins If any one consenteth to one Temptation all the rest present themselves and desire to Gain that Man as being him upon whom they have gotten a new right or claim CHAP. XI A Man ought not to pass over that which stirs up in him some secret Impediment if he will be Sollicitously concerned for God or else that same secret Impediment may still remain Seperated from God and when the Man shall come to Examination that secret of his heart shall come forth and shew that it still hath been alive in him Therefore is he to bear an Examination and in the Examination this secret of his heart is to be struck out and to be mortified that so he may come unto God noâ— must we at this time Fly away but search thoroughly and then a Man may bâ— truly Sollicitous in God and so exercisâ— himself viz. by laying aside all Impediments that are by Means of that Examination Detected and Manifested And then the Man comes to a certain liberty when thorough Examination he is proved and tryed he can no longer be terrified at any thing If yet somewhat remains that without his knowledge hath lurked in his Mind that also shall be manifested when he repeats the Examination Nor can a Man more rightly know whether he be free or a Captive then when he is thus touched and therefore this Tryal is not an evil thing nor also
is it to be avoided because by the help of it occult defects are discovered and the Man confesseth them to the Lord with Contrition who also is able to purge him from them As long as a Man lives he is under the Law and when by his own Endeavours he is come so far that he cannot ascend higher yet he shall get higher and be advanced But it is necessary he should put forth his hand that another may closely take hold of him and lead him into the way which else he will not find that is he must give himself up to God so as that he suffers him only to operate he himself only sitting still and Submitting himself unto God Whatever then is performed that is no longer done by Man but God himself worketh above all actions of Man or his knowledge or Power God acts and Man suffers if this be done God by such sufferings and dyings leadeth and exerciseth the Man which are matters far surpassing his strength and knowledge even as before also the thing was utterly unknown to him nor was it possible for him to undertake such a thing or exercise himself in it And in this death it is that a Man is purged and all things are taken from him all Whatever were able to hinder in him the undertaking of the true essence Then is all propriety and Nature renounced for in God is no propriety but all things ought to be of a Divine Nature nor can any other Nature be brought into God In that death the Soul is lost and when ever this is done then a Man cometh to the true essential Life of God and there Christ revealeth himself most Evidently in Man and then there is no need to search many things concerning the Place wherein Christ is to be worshipped or any other such Particulars because all these will be very perspicuous or known to our eyes The Law is fulfiled by the new Man without all dispute or Imagination Jesus hath strength enough to be able to save and Purify a Man from sin but Christ doth also anoint the Man thus purified with his Holy Spirit CHAP. XII MOre does not belong to a Man then that by God's help he may abstain from sin and that he may have the Law for a School-master for to enter into Death Darkness the Pit and destruction and to be brought from hence again and to rise again into a new Life and a new Heaven and Light belongeth only to the Lord who himself worketh that in Man without all action of the man and that out of meer grace which a man at the time of his Resurrection when that New Day-break Shineth first upon him most clearly acknowledgeth For he acknowledgeth it was the alone Mercy of God which so exerciseth him and brought him back from Death to Life which Mercy he could not acknowledge when he was still under the Law for there his Propriety and his selfness was yet present but the Commiseration of the Lord was hitherto unknown to him because he had not as yet been thus exercised by God above all Operation and Power of his own that he might come to the Denial of himself but he stood as yet under the Law being touched by no Death when he thought that a reward ought to be Given him out of Desert but not out of Grace and then it was that he sought to Establish his own Righteousness but such a Righteousness was unknown to him which above and beyond all his own Operation and Power was setled only by Faith in Christ which Faith is acquired only in Death Darkness and Hell or the Grave A Man in whom the Law hath exercised all its Power and hath slain him remains not in Death but by the Resurrection of Christ is raised up again into a New Life but is not raised up again into the Old Life for when he should hang with Christ upon the Cross and beg to be Freed that he might return again into that Life he is not Heard but he must dye then not can he ever be thus made alive again but by the Resurrection of Christ riseth into a New Life Here the matter is so carried as if the Thief on the right Hand and the other on the Left and Christ also did Hang Naked on the Cross in one Man and as if he was reviled by both of them for faith the Evengelist Which very thing also did the Thieves who were crucified with Him reproach him withal The same is here also as if the Left hand Thief was not willing to Dye yet he must Dye but the Right-hand Thieâ— yielded himself up unto Death Also aâ— if the legs of the Thieves were broken but not of Christ and here it should be considered how Christ received the Thief on his Right-hand but the left which denoteth Nature also Perisht unwillingly and shall abide Eternally in Death also how the Right-hand Thief willingly gave up himself to Death and how he shall be Raised together with Christ unto Eternal Life Christ said upon his Cross to the Thief on his Right-hand To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He did not say Thou art with me in Paradise for this could not be so long as he had not yet dyed but he said thus Thou shalt he with me in Paradise viz. When thou hast suffered Death for it is as equally Impossible that a Man who is not yet dead can be exalted in God as it is Impossible that a Hundred Pound Weight of Lead should Fly upwards unto the Sky The Thieves did not Nail themselves to the Cross but they were Nailed the Trees upon which the Thieves Hung were cut Trees and do signify the Old Man or Nature in us for we must dy in this cut Nature and afterwards be revived again in Christ All the promises of God do respect Christ but Christ denoteth all Christians of all whom there is one only Head which is Christ who is all in all CHAP. XIII GOd cometh and openeth to a Man the sence of Scripture as it were in one Moment like lightning which comes as it were in one moment and goes away again in another and then a Man acknowledgeth the sence of Scripture to be far otherwise then before when he had considered it in his own strength And thus God can effect more in one only Moment for the truer understanding of the sence of Scripture then all the Epistles which some can write to others When the Light cometh in process of time it becomes clearer and clearer and again also it is wont to return again yet more clear so that more is still discovered and Manifested to a man which before now lay hid from him If this first Claritude cometh into a man as if it were Angelical but then forward it rusheth in much clearer and so a Man gets from one degree of Angelical Claritude to another Higher degree of the same and then presently he ascendeth yet Higher until he arriveth at the
of gross Instruments Christ saith Except a man leaveth c. If a man must leave any thing he ought first to have it Thus therefore a man first hath Father Mother Friends Riches Honours of this World and Learning Now this forsaking is the image of those things which also must besides these be forsaken for all that is gotten out of them viz. those fruits which are sprung forth out of the corruption of earthly things are also to be corrupted and consequently those good things also are to be forsaken but out of that forsaking are still gotten other greater goods and more high fruits which again must be subjected to corruption whence afterwards other fruits do come forth augmented a hundred fold And thus Death and Corruptions do alwayes ascend Higher and Higher as also do the fruits and the Life Springing from thence No man can apply the Craetures to that Parable unless he himself become above the Creature Paul saith Unhappy man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Here is to be noted that Paul had not any Body of Death in that state in which we have some such like for as to this state he was already Dead nor was there need as to that that he should dye yet further and the lowest of these did no longer belong unto him for out of many Deaths he alwayes ascended to a more Sublime Life and as to that Life he was again to dye and upon this account it was that he wore a Body of Death And by how much the Higher he ascended into this Life so much the Higher also was he elevated as to new Deaths We forsake the Body because we found it before in Adam if also we must forsake our Soul that also must first be found of us but we find it when we leave the Body A man never found himself in that which he once has lost but that loss dying and Condemnation is Eternal without Redemption But in God that is found in God also is Redemption but not in that which hath Perished Else man should stand in time and not in Eternity and with him would be found nothing but the old stock Before an elect Man comes into Hell or the Grave of which he doth not yet know whither he shall come thither or not if he be then asked to renounce the Creature he saith yes and doth renounce it so as he will never more touch it or desire it for God in that renounciation taketh away also the desire so that such a one cannot and will not desire any thing more God leadeth a man by unknown wayes just as when one comes into a strange Country where he knows not the way nor understandeth the Language nor hath any Mony and yet he goes on still As long as a Man hath still left any things to fly to so as all things have not renounced him faith hath not yet found â—oom in him CHAP. XXI THe difference betwixt those who are in the Hell of the happy and those who are in the Hell of the Damned is â—his they who live in the Hell of the Blessed bear a pure Heart and a clean Conscience nor is there any accusation â—n them O that I had done this O that 〈◊〉 had omitted that c. if one saith Those that complain not of such things have not been Subjected to any sufferings â—t is answered to him Ask any one who â—s Condemned to Death whether or no â—â—e be not subjected to misery sufferings â—hough he should confess the Judgment which he suffers to be Just and that he is â—eservedly put to all Torture and Punishment nor would he desire otherwise then that he might Suffer Yet nevertheâ—ess he is in Misery and suffers the anguish and pains of Death But happy are these Condemned ones who then at last go down into their Hell when first they have contended Rightly with all their might or strength applied all which particulars must precede if any one expects to be put forwards by God But we must labour to attain to the very Top so as that we cannot go Higher and then at length it is propounded to a man that all whatsoever he hath hitherto Laboured for and his own proper Righteousness of which Paul saith 10 to the Rom. 3. They seeking to Establish their own Righteousness are not Subject to the Righteousness of God cannot possibly stand in the sight of God also he must confess that he deservedly suffers the Judgment of God and to be cast into this Hell And then is he Subjected to those Pains and is filled with so many Anguishes though his Conscience be pure because he hath applied all his strength that he might live according to the will of God Which they who are in the Hell of the damned have not done and therefore they have not this Glory but Conscience alwayes accuseth them that they are Impure besides these sit down in the lower-most Hell when the elect may sit in the Uppermost Hell and suffer the Torments of this Judgment finding refreshment neither in God nor in the Creatures Between the Creatures and those who sit in the uppermost Hell is a great Gulph so that they can come no more unto them nor do they desire it because they have been renounced of the Creatures and when that Renounciation is Past then is the last farewel taken that they can never more touch them and therefore they are Separated from the Creature and from God also Yet they very well know that God liveth and that they are to be kept bound in this dark prison which is enlightened neither by God nor by any creature where also they hope for no Redemption eiâ—her from God or from the creature â—or have they any faith but afterwards when they have endured all this for some time then faith begins to come â—nd the man thus sighs and breaths out 〈◊〉 that I might embrace Christ with these my arms O that I might see the Salvation of Israel and then Christ come alwayes nearer till he stands just nexâ— unto him and frees him from out of thiâ— darksome prison Death and Hell and transplanteth him into life Heaven and true Light It is then indeed that a man apprehendeth what that was that Chriâ—â— descended into hell as also that he wenâ— down to the lowermost places Forthâ— lowest places of the Earth do denote thâ— most remote separation from God iâ— which a man lives in his ownness and in which Christ cometh unto him and leadeth him out thence together wiâ—â— himself The Ancients did thus painâ— out the nearest hell that a certain maâ— sat upon him whose name was US bâ— held a Cup in his hand offering it to aâ—â— that came that they might Drink Thâ— same US is in us when we glow wiâ—â— the highest zeal we possible can unâ—â— we come into the hell of Tryals and thâ— all whatsoever is ours is consumed aâ—â— all Egoity and Meity c. and whâ—â—
ever else is flesh And then Christ takes this purified Man for Christ took 〈◊〉 him the pure humanity so also a man ought to be pure which state he comes to in hell before Christ takes him up and is united with him Before death is suffered glory is not given to God but after that it is given to him After death man is in the truth but before death he is in a lie Before death a man appropriates all things to himself viz. life substance and all and he thinks that these are due to him of right nor that any of them can be taken from him but by injustice Yet he possesseth all in a lie and by injustice â—hough he thinks that he doth possess â—hem by right and in truth until death â—vercomes him And then at last all â—â—re acknowledged and looked upon oâ—herwise and all are yielded and ascribâ—d to God and to him alone is glory in Man given And a man is delivered â—om all his own propriety and is made â—oper to God who possesseth him and â—â—cteth him And thus Hell is made Heaven at last by reason of his yielding â—p When the elect do come into hell they willingly endure it out of Love although it be a great torment to them Just like him who subjects himself to sufferings for the sake of some other who he most dearly loveth and desires not to be freed from those pains although they by not small ones so that that other may but be freed from that evil Or else 〈◊〉 one should submit himself to poverty anâ— want for the sake of his beloved that 〈◊〉 his beloved my be relieved from waâ—â— or indigency and although those sufferings are great enough yet Love rendeâ— them easiy and lovely By how much the greater is the Death Hell and condemnation by so muâ—â— the greater is the Life Heaven anâ— Salvation by how much the greater the Death Hell and anguish so muâ—â— the greater and more sublime biâ—â— Heaven and life followeth thereupon man possesseth himself therefore he alâ— loveth seeketh and in all things defenâ—eth himself But when he is given 〈◊〉 to God he is not his own but God and as before he possessed himself now God is in the room of himself aâ— possesseth him This man therefore with all his accidents is God's and hath nothing no more but all things of his are God's yea so fully or absolutely that if one should give to or take away any thing from this man or do good or evil to him or love or hate him all these are done to God and not to man Moreover this man applieth not these things to himself and therefore also cannot be angry nor hate his adversaries seeing that all is done not to him but to God But it is proper to God to Love and to do good which now do â—hine forth thorough this man CHAP. XXII WHen a Man turneth his eyes inwards he will behold sin so great within himself that all he defects and spots of his Neighbour will appear to him small and few yea â—hat which belongeth to others will in respect of his sin by him be accounted â—ather for good then for evil But if any one weigheth the sins of others in a too strict balance and judgeth too rigourously of them it is a certain sign that this man doth not know himself nor is come unto Regeneration How much that which we hitherto seek is contrary to that thing which iâ— truly obtained then at length appears when God snatcheth us away from thence and together with Paul overturns all our understanding knowledge and will and whatever we have wrought he so breaks it to pieces that all dyes with the man and remains confounded Alas how great is the misery and how much the anguish in that same death and corruption There flesh and blood which cannot attain to the inheritance of the Kingdom of God aâ—â— consumed and all things perish which a man thought to have been somewhat But afterwards when a man is weâ—â— purged and purified in this purgatory then he comes to the truth of the matter and then at length acknowledges thâ— whatever he thought to have had 〈◊〉 possession of before death to be nothing and that he was before this death in a lie Just as it is commonly said of him who is Dead that he is in the truth but we whilst we yet live are in a lie All things in death proceed otherwise then before even as if the Sun should go backwards When Paul was overwhelmed all things which before he had thought to be in being were now perished together with his pleasure knowledge and understanding God rejected all but he â—gnorant of all cryed out Lord what wilt thou have me to do CHAP. XXIII A Man must go as far as it is possible for him to go and when he shall â—trive at that point that is impossible for â—im he must joyn his hands and bend is knees and stretch our his arms that â—od may do with him what he pleaseth with whom that is possible that is imâ—ossible with man A similitude we have in a Beggar Just 〈◊〉 when one seeketh an Alms from door to door and it is still said to him God look upon thee so also is it done with a man who falls into this misery all creatures to which soever he approacheth refuse him so that at length God only must help and save him When all things stand at great distance that there remains no more underpropping or refuge then is the Lord urged to come in for God cometh not unless he be urged A man must be left naked and stript of all things if God only must be made his essential life and prop. Also in desertion it cannot be but God will come When God begins to purge the floor of sin and to root it up from the bottom then it is that at last a man begins to know himself and he is in his own sight what he is in truth and what he was both before and after that and that which now is required is plainly another thing then what he thought formerly when he was still under the works of the Law and it repenteth him much that he ever had esteemed himself for a Godly man because he acknowledgeth the contrary now viz. that he hath been a sinner and an unrighteous man but not a good man And now God taketh violent hold on the root it self to pluck it up But what a stroak this is any one may know who will experience the very thing it self When a man burneth with zeal and is willing to purify himself then in the end is he become impure and unrighteous for then God discovers to him the very foundation it self of wickedness and sets before his eyes that which was from the beginning There therefore must the man abide and stand in the examination In that exercise of the Cross nothing can relieve a man and what was before told him of that cross he
can not now own it that this is that very case True indeed he wisheth O that this were it and yet he judgeth that this his suffering is plainly some other thing till God bringeth him forth as purged or cleansed And then he is cloathed with Righteousness and is translated into the true essence then also he hath utterly lost himself yea and all that also wherein he sought himself and is made one with God who is made unto him all things Formerly he sought to save his Soul alwayes fearing lest he should lose it but now he stands in the hand of God given up to God and with him and out of him God doth what he pleaseth both in time and in eternity for he acquiesceth in all things and desireth nothing but that the will of God may be done in him CHAP. XXIIII WHen sin is discovered to a man then it seemeth to him to be as it were a Sword at which he is frighted and fleeth to God and so Satan is kill'd by his own Sword Paul saith From out of many sins Righteousness is manifested when sins are multiplied that is when the multitude and magnitude of sins become known to a man then he turns his back at last upon sin and goes to God who delivers him from it and in the place of sin manifesteth to him his own Righteousness for as sometimes many Hounds pursue after one Hare when the Dogs are taken off the Beast is freed and remains alone so also God doth with the multitude of sins so as they all at last leave following a man Therefore it is written in the Psalms A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand and they shall not come near thee This falling of thousands and ten thousands is done in man but it approacheth not unto a man but he is kept upright in God and is taken into his glory And then he becomes as if he were not he is as it were so wholly deified that he can find nothing but God neither himself nor any creature And when he is thus in an exstasie and in a rapture above then is he void of discretion and without reason Not as though they were not still in being in him but that he is not sensible of them until he returns into his mind again but it is a pain to him that he is forced to descend again into discretion For it was a great bitterness to Paul that he was forced to return back into discretion for the sake of his Brethren No man understands those places of Paul's sin Experience is the mother of understanding If one hath once tasted Hony he needs not to be told that Hony is Sweet He that seeth a white thing there is no need to say unto him that thing is white for he will answer what need is there to tell me that when I my self both see and understand the very thing He that hath the very thing it self stands in no need of the type or shaddow of that thing CHAP. XXV CHrist descended so low as we also are to come down he went no lower but he ariseth much higher then we can Now can we also possibly come into that depth unless first we shall arrive at exaltation Man hath Christ first in Nature and alwayes receives him more sublime yet so as what hath gone before is still sown again to spring up into a more noble plant so that at length man receiveth Christ without all or any creature Thus man is alwayes ascending by and thorough the creatures until he hath found Christ without the creatures A man ascends by the Angels unto the Son who gives him up unto the Father Generation proceeds from one degree unto another until one climeth above all things into Eternity and there generation endeth for there is the eternal abyss in which he is wholly swallowed up and he who arrives so far knows all things in a constant Idea out of which God snatcheth him and he alwayes sees most clearly by what degrees God was present with him and therefore he persisteth in a perpetual giving of thanks Also in such a claritude and vision of God he is in a perpetual death and is as it were some hungring Soul to whom it is not lawful to eat of Meats set before him But if he doth throw his life into danger and doth eat then must he again dye a new death therefore such kind of men are both poor and rich for though they are in the bosome of all comfort yet they want all comfort so also they in joâ—s want joy and in pleasures want pleasure And these are they who are poor in spirit who have not whereon to lay their heads and dare touch nothing and stand they do as it were upon a round Globe yet they have wings but know it not As to themselves they are altogether distitute of all security but in God's sight they are secure Whereas they who are secure in themselves want security before God This state is not the state of Esau but of Jacob for Esau hath God for his propriety but God hath Jacob for his own propriety who stands in being given up to God because God hath made him fit and capable and hath reduced him to obedience and therefore the man possesseth God with acquiescence and in the midst of all riches and glory he accounts himself a poor wretch he is quietly satisfied in all things which God shall do If he gives him Heaven he is quetly pleased if he cast him into hell it self he bears it patiently and still continueth resigned up to the will of God also what things soever God puts upon him by other men he receives them all as from God and hath nothing to do with men but with God who does all these things by means of men therefore is he at peace with all men and can hate no man for any adversity done unto him for he takes it from God and not from Man whom he still looks upon but as on instruments by which God worketh as when a trumpet soundeth it is not the trumpet maketh the sound but the Trumpeter Hence it follows that he standeth in a willing patience against all that can happen unto him by men so that if they hate him blaspheme him injury him hinder him punish him revile him detract from his reputation take away his goods his friends his house and do persecute him captivate him bind him on wracks torment and kill him he takes all these from the hand of God alone and hath no business with men and in all these he looks upon God only and not upon Men he renounceth to all persons and can take all in good part So also on the contrary if any one good happeneth to him from men he takes all that also from God because he hath taken off his eyes from all means and hath fixed them upon God alone he also hath no respect of persons which God hath withdrawn
from him and hath given him the Wisdom that he can behold God in the person of man and can take all things from his hands And so he can give all glory to God and is a true worshipper of him CHAP. XXVI ALl fear of God which any one hath before the birth of Jacob is a servile fear and the filial fear comes not at first but when there is a new birth The servile goes before but lasteth not and the filial follows and abideeth When Esau was born he knew nothing as yet of Jacob but supposed that the inheritance of the blessing was his First he came forth but in part and in time was put further out till also his feet came forth then he looks back upon Jacob and is smitten with grief and he saw also his own danger and yet he contrives to kill him and to take him out of the way but the more he endeavours to suppress him by so much the more does Jacob come forth It is written concerning Esau Though thou shouldst build thy nest amongst the Stars yet I will pull thee thence Betwixt Esau and Jacob there is no dying for Jacob held Esau by the heel and followed him Esau is the beginning that which follows is Jacob the habitation of Esau was in the desart Moreover concerning Esau and Jacob Esau proceeded from Isaack which is a divine birth yet the judgment cometh upon him Such a thing is Righteousness in a man upon which also cometh judgment Esau hath the Righteousness of God as if it were his propriety and he applieth it unto his delight and he seeketh life for himself therein and therefore the judgment of God must come upon Esau that he must lay down his life till he comes into the state of Jacob who abideth resigned up unto God and whether God giveth or whether God taketh away any thing he is satisfied therewith So soon as a Man receives a new life he â—s again subjected unto judgment and is forced to suffer death CHAP. XXVII THat which is moved together with the body of Christ that is a member in the body of Christ The humanity of Christ is a middle thing between God and us and God cannot come into us but by mediation of this The feeding on the most pure body of Christ transferreth us into a divine essence and that food consumeth all flesh Christ when he had taken the Bread said In doing this ye shall declare my Death This is the sense and the impression of the death of Christ the expression of which is the declaration thereof Hence it may be observed what kind of food it is to eat the flesh of Christ and to drink his blood viz. such as many who formerly had been fed and filled by Christ going back did forsake him when they should have come unto his food Great is the difference betwixt the essential truth and the notional truth Also between the essential death and the notional death There is also great difference between those who know God in Nature aâ—â—â—â—cordingly do possess and use him and 〈◊〉 who know God in God and accorâ—â—â—ly do possess and use him for purâ—â—â—ture such as is created from God â—â—â—â—eth into God without all Adamicaâ—â—â—cidents It is true indeed that the Israe◠〈◊〉 who came out of Aegypt did eat Heaâ—â—ly bread in the Wilderness yet that coâ—◠〈◊〉 not preserve them so as that they shoâ—â— abide but dye they must as Christ saâ—â—â—â— Your Fathers did eat the bread from Heavâ—â— and are dead When first we come out of Aegypt 〈◊〉 cometh to pass that we can in the 〈◊〉 of flesh or of Nature see know posseâ—â—â— and use God yea and hold him in oâ— propriety but that nature must come 〈◊〉 to death and be judged of God anâ— then we possess and know God not 〈◊〉 the life of the flesh or of Nature bâ—â— in the death of the flesh and then God is possessed without appropriation without touching or handling for whatever feels or touches in us is the flesh and is delivered up into death from God but afterwards in a true quiet resignation God beholdeth himself in us and there knows and loves himself and although formerly we knew and applied God in Nature or the life of the flesh yet that state remains no longer but by and thorough judgment is pressed down into death and hath nothing in God neither pleasure nor joy nor comfort And although Nature or the flesh had for some time some such thing in God yet now it hath it no more Whatsoever came out of Aegypt and did rejoyâ—â— to go forward into the promised Land that must fall in the Wilderness and dye but the Children sprung from them did come into that Land Now thouâ—â— the flesh is thus condemned unto death that it can have no delight nor joy 〈◊〉 God yet the mind is and resteth in peaâ—â— and joy and then the man when thâ— flesh is thus dead is like to wax which softened by the fire and is made fit receive all Impressions As often as a 〈◊〉 is willing upon the appearance of Gâ—â— to gain his life in God and he himself â—â—prehends the very thing he ought theâ—fore again to be judged and to suffer a new death It behooveth the thieves to remain under judgment upon the cross retaining no life either in God or in the creatures nor for the obtaining of life can they be heard until the thief on the right hand forsaking all accidents shall turn himself unto Christ It also behooves this man to remain in judgment according to the flesh till as to that he shall be dead Nor shall he ever be raised up again into that life according to which he hath dyed but he is eternally to forsake it out of or from that just judgment But he shall be raised into another life which is God himself And this is then that pure nature that pure humanity that pure flesh which Christ assumed as it is written Zach. 2.12 And the Lord shall possess Judah his portion in the sanctified Earth And such purified flesh hath access to God and God does manifest himself to it with delight and it standeth given up under God and possesseth God without appropriation seeing he leaves him also free Such a man possesseth God no more in Nature that is in the life of the flesh but possesseth God in the death of Nature It possesseth God in God it knoweth God in God it seeth God in God It knoweth Christ no more according to the flesh as formerly but according to the Spirit God in this man enjoyeth all things and does with him according to his pleasure both in time and in eternity and this Man is at rest in God But the anâ—iety which he suffers in the flesh or nature he indeed perceiveth that sometimes he knows not which way to turn him but he so is at rest that he wills nothing but what God willeth if therefore it behooveth a man to possess God
that which God puts forward And when a Man is so reduced into his nothingness then also must this nothingness be reduced into nothing nor ought a man even to arrogate that to himself for God by his judgment hath reduced him into Nothing The new man doth not profit or go forwards for it is God himself but a man profiteth or goeth forward in the new man who neither is deficient nor proficient in this a man profiteth or goeth forward and increaseth The fear and terrour of God is introduced into a man with great affliction CHAP. II. TO speak forth the hidden things of God is rather rashness then devotion for they are to be adored and we ought to tremble before them but not to babble them out Some indeed do freely meddle with them even by talking of them but he that is humble adoreth them with an humble voice For though one does understand some profound meaning yet it always reveals it self to be more profound The essence of a thing is too worthy to be expressed in words When I pray that the will of God may be done I am terrfied and I must add O Lord with thy grace I can desire no joy no comfort no nor heaven no more then doth that wall for I may not it is grace and mercy which I desire communion is a most terrible thing to the flesh because the flesh desires propriety and full possession to it self therefore is communion death unto it Faith is like unto a ship driven from the shore which hath neither rudder mast nor oares He that is without appropriation cannot be angry at whatsoever he is either to suffer or do for to be angry belongs perhaps to others rather then to him and therefore he is to decline it Nothing is to be done boastingly For to do or to omit any thing boastingly is a great evil Whatsoever claims pleasure that must dye if he who is well and at ease do then lose his time then is time made his proper own CHAP. III. TO abstain and repress ones self is no death in respect of my death because that is done out of purpose but this without and beyond all purposes yet not so as if the will of God were not pleasing to me God hath led me violently To be thus lead is the work of God nor is it done unless God wills In the agony of death many things are often done which are not done in the life's time In the agony of death is exercised a hard judgment and then is a man sometimes promoted therein to which he could never come before in all the time of his whole life First he must conflict with joy then with sorrow and lastly with death Whatsoever words are spoken without experience I have no esteem of them If I had known that this misery in which I now live was to come upon me I had perished but now that I am in it God holdeth me in it God holdeth me privately I knowing it not The Creature which is rightly used is made more noble and cometh to God thus every creature must return to its original that is to God and this is done by that man who abideth in a right way The true use of the creatures is performed with giving of thanks therefore except one rightly useth the creature he useth it to judgment Concupiscence is a thing so secretly hidden in Man that a Man knows not whither it be concupiscence or not till for its sake he be lead away captive By how much any one is nearer to God by so much the more pitiful is his internal condition To know God is a state the most subjected to affliction of all By how much any one is nearer to God by so much the higher is he in sufferings To know God is indeed a bitter state by reason of the departure of the creature which for his sake must be left By how much the greater affliction any one is exercised in so muc the greater grace he hath and is dearer unto God If any one could lay open my inside he would see there nothing but death I have no prop nor comfort nor rest neither in Heaven nor in Earth except the will of God in which I lye down God begins some new thing with me I never was at this rate in sufferings as I now am I have nothing but the will of God in which I acquiesce And though I am pressed with so hard afflictions yet am I far beneath the passion of Christ the son of God whose hard and vehement passion cannot be compared with by any other God upholdeth me above my own strength for it were impossible else for me to do or suffer that which I do We aim at great things but the cup we must first drink before those great things can come is a bitter cup. CHAP. IIII. IT is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God who sheweth mercy This a man must experience with Paul in the highest streight and temptation before these words can be spoken by him This is proposed to a man that that very thing which thou lovest thou must forsake What it is to be naked and forlorn no man knoweth but he who feels it and he who either was or is in such a state I fall down before God like a most miserable worm being unworthy to lift my eyes up unto him O the cup that is to be drunk O the draught that consumeth all things he will not put out the smoaking flax therefore it shall consume with fire Here I lie like a dumb thing or like to a post and I only suffer misery and affliction I lye under the will of God and corrupt If it be said This is not in vain for fruit will follow c. I leave that to God and only suffer his will In God there is no suffering if I could stand wholly in God there would be no need that I should suffer God keeps me in the snares of death and causeth me in time to go into the nothingness of my self Though one may get up many degrees yet we are always to descend descend descend until we come into dust and ashes That which before now we talked concerning this Nothingness it was with a certain kind of pleasure yet even all that must be subjected under its judgment We cannot arrive at this nothingness but by the exercise of God To be delighted with a righteous man or his writings words or works and to have a kindness and a good will for them it is the gift of God When any one is freed from the creatures that he can have an in difference for them without grief or joy whether it be loss or gain there is made a breaking thorough and it is a certain sort of a singular death that belongs to this case nor is it the work of man but of God Many suppose themselves to be that which temptation or trial discovers to them that
to his heart it is necessary that it should be expressed from out of the cross and from anguish If it springs from joy or from speculation it is vain and wanteth spirit or life Experience teacheth all things and that which is void of experience is in vain We pass thorough time into eternity and time is mutable so also is Man produced with mutability till he comes thither where there is no corruption nor mutation No man is to be rejected with how gross or how low a zeal his spirit boyleth with because they may be changed and therefore we are to be quiet with a man that standeth in his own zeal We are first in time before we come into eternity We first begin with low things and by degrees are we transferred unto higher till we come there where perfection is Paul saith Not as if I had apprehended c by how much the more sublime are the Saints by so much the more sublime is their desire by how much the higher is the perfection by so much the more sublime are the defects A man made conformable by letters rules ceremonies or as to outward appearance is like a body which hath indeed a nose a mouth c. but yet it wanteth life Every thing by its contrary is made of greater esteem accounted for holy and is not rightly known its contrary not being known then it is not so For if cold were not heat would not be cared for Heaven is more clearly understood by hell and the grace of God by his wrath or anger He that rightly knows the fall of Adam and understands his restauration cannot rejoyce because a man must perish for its sake and as to all these things he must be annihilated as to what he is made for Gladness is assigned over to posterity and to that fruit which shall grow out of corruption where a man becometh to be that which he attaineth to out of corruption And then he appeareth in the glory of God and acknowledges God from God and loves God from God and is sanctified and justified and â—enewed in God And he is made that â—y grace which God is by nature Before death all things were vain and â—nconstant and meer phansies but now â—re become essence or substance which â—bideth The truth is incorruptible the â—â—uth hath made all things free and hath â—nited a man to himself and all things â—re therefore done that we might get up hither All things are disposed to a cerâ—ain end Autumn Winter Snow c. â—or the fruits of Summer to this end and â—cope therefore are all things to be directed and for its sake are all things to be exercised and applied and not for its own sake The flower is the cause of the fruit and not of its self the flower perishes but the fruit remains whatsoever goeth before hath respect hitherto but â—abideth not but the fruit remaineth â—nd this is the truth in which a man is â—onfirmed and founded that he might be 〈◊〉 it eternally by a true union The small treatise of the Imitation of Christ is very useful to them that are labouring and striving for it giveth us the best instruction unto life and I am much delighted therewith but the German Divinity excelleth in which is the representation of God The book of the imitation is more profitable for the publick but the other small treatise of the German Divinity is for private use CHAP. VII BEcause God exerciseth his judgment so severely in his Children and yet his judgment is just it must be well considered what becometh us and that though we suffer in a wonderful manner yet is it done unto us with grace and mercy and that indeed the thousandth part of afflictions according to our sins is not inflicted upon us But God spareth us and unless it were so where should we abide Whence we ought not to be proud but fearful rather yea frighted and to hold our peace By how much the more a man recedeth from himself so much the nearer he approaches unto God and by so much the more heavily is he punished also in respect of nature which is therefore subjected unto death If a man should at first know this misery and calamity he would dye for very grief but now he cannot be sensible of it till he falls into it and then also doth God notwithstanding lead him thorough it He falls into the Gulph Scylla who indeavours to avoid the rock Charybdis For when a man desires to be freed from the legal accusation of his conscience he comes and is condemned into death so that endeavouring to avoid the difficulty on that part on the other he falls into it that is into a state where the natural man is condemned When the Law doth no longer accuse a man is condemned like a malefactor who is first accused and at length is punished then the accusation ceasing he suffers death by the means of which alone he is freed from the accusation of the Law He that trieth this shall find it no liar which hath promised to him no sweetness If it be said but yet it is well that the conscience â—s free though nature may suffer it is answered How good the state of thaâ— man is God knoweth the truth is iâ— is a miserable condition but it is accepted of God and he that is in it is made nearer to God But by how much the nearer he is to God by so much the heavier is his suffering as to Nature Here the restraining or bridling in of Nature sufficeth not we must go beyonâ— that viz. we must dye and we muâ—â— perish That a man can acknowledge his sinâ— is a great gift but then the affliction alsâ— is great He that acknowledgeth his sins God delivers him from them Thâ— vulgar acknowledgment of sins is not 〈◊〉 He that rightly acknowledgeth himseâ—â—â—o err desires to walk in a right way and to decline from that which is erroneous but he to whom the erroneous waâ— is not unpleasant he abideth in it aâ— defendeth it nor acknowledges that 〈◊〉 erred though with his mouth he mâ—â— profess otherwise In death that gloâ—â— is given to God which could not be doâ—â— in life for in life a man retains tâ—â— glory to himself but in death he laâ— down the glory Nature hath a way so proper to it self that it will acknowledge or accept no sort of death till it be willing or nilling cast thereinto and then the will reason memory and understanding of a man are so bound and tied down that the man thinks that he alone is smitten and that no man suffers but himself and from thence forward he can neither take joy in any thing nor can he draw comfort from the evils of other men And that usual saying that common mischiefs do bring comfort with them yet is not true in him He that is yielded up to the will of God is without choice yea his very words which inferr election do terrifiy him
for where the virtue of divine will is felt there such words do excite consternation Therefore it is not for him to say I hope it will be so or so or so it shall be or so it shall not be and the like but he saith thus 〈◊〉 hope the Lord will do it Christ saith I am the truth We think that Christ is with us and that he is such a one as we are by Nature but thus he is contrary to us and is our death CHAP. VIII ALl ceremonies conform themselves according to God and are a representation of the hidden truth but they do not conform themselves unto our weakness as some say yea and that God gave them because of our weakness when as other wise they had not been necessary to which opinion we must assent Yea furthermore they say that the very incarnation of Christ is to be thus adorned which opinion be it far from us He that is upon a right foundation and hath an understanding heart will be wholly opposite to these opinions For such a one feels and knows that without the incarnation of Christ no salvation can be found on the earth and that ceremonies together with all creatures are only a representation of the heavenly truth and that they are all conformeâ— according to God but not according to us and so also they ought to be And therefore they judge too dryly concerning them who say they are toys and trifles as also they do attribute too much to them who are glued fast unto them and from them do make Gods to themselves and set them in the place of the true substance They err on both hands Wherefore we are to wait for a right judgment in all things from the Lord and and to fear least any thing is rashly added from our opinion for opinion deceiveth us Where the powers of sin are felt and are conquered and broken a man is cast into great affliction But when a man puts that affliction from him and puts it upon Christ as if he had satisfied for it and that that satisfaction ought to be impâ—ted to a man and to be fulfilled in him so as that sin is to be taken away and righteousness to be fulfilled there a man hath not a true sense of sin but neglectâ—th it with a light mind this opinion also is contrary to the writings of the Prophets and the doctrine of the Apostles who testify that Christ must snatch a man out of sin and let up righteousness and break the Serpents Head and overcome all things and that this victory ought to be done in a man and not to remain without him Rom. 8. 4. for they ought to be a people in whom all things are done and fulfilled which the Prophets and the Apostles and all ceremonies testify Let no man therefore deceive himself by imposing upon Christ any thing without himself Where God doth possess a man there God reigneth and keepeth him but man is not at all touched with any care for what belongeth to God But a man is not to eye any thing but his littleness and emptyness that is his selfishness this is due unto him and upon that account he boweth under all and judgeth himself to be worser more foolish and more unworthy then all men All the rest that is any things is God and is due to God nor doth it concern man But if any one departing from his nothingness will arrogate to himself the things which beâ—ong unto God that will prove the highest pride and the most heavy fall CHAP. IX WHen any one is given up to the will of God there is nothing so heavy nor so painful which he cannot bear in the will of God without election But as God willeth so is a thing commended to him who will do all things And where that is there is peace and no where else A certain person said such as the judgment is so I suffer under a heavy judgment heavily under a light judgment lightly When one also is ashamed befote his neighbour because of that for whose sake he was ashamed before God conscience is more at quiet but when one for a secret hidden baseness blusheth not before man conscience is burdened and therefore here we must be bound and no man ought to be ashamed when he is obliged to confess himself guilty before his neighbour God keepeth his promises but we understand them perversly until their own â—ime comes when we see what they are and to whom they belong He whose will is resigned he wanteth appropriation and its the same to him whither the thing be or be not He who hath a will yielded up to God he esteemâ—â—â— for heavenly whatsoevr happeneth to him For all that is God to him and God is Heavenly Whatsoever falleth out to him be 〈◊〉 advantage disadvantage peace disquiet riches poverty bitter sweet heat cold hunger thirst honor dishonor yet aâ—â— all these God to him and consequently Heaven he is also without appropriation and nothing else pleaseth him as if 〈◊〉 were Heaven unless that God wills it But before any one comes thither many thing are required especially Time He who wants this resigned will esteemeth all that are against his own will for torments and Hell yea even those things which of themselves are pleasant Out proper will therefore is to be discarded and to this purpose serve our exercises O how bitter is death to him who is yielded up to life All things perish but God and what is united to him The voice of the Spirit is such a terror to the flesh that when any thing is spokâ—en to it of the spirit it is frighted and â—rembles because the Spirit is its destruction They who aim at a mark shut one eye and always level at the mark and when one hitteth the mark then he turns himself and looks upon all the rest which none of the rest do because they have not yet struck it but do still level their aim By the cross God casteth on man chains and a bridle And except this should be so he would wander into errour in time and though a man sometimes may think that he shall serve God better unless this or that happens yet God adjudgeth it otherwise and knows this to be best contrary to a man 's own opinion CHAP. X. A Man always requires time and space and thinks that he shall satisfie the Law and yet it cannot be done and he must dye and God must fulfil the Law in his stead That which a man thinks he shall do in his life that is at last performed in his death When the passion and death of Christ are really in a man also his resurrection is really in him if one is real such also is the other if the one be only notional so also is the other for there are divers resurrections A man given up to God belongs to God and he hath no propriety but is a stranger to himself whatever therefore God or
the actions business and pleasure of the unrighteous at last sinks and falls into nothing O Father this is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This is holiness and God above all images and of this nature or the natural man partaketh nothing but remaineth separated from God and all his creatures Alas how great an affliction is this to Nature to want images when as the natural man cannot get above images for all his joy quiet peace advantage consist in and together with images if therefore God alone is present his death is present God alone is essence and being it self and hitherto the natural man cannot come or else he could never fall for whatsoever cometh into God is eternal and unmoved All that are said of the fall are said of the natural man whilst he yet abideth in images and appearances and that state is to be consumed-with its desire of growing on and of increasing before the essence it self is come but when this is come Nature must be subjected unto death and not have any life or joy in that essence for that priviledge is not due unto Nature And here it is that God filleth the place of man and acknowledgeth honoureth and praiseth his own self and he worketh and setteth up what he pleaseth and here God himself is present and therefore the glory belongeth to God and not to man Here man stands naked in his poverty and arrogates nothing to himself because to God alone the glory is due When the essence of a thing is present all images vanish and because the Natural man medleth with nothing but images therefore he is robbed of these when the thing it self is come and then he lieth in death yet his mind is taken up into the thing that is into life but the flesh or nature goes into death nor draws any life either from God or from the creature The natural labour of a man is this to yield up one thing that so he may receive a better and to go out of one chamber or room that so he may come into another more fair And when he hath gotten all these things for whose sake he left the former at last he is also cast out of them and hath nothing either here or there being deserted on both hands and brought to want in either room Yet so long as he sees any escape so long he laboureth until this also faileth Then he yields up himself therein imitating the Ape who defends himself and labours so long as he sees a way to evade but being hindred of that he lyes down and suffers himself to be beaten and knock'd yea he admitteth all though it be still against his will So also the natural man suffers not these things willingly but quite against his will CHAP. II. TO do nothing in obedience to conscience under the Law but only to lye down and suffer God's work is a great affliction Then we cry Oh that I could do something But action hath been before already and it was done with delight and willingly But when we must want as well the worser as the better also and lie down in death without hope of rising again or of reviving this at last proves a wonderful streight Nature had had before the knowldge of the gain and therefore action was sweet and pleasant to it but here she suffereth under action and knows no gain from it therefore these things are bitter and sharp unto her and are done against her will The knowledge of a natural man consisteth in images But God knoweth himself without image or notion The creatures wherewith brutes are fed are made more noble in man man is made more noble in God And so the creatures in such a man return again into God And as the Creatures without cutting serve not for the use of Man so neither without corruption are they united to him so also cannot Man be united to God without corruption for all things are done in order Holiness is a worthy thing and unutterable and the natural man participateth nothing thereof because nature cannot come thither Paul saith Other foundation can no man lay but Christ Discretion cometh into a man in one monent and that moment is like to lightening but is not the thing it self for this follows after When a man hath received that momentary lightening his intellect is bound down under it By one only shine God doth more perfect the understanding and discretion of a man then a man can do himself in twenty years nor yet is the thing it self present Many there are that have that and are dead who yet never arrived at the thing it self In a time of necessity all my friends forsook me and when I came unto them that they should help me they all went backwards from me These friends were those Revelations which I had wherefore I resolved to trust in them no more for assisting me in a case of Necessity He that would keep his senses from distraction he must endeavour to be constant in prayers for there is help And he that would keep his senses and preserve them from inroads he hath every day something to do for the case is with him as it is with a City besieged For no City can either by the Emperour or by the Turk be begirt with so greivous a siege as this man is besieged with In this affliction God is merciful to the man and loves him but the man knoweth it not till at last he comes to feel it God seems as if he were deaf nor to be willing to know or to hear such men but at length it is found that the intention of God was always good for it is afterwards apprehended that God is merciful in our miserable streights When a man makes the creatures his aim and end he deceiveth himself The creatures ought to serve us to attain to our aim viz. God but they themselves ought not to be the scope we ought to adhere to God and not to the creatures and to have a heavenly sense of things and not an earthly CHAP. III. HE that standeth in God to him all that happens are accounted to be God he can impute nothing to the creatures for he hath nothing to do with them but with God He beholds God in the creature doing with him either well or ill because God acteth by and thro it incites and spurs on the creature And though as to the outward show it seemeth as if injury was done unto him yet he jugdeth not the creature but himself and acknowledgeth that the just judgment is exercised upon him from the hand of God Whither a man takes all things as from the hand of God may from hence be known if so be when he is injured by the creature yet is he not therefore moved but if he be moved at it then he takes it from the creature and not from God and so he then proveth that
figures into meer estence he that thus ascendeth in images must now also dye even to himself because by this his asent and going forwards in images he is prepared so as he can be how touched with this death by which he dyeth and is corrupted and then he suffers a death of all his ornaments and gifts yea of his own self And therefore he can never be restored more nor be made glad by any means because the joy is reserved for him that abides after death as the Prophet faith These shall be written for the generation to come and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. And again Thy labour shall be rewarded and thy posterity shall rejoyce therein This is that glorious resurrection and fruit which springeth out of that death and corruption And hence springeth glory to the Lord This is that bottle that can hold new wine which a natural man cannot contain though he should have a state very pure and noble This was the seed whence conception arose Wherefore it is not in vain nor is it in vain that by the good help of God 〈◊〉 hath separated himself and disposed himself unto divine things for then is he compelled to follow order and so he acted rightly and had not done rightly unless he had done so because he would have been disobedient to God who is a God of order and leadeth a man in order whence eternal death that severe judgment of God would follow A man must be led in order even unto his death for unless he should follow order he would certainly remain unprepared nor would ever come thereto And therefore we must first endeavour to yield ready obedience and always to attend to that which is next and also from the very first beginning the cross will not be wanting and by the way thereof we shall go By what a man departeth from earthly things in obedience to his conscience by that is he atlength rightly prepared to come into the earth that is into the corruption of himself and that which grows out of this standeth before God This corrupttion of the natural man ought to last even to the corporal death of a man and after that the tender twig at last springeth forth But the mind here even yet before the corporal death cometh into the resurrection and is made a son of grace and of the covenant which consisteth in the blood of Christ now poured forth for the remission of sins Christ washeth us from sin by his blood which speaketh better things then the blood of Abel without the effusion of the blood of Christ there is accomplished no remission of sins or purification It is a Most excellent thing to be freed and purged from sins but to feel how that redemption is performed and to experience that misery is no pleasant matter but exceeding sharp and difficult Nor is it possible for a man so much as to behold the thing much less to execute and perform it But it is God alone who both beginneth and finisheth it to whom nothing is deficient because his works are all perfect Now here a man does nothing else but give himself up into tranquility and suffer◠the operation of God The work of redemption God hath reserved to himself alone and the glory thereof is his And because God handleth the matter no man needs to say that the thing is impossible because the work and purpose of God goeth forwards Here also do faith and patience take place which also are the work of God and not ours When one serveth the Law of God in the mind then in the flesh he serveth the Law of sin By how much the more of the sins of concupiscence and appetite remaineth in the flesh by so much the more misery affliction and death the man hath for he walketh not according to the flesh as being that which condemned under the Law and being hurried away violently by sin is crucified by the Law of sin Now where these things are not there a man still walketh according to the flesh and by how much the more there is at that time of the sins of concupiscence and of appetites in the flesh so much the more of life and joy a man hath but alas it is a miserable life which is followed by eternal death CHAP. VI. BY what way or means the Resurection and the judgment of God are to be accomplished after this time no man living can comprehend or understand for whosoever would know or understand that he belongeth unto death and becometh subject unto death We have indeed a representation of the thing but what the very thing will be in the future is not lawful for us to know When the thing it self is present then at length it is known All things to come are locked up from the natural man in darkness and ignorance yet he arriveth so far as to know that he knoweth nothing c. By how much the greater is the streight so much the more durable is the judgment by how much the greater is the desertion so much the nearer is any one to God For the most part inward affliction gets entrance by outward affliction and outward affliction is as it were the gate by which the inward entreth into a man For without outward affliction nature searches out many escapes that inward affliction cannot touch her As if one kept in a dungeon should still see light by one only cranny and upon that account the evils of being in a dungeon would become much easier to him So also as Nature can catch its propriety this internal affliction is hindered nor can gain a room or place For there is no place for inward sufferings where Nature hath got escaping holes Great is the misery where nature is thus kept in death that she can hope for nothing but acquiescence can bear all things He who is founded in death destruction and misery and is quiet in them admits not comfort either of life or of joy and is unmoved as to all things which are grateful and acceptable and no man can either comfort him or terrify him For if one should threaten spoiling death misery and affliction to him he already forseeth all these and yieldeth himself up unto them and is conversant in them And therefore he is immoveable both in respect of things grateful or of ungrateful No man can either make him merry or fright him Death and the withdrawing of all things are indeed a terrour to him but not such a one as now at length beginneth but now afflicteth him Nor do grateful things exhilerate him because he hath renounced all things and he can re-asume nothing and therefore he is unmoved Here Nature is as it were ground between two Mill stones because he acknowledges the judgment of God upon him to be just and suffereth such misery that he must thus behold the thing and the thing must then be done But he is not like other malefactors who
our sinful flesh In the death of a natural man the will of God only ruleth viz. because that God so willeth it and it so pleaseth him and his judgment thus requireth it Hither a man is to refer himself this is his only restand quiet viz. the will of God Things plainly happed otherwise then one thinketh all things observe another manner then a man thinketh CHAP. XII THere is no coming unto an internal state or spiritual exercises except first all the ceremonies are broken by affliction The warm bed is to be left There are men in the world that for the sake of Idolatry exceed that hardship and patiently endure the cold and incommodities why may not the same be done for the sake of the true worship and though at the beginning when one is setled in a custom of lying in bed the thing will not be without difficulty yet in time it will become easy and a man will hate his bed and the too much use thereof and will not use it but for necessity All things whatsoever which are at first done with great difficulty they become gentle and easy by use A man must combate stoutly and with affliction too that laying aside his confusion he may be brought into order and consequently that God may draw nearer unto him He that is kept in confusion and neglecteth the means of his getting forwards cannot be promoted but many years and times are spent with him so that he sâ—ill remains that which he was and the fault is in some prop or support he hath either secretly or manifestly as well in small as in great matters Where Nature is crucified there she wants a prop for on what another is upheld and proppd up with on that the cannot leane her self We must beware of every affair that is used for to pass away time sportfully and unprofitably time is to be weighed in a ballance and to be spent on God for it is precious and runs swiftly Whatsoever is to a man most difficult and bitter that he must do and whatsoever is most easy and sweet that he must omit To keep himself pure in impurity is a piece of art and commendable but let no man that is already out of the reach of such mingle himself with them for that would be a rashness Whereas he that is in them already ought to enter into this combate and to conquer the enemy and with tears and sorrow break thorough the hostile troops That which is here said of impurity is not to be understood of those things which are in themselves impure for no purified person can pass thorough them when they are prohibited and are not in the least allowed of but of things that are not impure of themselves yet are such by which a man may be polluted by reason of his own proper impurity when he satisfieth not his own conscience and walketh not streight forwards in the way of God He that will not suffer is afflicted in the earth He erreth in his understanding when one is lead into the revelations and knowledge of many things but he himself remains without and beyond them The Lord saith What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own Soul He also that went into the marriage without a wedding-garment was cast out For those thing which he had notionally by knowledge and in the understanding he had not substantially and really In the science of things a man glorieth and is glad and delighted when he speaketh or writeth of them all things are done with joy But when the substance or essence of things cometh he lieth down in death Nor can he rejoyce or be delighted because he partaketh nothing and hath no thing therein but his death and destruction The Science or knowledge of them can no more make him merry because they are contrary unto him And whatever he knoweth readeth heareth oâ— thinketh concerning them that all make against him because all these things aâ— contrary or adverse unto him CHAP. XIII WHen a man lies in death he no longer his own for he plainly alienated from his own self Her therefore he ceaseth from labour neithâ—â— does he act any more and God stanâ— in the stead of himself and fulfills and erecteth that in his death which had not been done in his life For whatever he handled in his life he did it at all by images but here in death God hath established the very substance it self and this is a grace and the generation which is made in death That which Christ denoteth cannot be fulfilled for it is a generation which is of it self passive in the destruction and death of a man It is impossible to man therefore God himself doth it whence it is that to him alone the glory is due A man who is in death is not afflicted by the delay of time but he who yet hopeth for joy and pleasure he is afflicted with every delay until that cometh which was hoped for But the dead lie down without hope nor is there any thing which they expect for they are forsaken and stripped of all But in these things they acknowledge the will of God and comfort themselves that God so willeth The will of God is their couch When a man gives himself up to one lust then one follows another but then a man hath to do as it were with a Lion who if any one lays hold on one paâ—â— of any thing he ever draweth it nearer So also if one yields himself up to one lust he also quickly yields to another and so the world gaineth him again tâ—â— he be wholly swallowed up therein But then at last the man truely neglecteth himself and expecteth the severe judgment of God CHAP. XIV WHen a man perceiveth that he is willing to abide in his present state and to be at rest and to subsist in it then the Spirit ceaseth and the man slips down out of the spirit into the flesh there the rule or government of the Spirit is hindred and the literal Kingdom is set up there then is no longer a spiritual Kingdom nor an increase nor proficiency but a going backwards and a leaping back again into the flesh and into the creature And then beginneth hatred and persecution towards the adverse part that they will not so much as receive them into their house that is they will by no means come near them for the sake of that And thus these must suffer by and from them for the sake of the Name of Christ even as also they suffer in their flesh for the sake of sin by the Law of sin For the flesh of these persons together with its lusts and affections are by the Law lifted up from the earth upon the cross and the lusts and appetites of Nature are cut off and rejected by their objects that they can no longer use them nor draw life from them The universal increated Salvation hath in it self no judgment concerning others
advancement And then also that which is evil in us is felt and for its fake we can be affected with sorrow and can confess it in the sight of God Therefore prosperous things are not to be sought nor adversity to be avoided For adversity is always safe and does advance us in the Knowledge of our selves And it behooveth a man to be wary and to be in perpetual exercise and trial Sweetness is deceitful and Nature desireth it Bitterness is a Medicine and Nature hateth it and therefore we must do not that which we will but that which we hate CHAP. XXI TO abstain from inordinate and unprofitable words makes a man as if he were dumb and causeth him to be silent in many cases which else he would talk of A lascivious tongue extinguisheth zeal and renders a man inordinate and weak and unfit to overcome temptations In which way soever I am willing to go forwards according to life the gate is shut against me and then death is my refuge I must therefore shut the eye of life and rest quiet in death If I had before-hand known this affliction in which I now lie I had dyed for meer grief but now when I am in it God keeps me in it and I can bear it I never before had believed that the case would be thus as now I find it Judgment doth so drive me that I can have neither comfort nor hope nor faith either in God or in the creature Thus the Natural Man is suppressed by judgment and thus the rod hangeth over him and which way soever he looks death meets him but the mind is free I have no torture of Soul and such sufferings as Francis Spira endured I am ignorant of them Adam was created pure in spirit Soul and Body but by his fall he departed from God and tumbled down into his ownself he became estranged from God and was made his own propriety and a servant of the creatures And this same growth of self is nothing else but our desire endeavour or study of appropriating to our selves which afterwards is so subjected unto judgment that it can have no comfort or life either in God or in the creature Therefore it behooveth us to be reduced again into nothing in respect of all things about which we are made somewhat and then at length God will be all himself in the man himself and that instead of his own propriety and then a Man is restored without propriety And then a man findeth God with God and serveth God with God and that is pleasing to God For God hath no good pleasure but in his ownself Judgment is exercised upon this his propriety and then that loseth all hope of restitution and nothing is due unto it either as to God or as to the creature Thus it may be understood what the fall of Adam is viz. appropriation Therefore are also he is to expect judgment and that too must be acknowledged to be just CHAP. XXII WIthout affliction it is impossible to be promoted in God and to have inward peace for where one is to be promoted or advanced in God and to have inward peace there it behooveth the natural man to be purged from lusts and to have no more delight life or joy in the creature but to want all these and to be suppressed in death and to be fastened to the cross So the Apostle saith They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and 〈◊〉 thereof It behooveth me to give place to judgment and therefore I am without alâ— solicitude for things temporal whence they may be acquired For I have not 〈◊〉 much time left that my senses can meditate on such a thing It behooveth me to be stripped of the images of all things and therefore I remain without purpose and without councel nor do I know what in time to come I am to do or leave undone to be silent in or to speak but as things are at present so they glide away without my privitie and when all things are past and done I am no more sollicitous concerning them My business is to attend that that is present and incumbent upon me That I thus suffer it is not for my piety but for evil sin and propriety because I descend from Adam over all whom judgment and death is impending without hope of recovery For whatsoever Adam hath he hath it unjustly he is therefore to be dispoiled of all things that he may want all things and retain nothing neither comfort nor pleasure nor joy either as to God or as to the creature for nothing is due unto him nothing belongs unto him he also himself can never attain unto any truth but he is condemned and dyeth in Christ But whatsoever afterwards riseth again in Christ is clean and without appropriation That Christ hath condemned sin it self is not to be understood as if he had sin in himself or he is pure like the sun void of all impurity Whence it is that no unrighteousness can stand before him but as filthiness it is condemned by him just as in the Sun all impurity is detected and demonstrated to be impurity So that the sun cannot endure it but rather desâ—râ—yeth it So Jesus Christ is the Sun of righteousness who by his own proper light virtue and pulchritude condemneth all injustice and unrighteousness and suffers no darkness to stand before him I lie like the trunck of a tree nor have I in me any activity but I suffer only all that that is done in me but I cannot act either by reason or by understanding My state is passive not active the active went before and I also once had it so as also it ought to be or else I had not come unto this Only it is not permitted to me that I may or can act or form in my self the image of any thing We must suffer even in the smallest matters for he that refuseth that cannot be promoted in God by the suggestions of the spirit the suggestions of Nature are to be denyed that satisfaction may be given to the Spirit no man ought to follow Nature that so the will of God may be done and not ours The affliction and misery of Nature is to be sustained for the sake of God and the peace of conscience It is better saith Solomon to be invited unto green herbs with Love then to a fatted calf with hatred Poverty of nature with peace of conscience is better then the delight of Nature with anguish of conscience Necessaries are due unto Nature that by their means a man may be converted unto God but not on the contrary When the conscience is satisfied many sorrows do invade nature But Peter commands that sorrows are to be born for conscience sake viz. Sorrows that are against Nature for conscience sake but not the contrary When it was Summer season to my Nature the heat thereof did stay me but now Winter is followed thereupon yet the Summer is
still adjudged by me to be excellent and worthy yea even when it 's Winter time but the will of God is more precious to me then all things My business or labour is increased and agravated yet am I contented I keep my sorrows in silence for if they should burst out and be made publick clamours and complainings would dayly be heard from me because judgment is alwayes exercised upon me without consolation nor can I have either delight or joy or life either in God or in the creatures At the beginning for some time I enjoyed comfort when it was propounded to me that I was no longer my own and my goods were no longer mine but his with whom I should be married These endured for a while but they quickly vanished away again And from that very time to this I have been without comfort nor can I set my self to read in this condition seeing it is not lawful for me to assume so many images Nevertheless I esteem of the Scripture at a high rate for it is dear and precious to me Just as he who takes not a thing into his mouth cannot be sensible of the tast thereof so also can no man understand know or comprehend this state unless he himself does experience it and come up thereinto The event or success of things is plainly another thing then we thought of without the wisdom and beyond the understanding reason or judgment of man They who are in this state are not admitted to reason When others admit comfort these refuse all consolation For whatsoever can be said that they know And yet even from thence they can have no comfort CHAP. XXIII HE that desires to overcome his hard temptations or trials it stands him in hand to be calm or quiet to speak little and to pray much It is necessary for me to submit my self to be under men yea the most foolish yea also under such as live in errours and those of the worser sort I say I must be submitted unto them all If they sit upon the bench I will lye under it nor will I esteem my self to be better then they For who am I that I am not such a one my self But that the power of God hath turned me therefrom and so kept me therein for the sake of which the glory is not mine but God's If I sometimes out of urgent necessity speak of them viz. David George and Henry Nicholas in truth I do it with fear and trembling and not with pleasure I neither may nor can assent to their opinions for they are depraved and mightily lead aside inasmuch as they are fallen into a false liberty Their fall is most dangerous and most terrible for no man can come at them to reprove them so as to touch their conscience because nothing touches them and they esteem and deride all as if they were childish trifles But if they were to be reached there would be need of a more sublime spirit We must beware that we fall not back again into that which we have once forsaken and left by continence yea we must have a care that if we have proceeded forwards we slip not back again and if we have gained any thing let us not lose it again for it was gotten with great hardship or difficulty God acts thus with a man that how much soever a man hath profited yet is not the glory his but God's only to whom also it is deservedly to be attributed as unto whom it only belongs But man is to be kept under in humility and his person to be excluded and God alone to be glorified to whom alone all glory is due CHAP. XXIV THe most ready and next way to proficiency is this that a man should closely and diligently observe whatever pleaseth tempteth or moveth his carnal appetite and deny them all By so doing a man sometimes becomes so overwhelmed with misery that he knows not which way to turn himself whence it is that he is driven to his prayers If any one is willing to have all things done so accurately and according to his own mind he must on that score suffer so many plagues and for the sake of one commodity to indure two incommodityes in the stead thereof A man ought to learn to bear and suffer whatever is contrary unto himself else he can never come to rest and peace Tauler saith Abstain and Sustain hold thy tongue and hold thy peace Patience only leadeth me into the still rest Patience is the food of the Soul Yea in time of pure necessity Patience is that bread of heaven and that fulness or plenty kept secret in the Treasure of God Silence and patience quiet a man To have no delight neither in God nor in the creatures but to perish on both sides is the most miserable and desolate of all conditions If then thou askest is there therefore no hope left for thee I answer thy case is now the very same as if a grain of wheat that at this time lyes in corruption should ask whither or no there is any hope for it For if there could be any hope in and to corruption there would be no need that the thing should be corrupted and he that hath hope hath no need that he should die In this death and annihilation the affliction is so great that a man knows not what he is to do for which way soever he turns himself he finds life delight or quiet no where there meets him nothing but corruption and death and he himself acknowledgeth that this case is deservedly his so that he cannot so much as ask that these things may be removed from him he therefore does nothing but bows himself down and shrinketh saying O Lord O Lord And that conversation he once had with God with faith fervor labour zeal and severity doth plainly go down with him into the grave and he no longer hath any thing but lyes in the pit in death and annihilation and suffers the will of God and whatever he utters in words concerning these things he doth it all with grief and not with pleasure and when he speaketh he is involved in greater streights and difficulties so that he had rather hold his tongue Such then as can yet with delight and freedom talk of these matters by this very talking do they demonstrate that they are not yet come unto this state or condition or unto this exercise because delight and pleasure is still alive in them and they are yet sull of corrupt desires and appetites And although they are drawn off from the lowest dreggs yet are they turned quite to the other extreme But yet such are not to be reputed to be like the men they were before For now they are honest whenas formerly they were dishonest and now they are become more averse from themselves then they were before Yet although they are now in part made more noble and more pure yet for all that there must come a death even
upon these good qualities because concupiscence is still present and the objects are only changed and become more noble And this is that same state and condition which goes before that same death corruption and the grave and must be brought to pass and no man can arrive thereat unless it be given to him of God for from him flows the helps and assistance and that accompanied with the desertion and renounciation of all things visible and inferior by means of many afflictions This is that state to know Christ according to the flesh in which all things are to be left before we come to the other desertion where Chirst appeareth and is acknowledged or known in spirit nor doth he ever appear as he did in the former or foregoing state To observe order in all things and to be exorbitant in nothing keeps the mind free but when it is otherwise there arise burdens and cares nor is there any liberty allowed for profitable exercises because of the great heap of confusions that hinder the man Whoever therefore would be freed from all pernitious imaginations he ought to beware that when he erred upon one hand being turned therefrom that he err not also on the other for a burden awaiteth upon him on either side wherefore we must pray unto God to direct our external affairs into a middle way for that middle is between both extreams good Now this is said concerning things necessary outwardly but not of things internal unless it be so far as externals have a respect to internals and are serviceable unto them and if they be rightly ordered do promote them for when they are disorderly they became an impediment to internal concerns and do disturb the man making him restless Whereas if these things be performed with a turning unto God in fear and in thanksgiving then is it from God and it is right and the man is well enough but else affliction waiteth on the flesh CHAP. XXV WHatsoever hath received life ought to dye Paul saith If ye live according to the flesh ye shall dye in what thing soever a man placeth his life according to the flesh in that very thing also he taketh his death therefore he ought to beware so as that he place his life in none of those things in which there is no life Just so bitter is the difficulty of dying as was the life formerly sweet It is therefore necessary that a man put always a curb upon himself and that he keeps himself in prison as it were least he any ways strayeth and that he should bound himself within narrow limits and that he be in constant expectation of the Lord. For the Lord cometh not but with streights and pressures for in such it is that the advancement and growth of a man consisteth otherwise he is stunted In the cross alone conversion and faith in Christ is given and there it is that we have or hear our answer All fruit grows out of pressure affliction and misery which is every where presented by things visible Let every one therefore become subject to the cross and let him not flie from it at all God knoweth the conclusion of every thing and prepareth its end how compassionately also doth he deal with us No man ever perished but he that did flee from the cross nor was willing to suffer outwardly and inwardly too Let not a man be perverse proud and lifted up nor let him speak ambitious words but let him be humble simple and lowly and let him possess his mind in holiness and in contrition and let that appear in all his doings in all his apparel manners words and works nor let him ever shew himself proud and puffed up nor having together therewith the contempt of his neighbour CHAP. XXVI TRue Godliness suffers vehement trials and temptations through all degrees or steps whatsoever He therefore that endeavours to be pious in God he must yield himself up to affliction and must not refuse death nor any pains or dolours Blessed is the man that endureth his tryal c. We must either confess or deny Christ in the time of afflicton and necessity and if then we do not deny Christ but stay with and near him and firmly keep our standing that temptation bringeth great increase and profit to us and our vertue is inlarged and strengthened so that we shall be enabled to stand upright also in a greater temptation and to confess Christ therein The Psalmist saith They shall go from virtue to virtue or from strength to strength and the God of Gods shall be seen in Zion God doth grant his gifts to man yet not without trying him either before or after Wherefore it is written Prepare thee for the trial and bear patiently The Lord saith Ye are they who have persevered in my temptation and I c. Again He that overcometh even as I overcame shall be heir of all Man therefore ought to reduce his life to become a meer combate Job saith What is man that thou magnifiest him or why settest thou thy heart upon him When our Lord teacheth his disciples to pray Lead us not into temptation he does not mean that they should not be tried but that they should not be overcome in the temptation or tryal but that they should remain constant Therefore to this purpose belong Watchings Fastings and Prayers as he himself saith Watch and Pray least ye fall into temptation These words he said unto his disciples when he arose from prayer in that most remarkable temtation So they in 2. Chron. 20. also called upon God in the time of battle and he was intreated of them for they trusted in him Shall not therefore our God judge them true indeed there is no such courage and strength in us that we are able to resist a multitude which rusheth in upon us but when we know not what we ought to do we have only this refuge left to direct our eyes unto thee Hearken all ye of Judahâ— and those that inhabit Jerusalem Thus saith the Lord Be not ye afraid nor tremble at this great multitude for the battle is not yours but the Lords do you only stand still and ye shall see the salvation of God on your behalfs Trust ye in the Lord your God and you shall be safe Believe his Prophets and all shall happen well As Jehosaphat gave councel the children of Judah were made strong for they trusted in the Lord the God of their fathers Help us O Lord our God for in thee do we put our trust CHAP. XXVII A Man in affliction ought to abstain from all delights of the creatures nor ought he to seek for a comforter amongst them but place all in the Lord Let him abide without comfort without complaint till the Lord cometh Yea also let him reject all strange waves of escape and such like evasions and let him wait for the Lord for the Lord will approve himself faithful to him and will suffer him to bear
but in a just measure and order and that to his own glory and for the promotion and growth of the man All which would a man hinder if being impatient under the cross he should not wait upon God Great is the fruit of affliction and therefore in it is the Lord to be expected I expected the Lord from the morning watch even until the evening saith the Psalmist and Isaiah saith Blessed are all they that wait upon the Lord for they that wait upon him shall never be confounded the Psalmist saith In waiting I waited upon the Lord and he regarded me Now if there were neither faithfulness nor good will in the Lord of visiting and helping his the Scripture would never have represented these things to us in asmuch as it speaketh nothing but what is true The Lord grant us Faith Paul saith I believe all the things which are written in the Law and the Prophets The eye of our opinion Love and favour is to be turned upon God and in all things we ought to set him for our mark and end and not things created if we would conâ—inue pure and unburthened The natural state by the fall of Adam is this that we should turn our eyes upon those things from whence springs up to us nothing but blindness and ignorance which things also are again changed in a true change which tends to their original but that then happeneth with grief and with anguish Now he that casts himself into that original he arrives at the port of grace and that is revealed to him which he before knew not for the imitation of Christ openeth and revealeth but the imitation of the flesh hideth and shutteth In all things we are perverse until we come unto judgment and death Unless the Lord should exhibit himself unto us and should sustain us by his power we should all utterly perish whence we ought deservedly to beware of all rashness There is no need that a man should be more sollicitous about the getting of knowledge then he should be of attaining of death for in death things do open and give out themselves and true knowledge is unfolded whereas if life should remain that could not be effected though a man should strive with never so much study and labour Yea though he might get knowledge according to the letter yet for all that all things are still shut up and hidden from him before he can yield himself up into death and admit in himself the dying of the guilty body such studyings and endeavours after knowledge are rather an hinderance because thereby a man neglecteth his own self and becomes forgetful of his own concerns Of this also saith our Lord What shall it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul That any one in this world should not be solicitous nor feed carking care many things are requisit for there are some who take no care at all because they labour not by reason of want or penury And many are such by nature Yet this is not that which our Lord saith For the words of our Lord always point at some other thing then what we derive from Adam yea they are spoken quite contrary to that which we are in Adam Therefore our Lord is very odious to the flesh yea the very death and destruction thereof is Christ who proceeds quite contrary to our Nature CHAP. XXVIII NEcessary affairs are done and performed by the chosen of God without the cleaving or sticking of their hearts unto them And if it be not thus but that the heart is rather burdened with them and is involved in imaginations this is not thorough any fault in the things but because of that defect that still abideth in man And thus a man goes away blinded not knowing himself until he falleth into temptation or tryal But when he comes to a feeling knowledge of himself then he may be advanced which could never be done afore because he had to do with sin secretly That which a man sometimes thought was hurtful to him and his hinderance that afterwards serves to advance and put him forwards Therefore should a man remain without any choice of his own but wait what God will do with him and thus yield himself up as being bowed under the divine will Here is the communion of Saints and that in the highest degree Let therefore the lowest degree blush that even it also doth not earnestly long after this communion for if the Sun gives himself forth in common certainly then the Moon ought to do the like who else ought to be ashamed if she should claim to her self too great a propriety and arrogate all to be hers He who is swallowed up by created things feeles from them either a pleasure or a pain even to joy or grief so as he can have no peace But he who is free from them is free also from both those evils so that neither what is pleasant neither what is ungrateful neither gladness nor sorrow reacheth him And because joy hath no place in him neither also doth sorrow touch him if things do happen other ways then joy and desire do expect and ask To stand between comfort and discomfort between joy and grief and to remain untouched and unmoved by either is a great liberty and the gift of God for no man hath that of or from himself Yea let no man unduely think that he hath gotten that for many things are required before we can arrive at this state or condition and when we are come thither yet is not glory thereof belonging to man but to God alone And thus man is to abide in humility without judging or contemning of others CHAP. XXIX SIn is hated in a double sense and that by divers sorts of persons For some do hate sin because of affliction they thereby being afflicted and terrified in their consciences as also because of the loss they sustain by it as the loss of their souls of heaven and of eternal salvation and if these two were not viz. the torment of conscience and the loss of heaven they could love sin and be friends with it yea become to be united and to be in league therewith And it is thus proved because that same hatred of sin proceeds not from the nature of the mind nor from regeneration in as much as there is in this state still left the old life to which belongeth judgment and condemnation and is that that must dye the death Whereas others viz. such as are transplanted into God do hate sin out of the Nature of their mindes and out of regeneration For the new life which is in them will not bear sin nor suffer it to be and that not because of that torment of conscience or loss of salvation but out of its own nature by reason of its tenderness and its holy temper For this nature can endure nothing that is strange for it is the Newman Christ Jesus who is God himself Hence
is it that these two Sorts do thus differ one from another The first is when some are the enemies of sin for their own sakes when as by nature they are still friends But the other and second sort is when it hath lost ipseity or propriety and hateth sin by nature for such are in God and being new creatures have attained a new sense which is spiritual Whereas the former sort is still natural and hath a natural sense whence they wear about them not the new but the old creature Yet they are well enough in their own kind and their state or condition precedeth the latter or second and waites for it The Lord be merciful to us For this last state is not the result of our studyes and endeavours but of the grace of God a mâ—n comes thereunto not actively but passively and it behooveth that God only be the work-master therein Tauler saith Keep thy self passive and God will be active and then the thing will not be impossible because God himself will do it and transfer a man to that one scope or end viz. God himself and all this by and thorough Christ Jesus our Lord who being just suffered for the unjust that he might bring us unto God and that is it which is promised in the Prophets that the Lord would prepare such a people as should declare his praise which is written in Luke 1.71 Salvation from our enemies And that which Paul saith Tâ— condemn sin thorough sin it is a great biâ—terness to me yet it is a sword that pierceth into my breast No man can know what it is unless he have layn in it But to all the rest who yet stand in the labour of the Law those sayings are as sweet as hony but to me bitter but when they also shall have come thus far the same thing will happen also to them Oh grief that I must draw my Salvation from out of my enemies and experimentally feel that sin shall be condemned thorough sin CHAP. XXX IF we ever are willing to become proficients we must bear one with another as God also hath born with us and still beares with us and even as others also do bear with us Yet it is chiefly to be endeavoured that we dayly become less and less troublesome unto others and being accepted of God we should have soundness of conscience We ought to be brethren and not accuse diffame or contemn one another for any shame or spot And if any one cannot do or have this from the very foundation yet he ought to suppress these things in himself and to have a care least they break forth again and then will the conscience be endued with no bitterness and the state of the man will be well We ought not to be troublesome to one another in gestures or words or works or thoughts but every where to seek peace in love And because now it s told us concerning affliction that we must be subjected thereunto in what manner soever it rusheth in upon us it is to be accepted as from the hand of God and a man in affliction ought to abstain from all delights derived from the creatures We must begin to cut off our members before we come at the heart Sin must be starved to death and as it is usual to deal with a feaver neither food is to be given to it and wherever it would put forth it self it is to be hindred from growing Yea also its life which is so strongly manifested in us is by the help of conscience to be suppressed until it come to its death If any one would seriously possess these things let him dayly call upon God that he would be present with him in them When he the Author was sometimes asked what was to be done with those persons who persecuted others for the sake of Faith answered that we ought to love even our persecutors and added this similitude If any one by great and dayly travail desired to go to Cologne by a journy or way very difficult and troublesome and some body should by chance come and put this traveller into a Coach and so carry him to Cologne certainly to such a one he ought to return the greatest thanks but not hatred CHAP. XXXI Concerning the exercise of Prayer THe Author being asked concerning prayers answered I every day appear thrice before the Lord in prayer Being asked whither by the voice of his mouth He answered Yes viz. in the Morning at Noon and at Night Being asked whither he did so by reason of all those sins which pressed him down with the heaviest care or anxiety and which were in him most displeasing to God He answered Yes But said he such representations were always set before my â—â—es that I might appear pure and that did keep me from sinning Moreover I always had my mind lifted up to God in my labour that I might diligently observe the very bottom of my heart nor would I let my hands be free from labour If I had wandred or erred any where or had done any thing that I knew to be unjust I was not heard but rejected of the Lord. Therefore I was still endeavouring that I might always appear purer and purer if I intended to be heard of the Lord. It is necessary that a man should exceeding seriously and diligently exercise himself in prayer if he intends to be advanced in the Lord For Paul saith That man ought to pray in every place lifting up pure hands without wrath and contention viz. least that our consciences should accuse us or our cogitations excuse themselves and thereupon become angry and contend in us Prepare thyself first before thou prayest nor go about it like one that is about to tempt God We ought with fear and terrour yea with great trembling appear before God in prayer and therefore we ought to be prepared before we pray Poverty and affliction teach us to pray By how much greater the affliction is by so much the more peircing will the prayer be We are to endeavour not to seem or profess our selves otherwise before men then we profess our selves before God For men before men seem to be somewhat when yet before God they be still as a nothing in the bottom and consequently they deceive themselves CHAP. XXXII A Man ought not openly to reveal his divine exercise viz. that by which he is exercised by God Some are naturally so close of heart that they are willingly silent and reveal to no man their divine exercise that is the gift of God and is pleasing to God Others are naturally open of heart so as they willingly discover to any one their divine exercises and their whole mind and that is very displeasing to God Such therefore are to endeavour and study to gâ—t close hearts and let them learn to bridle their tongues and beg help from the Lord. For no man can readily come to be silent unless first he be deeply smitten in his heart with
most bitter affliction so as his heart becometh as it were ground to powder For he that is not yet come to this poverty but is still rich cannot hold his tongue He that handleth himself severely that he may break his nature and becometh harsh to his own selâ— can difficultly compassionate others whom he seeth not to be as severe as he is himself and therefore he so driveth others that they may be like him in state or condition and he is unmerciful nor also can he be silent although sometimes he hath his conscience pressed down with sollicitous care because his heart is not yet pierced quite thorough nor is digged down to its very bottom nor utterly broken with bitter affliction but he that hath hâ—s heart ground to power and deeply wounded with great and bitter misery he can hold his tongue yea he chooseth rather to be silent although sometimes necessity should require it otherwise then to speak unless God shall compel him thereunto For such a one cannot so readily convert himself towards outward things but what things soever are in such a man are turned to the affliction of his heart and all things are filled with sorrow CHAP. XXXIII I Never found so clear an understanding nor so great experience as in grief sorrow misery affliction and in the death and destruction of the flesh That time which is spent in the cross pain grief misery and streights is gained but that which is spent in pleasure joy delights and plays is lost The mind of a man that is still floating up and down and can still be moved at things pleasant or painful or in joy or in grief doth not yet belong unto God for in God there is no mutation because he is unchangeable Now when the mind of Man cannot be moved by the aforesaid things then is God present in that Soul and it is he who worketh that in the man Those six gifts of the holy Spirit must first be accomplished then at length followeth that seventh gift viz. the spirit of fear of the Lord which puts a man into a sweet calm because this spirit of fear preserveth all the former gifts that they may remain pure and then it is that a man is in all respect struck with a great fear and trembling that he may rightly use them and keep them pure it is this last gift of the fear of God that keeps steady in all things that man that hath received it We are therefore earnestly to endeavour to act rightly in all concerns and to walk before God with holy fear Our conscience is our book into which we ought every day to look and in which to diligently and seriously read and study that we may most exactly perform that which it witnesseth Conscience is a thousand witnesses about which the old and new Testament is our rule of direction CHAP. XXXIV THis year proved more difficult or hard to me then it was ever before in all my life and yet I did most accurately weigh and ponder on that same time For by how much the more sublime any one ascendeth in affliction by so much the more accurately doth he weigh and count his time and it proves thereby more profitable to him All the foregoing time of mine which I had spent before this year vanished away and came to nothing even as this my present time also shall vapour away into nothing because my body is annihilated I have no support hence is it that times becomes so tedious to me but when time is spent in labour it produceth no difficulty But when I am deprived of all my strength I can neither pray nor desire nor lift up one thought to God Yea here I lye and corrupt in body mind and spirit as long as breath remaineth in me Yea as to my understanding also and my reason I am reduced to nothing As for my understanding I know nothing of it whither viz. I have an understanding or not for in this great gulfe of misery all things are reduced to dust and ashes Here I lye and am sensible of nothing but judgment death and condemnation And when one said to him is it so that when thou art accused presently judgment is at hand he answered Am I accused not as though I were so perfect as that I could not be accused but if it were possible for me to take up life in such a moment of time as that accusation might assault me in even in that very moment should I be blown into meer atoms But I have not so much time left me because as many moments of my life as yet remain so many judgments and deaths do I suffer I lye as it were in a thick dark cloud and see nothing oh how very small weak and dim is that poor ray of light that is round about me I cannot see far before me yea neither doth my way and path appear to my sight yea I am lead on where no way is and that which is life to another that is death to me and contrarily that which is anothers death is my life Judgment is so sharp to me as it is when one not thinking any thing layes his hand upon some place and presently some body knocks him on the fingers When any would reply upon him that this case was a certain kind of preservation from God because he laid his hand so faithfully upon thee he still answered True indeed this condition is the most safe before the eyes of God but the most afflicted one in my sight For if I should acknowledge this state to be safe forthwith another judgment is to be undergone by me For plainly I am lead without knowledge without being acquainted or understanding the way For he who hath experienced the thing its self and he that hath been lead in this way only notionally are vastly differing because true knowledge and understanding is such a life such a prop that a man comes then only to know them when God withdraws them from him Just as when one laboureth with great thirst and sees a pot stand before him yet for all that his thirst cannot but afflict him still but then if there should come one who should take the pot quite away then remaineth no hopes of ever attaining to drink thereof All the Elect are brought unto God thorough affliction but all do not tread this same path of the cross by which I am to pass CHAP. XXXV ALl things are transformed and changed whence I observe that ere long many wonderful things will happen and the strange things of God will spring forth I indeed have desired to see them but I shall not arrive at them for I see my end before my eyes yet I rejoyce because of the time to come which now is ready at the door and I rejoyce concerning that time when I look upon children Remember me my mind presageth not as if all I say were Gospel it will be that the glory and the knowledge of
from us we are â—â—und stark naked because these things â—ere not at the first owned in spirit beâ—â—re God who only remains constant â—â—d immutable to all eternity For God is a spirit and he that would â—ow him in truth and see his brightâ—â—s and adore him it behooveth this â—â—n to endeavour after all this in spirit â—â—d into this state or condition it is necessary that a man be truly and properly lead by God in his own time yea and that it also is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but if so be any one be faithful in that wherein he standeth then shall much more be given unto him Concerning all these things thou wilt find most full instruction in those two Treatises intituled the German Divinity and that of the Imitation of Christ the Authors of which have experienced these things in God and do give concerning them a true guidance and information which we are to find in our own selves although they do not put into our hand the very things it self yet is the world deceived in this very particular viz. that it can account of some certain semblance of a thing for the very thing it self For the flesh or Nature in us is never willing to sit down in an inferiour seat and if it but begins to reject somewhat that is false yet by and by it leans upon some other such like prop being confidently perswaded she is acted by a divine spirit when indeed all this notwithstanding springs out of flesh and blood 〈◊〉 little heightened out of their natural propriety Such is the cunning of us all â—one excepted It behooveth us therefore to apprehend and learn all these things in God that the light may be separated from the darkness and that that notable difference and distinction in this very point be well known to us least we take one thing for another viz. flesh for spirit Death for life slavery for liberty and for the free flowing grace of divine power These things because a man in his life time is always willing to get and keep Reconciliation and eternal Salvation are plainly known to a few inasmuch as a man esteems those things in the place of God and for things divine which indeed do but hold him bound in a perpetual imprisonment being that which is his own nature and propriety viz. the fear of eternal damnation by means of which he abstaineth from all external and carnal filthiness and impurity and cuts off those things from himself being then fully perswaded that now he is truly at liberty so that he will not proceed further on and refuseth to deny and resign up both the proper and the imaginary salvation of his Soul although he should experience or feel in himself that the true righteousness which is acceptable before God is that very circumcision that is done in spirit and thence springs up the New-creature of God However it is necessary that every one should first satisfie in all respects his own proper righteousness holiness and imaginary salvation that in the end he may rightly understand the difference of both viz. of Light and Darkness and of the holiness that is from man and that which is from God for if he be not faithful in the smallest things how shall he arrive at greater which certainly is impossible Therefore it behooveth every one to satisfy his own conscience and with all moderation and discretion to obey the testimony of his own heart that being raised up thorough all the degrees of holiness and being inriched with all the affluence riches and imaginary goods of his own spirit he may at length be brought to the divine poverty of Spirit by the manifestation in him of the divine righteousness and of that degree which is by far the most excellent and exalted as being that which throws down all the rest so as there remains nothing that can stand before it which is not its own self By this way we come to apprehend our selves to be poor miserable rejected and condemned yea blind unhappy and neglected yea unfit to perform any the least good who formerly ascribed to our selves all good things righteousness and Salvation beâ—ng confidently perswaded of our eternal â—ife and divine Sonship Then Then I say it is that we find our selves to be wholly in corruption and condemnation at length seriously understanding that we formerly had not so much as â—he true tast of any good which could compare with that good which we now â—ee And then we come and readily sit â—own by all other men yea though they â—e the most profligate wretches because â—ow at last we begin to set before our eyes with fear and trembling and condemnation and to behold our corruption at the very bottom so that for the future we reflect upon no one more then upon our selves and if before we reviled any repulsed persecuted cast out reproached or looked upon them with an evil eye I speak of such as supposed that they did these things out of a godly zeal now indeed we become hugely wary and leave every one to his own Lord and Master because this true combate hath done in us havock enough and begun its cruelty I was willing to unfold to thee these things by these few lines which notwithstanding thou wilt better and more piercingly feel in the very thing it self Therefore exercise thy life in these things and shew thy self strong in them importunately begging and expecting all from God above with all long patience and sufferance who will in his own time effect all things for thee for here we are not to run before but follow after only Now therefore thou hast writings enough whence thou mayest learn how to behave thy self in external conversation and honesty wherein thy conscience will most notably both lead thee and condemn thee too The Lord grant to thee to meditate to understand and to be wise that according to his will thou mayst be instructed in his School and by his discipline that all may be consummated in him and by him and to his Glory EPIST. III. A Preparation to the entrance into the promises of God To the same Person PRemising all due readiness of my respects most Noble Lady having taken hold on this occasion I am willâ—â—ng to send this letter to thee For though for some space of time I did not visit â—hee by my letters yet have I always been sollicitous for thee in the Lord with 〈◊〉 continued readiness of my heart and â—n inclination of my poor mind being otherwise certain that much writing did not conduce any thing to the increase of grace but the movings of God only do And therefore I had determined in my mind to forbear writing least perhaps I should thereby disturb the working of thy Soul trusting in the divine mercy that God himself would preserve thee to become more strong and more pure by his inward motions in thy Soul and by purifying it from all inherent
concupiscence is viz. properly that sin which leadeth away a man into captivity Therefore because commonly he is accounted a pious man who studieth to be of a good outward conversation for more then what is without a man cannot see hence it is that a man sticks always about these things supposing that â—e hath accomplished all things unless by chance he falls again into some gross sin Yet for all this the root of sin still remains deeply fastened in him but the mind takes no further care how it may come to the true purging out of all these seeing it may seem impossible for a man to be freed from them Which indeed is very true as to us but to God all thing are possible hence it is found in the elect that God even quite conquereth sin in man and will rule and govern in the man not only by plucking out all the external acts of the more gross sins bâ—â— also in the very bottom it self of the heats yea and in the most inward faculties 〈◊〉 sensuality Love appetite and our proper will by which all our external actions are governed If this thing were made more commonly known and should be received by many in good earnest men would no go up and down with such merry gâ—stures and in such security as the do but without all doubt would be convinced that the are sinners and are 〈◊〉 yet at a great distance from the son-shâ—â—â— of God although now they think themselves set on the highest step of divine grace and that they have just hope of the inheritance of Sons But if the Lord should take away the vail from their hearts as it is done in thee and should rob them of that peace which they have gotten from without they certainly would be involved in the like miseries and streights and would apprehend themselves to be the poorest of all though a blind security doth now perswade them that they shine in the greatest riches Yet the Lord who is the searcher of the hearts and the reins will in his own time most clearly uncover all and will bring them into the Light to whom we ought to submit our selves with patience and long-suffering waiting for his salvation and redemption in us for its better by real inward poverty to draw â—earer to God then being by imagiâ—ary and false riches blinded in our â—earts be hindred from the true going forwards unto God I was willing heartiâ—y to discover these things to thee that â—he true difference of thy condition might according to my small judgment and the testimony of my heart become more and better known unto thee for I am of opinion that thou thy self if the Lord shall leave thee for some space of time in this condition wilt come to know the truth of the matter more exactly and to perceive those things which hitherto have layn hid from thee Now therefore weigh all things more rightly which perhaps hitherto thou hast not done even as many things are wont to be lightly neglected Yet I trust in the Lord that he will stand by thee every where least thy burthen should be too heavy for thee to bear and that thou be not tempted beyond what is meet for thy weakness to suffer according to his mercy For our nature is not fit without the divine help to bear these burthens in regard no support can appear to it now from any where else because in whatsoever thing it formerly was wont to rest and to trust all that in such a state shrinks far away Nor can a man in this condition be better advised then plainly to neglect all external temporary means wherewith his mind was used to be delighted and to renounce them quite inasmuch as they are such as will else still be the cause of many afflictions Let him therefore do this viz. let him learn to subject his whole self to the will of God submitting himself to all that God shall impose upon him in this his tribulation with a firm resolution of mind to bear them all so long as it shall please God If a man can arrive at this renunciation and submission he shall surely find a wonderful advantage and a strange renovation of heart insomuch that that which before was difficult and hard will be now pleasant and grateful to him and that which before was meer terrour yea as death to him will now be as a Sanctuary of refuge yea life it self to him And to tell it in short all things will change themselves in a man when the Spirit of the Lord ruleth in him and impels him to the obedience of the Divine will Whereas whilst he â—s miserably led by the conduct of his own carnality he will live as governed into meer disobedience under his own proper will for which very reason the divine will is so troublesome to us that we cannot be subjected unto iâ— nor yield up our selves to the hand of God but rather as far as in us lyes we choose to save our lives and not to lose them But the Lord who seek our advantage and intends nothing else but good to us regards not that complaineâ— of our flesh but gives up our Souls thorough much sorrow stirred up in us by an accusing conscience to that we ought to subject our selves till all impurity of our inbred and corrupted appetites be by the devouring flames of the divine judgment consumed and purged away in us Then at length we come to apprehend the Lord and to be willing and to seek out both as well internally as externally that all our perverse thoughts and sensual appetites may be purified nor to be no longer stirred up by our own proper will to all wicked desires and pleasures wherewith our corrupt nature aboundeth The Lord illuminate our understanding and grant unto us wisdom and true discretion that every where and time we may contain our selves in good order under his fear whereby we may proceed and grow in divine knowledge and grace according to the measure of our calling and so at length if it may be that we may be able to arrive to a fall age in Christ according to the divine soveraign pleasure and commiseration Let us with all our might and power adore the Lord with uncessant prayers and humiliation poured out before him least that which is temporary and partaketh of time should find any place in our hearts but rather that it be so expulsed that the Lord himself may possess that place even until all our thoughts words and works be performed only according to the will of God and may grow forth with all discipline and obedience under the most mighty hand of God and that we may with all patience wait for and expect his coming unto manifestation When he himself will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his â—nd give them eternal comfort and true â—â—lvation unto which it now in this moment of time behooveth them to be prepared by a constant sorrow and misery
by fear and anxiety by terrours and by death for they cannot like the common sort of men spend their lives in meer pleasures but he does always detain his under a rigid discipline and many frights and makes them drink down the bitter potion of tribulations that all their internal faculties as well of spirit as of Soul may be brought under the Cross nor can they ever arrive at true peace until every one of them learns nakedly to yield up himself into the will of God and contentedly to take of the potion mixed by God and given him to drink out of meer grace and Love Now that this cup is bitter is no fault of God's but our own and that because we are contrary and enemies to what is good and cannot bear to be purged just like the vulgar people whose troubles are increased by a mixt Physick-wine For by nature a man flieth from all things which are hard and produce pains and yet there is no other way to be recovered nor to come at health then by those means by which we are always more and more adapted to Christ our head by a similitude of his sufferings death and burial that afterwards by a like resurrection also we may be taken into him and be possessed of a never-fading crown of glory For how much we suffer together with Christ so much also shall we reign with â—im not indeed in this time of temporaâ—y abode but in the truth and permaâ—ency of spirit and life in which we â—hall arise and be excited to such a likeâ—ess of Christ as consisteth not with deâ—raved Nature but is lifted up above Nature and is conformed into a spirituâ—â— eternal and immortal life Thus thereâ—â—re all and every one of them in their â—wn order may expect it will be acâ—â—rding to the measure of the divine gifts â—â—at the enemy may for the time to â—â—me have no more right nor power â—er our Souls by reason of sin under â—hich hitherto we have been bound â—â—d captivated hoping for salvation â—â—d redemption in Christ from all our internal enemys who force our Souls into slavery so that in tract of time we may in all holiness and righteousness serve the Lord as present with us all the days of our life He therefore that hath appeared on earth to preach the Gospel to the poor and to the desolate will comfort and cure our sorrowful hearts and graciously set the captives free he I say will in his own time appear gracious to thy humane weakness and will bless thy internal poverty and affliction with a greâ—â— plenty of the fruits of holiness Now thesâ— few things I was willing according to thâ— simplicity of my heart and my meaâ— gifts in the Lord to write unto thee from an earnest desire to serve thee that 〈◊〉 perhaps some means might be discoveâ—ed to thy heart thorough the diviâ—â— mercy leading to a greater proficiencâ— in the knowledge of God and thâ— thy Soul might be sealed up in eternâ—â— peace and reconciliation thorough thâ— grace of God and by his Spirit Aâ—â— 31. 1559. EPIST. V. For what end the Scripture was given and how we ought most exactly to satisfie conscience also concerning the difference between humane righteousness and that which availeth before God To U. of W. MOst dear Lady having this occasion offered I was willing to write a few lines unto thee giving thanks to you all for your friendly inclinations of heart towards us The eternal God grant that that bond in which we being bound together in him and do profess a mutuall union to the true members may become more firm and may grow in Christ our Lord according to his holy will to his glory and our death As to what concerns my condition it is indeed at present such as is tolerable to the flesh as long as it shall please God for the bond of death remains in my heart and in my members and all the rest is known unto the Lord. The Lord himself take us all into his protection that we may be preserved in his fear this dangerous time which as I conjecture cannot be done but by most hard sorrows O would to God we could at length come even unto the death of Christ and feel it in our souls which indeed is set before our eyes in the holy Scriptures yet somewhat shadowed O Lord grant unto us that life which the Scripture every where beareth witness of yet oftentimes by so frequent exercises of so many various readings a man is but kept back and distracted when as yet it 's in the first place necessary that every one should observe himself in the acts of hearing speaking thinking working and in all else where a man is busied about any other matters in things of thiâ— life and that all these be to his utmost put to the examination of his judgment and that he most exactly endeavours in all hath a care to satisfy his own conscience for so long as the accusatioâ— thereof endureth by the guilt of anâ— though the least transgression it 's impossible that peace an be found in hâ— Soul Because as long as any one does not satisfy his own conscience he is willingly kept a prisoner under sin But the difficulty of this way hindereth many as much as that which the Scripture saith that no man can stand before God in his own proper righteousness which is very true However yet if we are willing to trace thorough this most rocky way of our conscience even to its utmost limit it is necessary that at length we should come to a mortification and destruction of all our laborious endeavours and then will our own righteousness shame us On the contrary we all would dye before ever we have lived and glory that we have renounced our own righteousness when as even yet we stick in the midst of our sins breaking forth into outward acts But the matter is to be otherwise and more accurately considered if we desire to make a proficiency in the Lord for that life which we live in the flesh is dead in the sight of God nor hath no liveliness in it in his account Yea furthermore that life which our Soul enjoys whilst it confideth in and s bottomed on these or these things must also be changed for a death and it 's by no means to be permitted that the enormities thereof should rejoyce in its progress For this life which our Soul hath taken to herself after this manner springs from no where else then from out of that imaginary righteousness and holiness which we fancy is to be found in us and which tickles us with a strange kind of sweet flattery and privately is very pleasing to us yea and gives to our Souls a kind of tranquillity These things are hid so deeply in a man and deceive us with such dissimulation as if all were well with us whence it is that all things are ascribed unto Christ because the man knows that no such
thing can be attained to but by Christ These are those things whereof the Scripture maketh so often mention viz. our own proper righteousness our own proper works our own proper holiness and all such like viz. if we trust too much to any of these means which were granted unto us from the Lord and stick rather unto them then to the only loâ—e God For to love God is no other thing then most accurately to do that which he willeth not for the hope of any salvation or of any good things whatever for the Love of God it self thus puts a man on that he cannot do otherwise And here it is that we are able to search into the most inward corners of our hearts whether or no we seek ourselves else where either in Soul or body and whether we serve God and love him for this end that our souls may gain salvation But here for the most part it will be answered that whatever things are done are done only for love yet nevertheless men do perform these things out of the terrour and the impulse of their own conscience as the scripture witnesseth I say not all this because I would detract in the least from good works set light by them but rather that we should go on further not to rest here nor am I willing we should sit down in a private kind of peace of having gained some steps only before we be come unto the end nor till the scope for whose sake all this is done be duly attained And though there be others behind us who follow up after us being yet a great way off yet it is incumbent on us because of our greater knowledge received to put out this our talent to the highest interest we can possibly that in us may be found constant perseverance if so be at length we can arrive perhaps to a true dying having no need more to reiterate so often our renewing of death so that all may together and at once remain buried also in Christ's death eternally a more certain essential sort of death as I may so say following us into that better state or condition Most beloved Lady receive I pray thee these my letters kindly if perhaps they may prove to be of any use to thee in thy holy endeavors and that we may come at length to the total renouncing our flesh that then we may be judged according to the rule of righteousness which the Law requires by Christ For in Christ sin is utterly condemned to death and as much as we are planted together with him in the likeness of his death so much also shall we thorough his resurrection be received into the newness or the Spirit who then performs in Man the office of a Governour and is to him in the stead of his life whose place before this our flesh supplied all that is beyond this the Lord himself will manifest to us when we come thither If therefore we have our inward senses rightly exercised by the Lord and do firmly adhere to him with continued prayers then will he kindle in thy heart some living light which my dead writings can never effect by means of which being inflamed with a greater zeal to renounce all flesh we shall be able to offer to the Lord our hearts emptied and set free by a meer and pure submission unto and a firm purpose of remaining and persevering in his will so will the thing prosper and our work will more happily succeed But why this work will succeed with so much difficulty and with such a length of time this is the reason because somewhat still will stick close to the heart which we cannot wholly renounce for when but one half of the heart is yielded up the offering remains impure nor is it accepted whence it is that the Scripture commands us to have a great care of or to watch such a heart which seeks double ways and carrieth upon either shoulder and halts on either leg c. For we cannot at the same time satisfy the flesh conscience hindering us and conscience too the flesh hindering us therefore it is necessary that we yield our selves up wholly as a pure offering and grateful to the Lord for such a one is received by the Lord and blessed of him that thenceforth he may bring forth fruit and at length that thence may arise the righteousness that is available before God Unto which may the Lord promote us and keep us by his infinite mercy in Christ our Lord and Saviour The Lord preserve us that we may persevere in his grace according to the tenour of his most holy Will EPIST. VI. Being a Christian exhortation which containeth many points very useful and profitable to all Christians To the same Lady MOst beloved Lady seeing that there remaineth no more time to me in this life as far as by my uttmost capacity of sense and reason I am able to judge or is to me known I am constrained of my self freely to open and more and more to unfold my mind to you Yet the true fruits of proficiency in the Lord are not attained to by my leters nor by our mutual converse appointed in the Lord of purpose but only and alone by the grace and mercy of God For that the same dependeth only on the meet divine commiseration he best knoweth yet only in Soul and conscience who himself is exercised in the very work oâ— the Lord. In the first place therefore it behooâ—â— is diligently to beware that we be not 〈◊〉 our lusts driven to that pass as to think that God is the cause of sin whereas the night can sooner be made the day then he be any such thing Because in God there is no darkness at all but meer light and whosoever would come to know this work of God thorough his mercy they must begin this knowledge with sincerity of mind which seeks nothing else but God alone whosoever proceedeth with a double heart is an abomination to the Lord. Now doubleness of heart consists in this when we are not with out whole heart Soul and thoughts given up and wholly left to the Lord also when we pour out our prayers before him with a heart divided in two whence â—lso it is that we are not heard according â—o our desires For the Lord loveth us â—ore then we our selves do love our â—elves inasmuch as he is averse to our estruction and always freely bestoweth 〈◊〉 us that which is most useful and â—ost profitable for our happiness which â—â—deed is that which at first is unâ—â—own 〈◊〉 us but is at length made known 〈◊〉 us though by and thorough great afflictions because that we were so far falen into our desires and into that evil which we call our Propriety that we must first be subjected to great anguishes and griefs before we can become submitted to the will and obedience of God which is that which can be never done without a spiritual death and the
mortifying of all our own powers even as they sensibly feel who are chosen and lead by God into such a death Wherefore we are to endeavour that we may most patiently accept from the Lord whatsoever he hath fore-ordained by his power over us being to our utmost resigned up to him alone continually imploring him by our prayers and with hearts lifted up importunately to beg his mercy that by his grace we may be sustained and preserved even to the end nor that we may not be turn'd aside by any temporal injoyments or by any case happening which is able to make us in this life faint-hearted but that we may abide confirmed in this way with perpetually going forwards in the blessing of God and in real fruitfulness I do not describe the cause by which we may perchance be drawn away and turned aside let every one try himself for there are diverse sins which vex us every one in his own state being captivated by that evil which we term our proper evil in our own will and desires in which every one of us are kept bound or chained May the Lord advance us forward to the true and divine communion and to a willing obedience unto God that we may be set free from all those bonds by which thorough our own faults we are inthralled to which freedome notwithstanding we can never come unless we dye and spiritually depart in and by which captivity is lead forth in triumph after the victory obtained by the most powerful hand of God in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ we being-raised up again in Christ unto the true eternity in the life of the Spirit when that which is become old shall remain cast off neither shall any pardon be given it but be condemned to death and to be perfectly separated from life Let this therefore be our rule thorough our whole life that we endeavour to lay aside that which is a stop and hinderance to our hearts in the way of the Lord which yet is nought else but our own selves who do oppose our selves to the Lord so that we come before him praying with half a heart only whenas notwithstanding if our hearts did spread themselves before the Lord with a perfect resignation and could abide in a continual progress of such a resignation and in a firm purpose of catching at nothing more being free simple and nakedly poured forth before the Lord we should then find with an admirable success the power of the Lord in conquering of sin Yet it 's not possible to arrive at such a liberty of heart but by the special mercy of God to which also are to be joyned our unwearied endeavours and prayers For we have so encompassed our selves about with such a wall of separation that we want the true discerning of our intellect by reason of that thick darkness wherewith our senses are deeply benighted whence it is that we always place without our selves the cause of our holding back and of our barrenness and complain that we are hindred and over-ruled by things external the contrary of which if things proceeded aright and we were sound at the bottom of our hearts would come to pass so as that which is internal would contain and rule in a due order all externals nor would it be hindred by any thing external and thus all would prove well for our use and advantage in the Lord. But the Lord will much better inform us in these matters and effectually cause that if any temporal things that are less necessary become a burden unto us that we shall lay them aside so far forth as it is allowed to us by our Conscience in the Lord yet not without a most exact consideration thereof For he who thus knoweth himself to be weak so as he may easily be hindred by and from things external standeth altogether in need that he should constantly and earnestly beg of the Lord that he may be kept unpolluted and that his Sensitive faculties be thus thorough urgent necessity always kept exercised with continual prayers and an elevated heart which would never be done without necessity for no prayer doth more truely hit the mark then that which floweth from necessity for by how much the more pressing the necessity is by so much the more piercing are prayers made So that in these very evils themselves a remedy is found which leadeth us unto God if so be our ultimate end be nothing else but God and as to things outward we propose to our selves to be obedient to nothing but the divine will and to perform it most exactly But this case doth wind in a man into such difficulties before it can be brought to pass that it will concern him to ingage his utmost resolution and powers to strive with divers and most difficult pangs and desperate temptations which increase upon him dayly more and more For just so it is with these combatants as with the poor wild creature which is driven up and down by the hunters till the time of the Lord be come Now the Lord preserveth us when we know it not yea when we sink into swoons and are swallowed up by straights and then doth our death truely begin when all our arrogance is quite blunted and supprest By reason of the weakness of my hand I could write no more recommending you herewith unto the Lord who can promote us all in his own way and preserve us in a constant diligence and in a perseverance of divine graces EPIST. VII Which is the true way of coming unto Christ very useful for Youth To G. of R. MOst dear G. I gave this to thy Cosin upon his departure hence to be delivered unto thee that thy blooming youth may be more and moâ—â— put on unto true zeal for I was always in my mind perswaded that thou didâ—â— search out after that which is good 〈◊〉 therefore we are in some measure 〈◊〉 serve one another and to help forward in the ways of the Lord it is necessarâ— that thou shouldst exercise in practise that gift which thou hast received and advance it unto fruit bearing that thou mayst not only search after knowledge and Science but also to think of this how thou mayest reduce thy self unto a oneness which is not done by knowing many things but in many things desisting from our our own will and in breaking our desires even in the flower of Youth For our own proper desire is indeed contrary to God and this is the chief root out of which all Sins do grow To him therefore that would arrive at the state of Christ there is no other way allowed then that by the Law he die to his natural desires and lusts He that would retain and keep his lusts and desires supposing that only for a knowledge of Christ apprehended in his understanding he shall be accounted before God for a believer this man certainly will wander far out of the way Inasmuch â—s this same faith goeth no further
may my Nephews exercise themselves the most they can in those endeavours that they may learn to repress their youthful and inordinate affections and appetites which will without doubt spring up in them at their own season The Lord seasonably grant to them to own the witness of their conscience against all these that being kept safe from them all they may never consent to any depraved inclination EPIST. XIX That there is a certain especial difference between the exalted rational Zeal and the Zeal that is pure and Christian To the same Person My Dr I Have recommended thy case and purpose to the Lord who can safely keep us all by his Grace and shew to us our errors for though we are for that purpose subjected to sufferings yet nothing is more wholsom for us than a discovery of our spots and defects which is not wont to be done without our indignation and opposition But if the Spirit of Christ must restore and enliven us all then plainly must there be no place left in us for bitterness of spirit against any one For this is alone the Doctrine of Christ Learn of me for I am meek and humble in heart For all hearts that are puffed up are in his time to be brought low even as alas we find it in many The Lord keep us most miserable worms for I never am frighted with greater horror than when behold my self The natural man scratcheth to himself by appropriating to him self all things whatsoever God bestows upon him out of free grace so that all thing also which are in themselves pure by this appropriation become as it were infected with poyson Now if Nature were deadned and the understanding purified then indeed such usages of Gods gifts would not be so multiplied But now that eviâ— which we call I is so great and our corrupt Nature through its own self-pleasing is so faln and sunk into its own self that we wait not for the time of trials with some difficulties and restâ—â—int and prayer together with a hope 〈◊〉 the promises of God to be fulfilled in a fit season as it hath been foretold by the Lord. The Lord be mindful of wretched me that write thus and be helpful to thee according to his own and not according to my will I also very earnestly intreat thee that thou take not in bad part this my freedom in writing to thee for my mind never desisteth from having a kindness for thee But high pride of heart and a contemning esteem of our Neighbour as also the doing him injury never is allowed a place in the Christian State but rather that which hath a fair shew of some sort of Zeal that is natural mixed with Mosaical rigour For nothing hath appeared in Christ but meer sufferings and death silence and patience even to the Cross upon which even to the last gasp of his life he signalized his obedience in which he was subjected to his Father withour murmuring also that his Majesty of his eternal Godhead he did not take up again as he might have done but rather bore in himself humanity and imbecility and abiding in huâ—â—â—ty and contempt even to the very death he was crowned with Victory For if the external assaults of his enemies could have moved the internal nature of his eternal birth then indeed that which is immovable could have been moved by some outward violence even as alas it most commonly happneth to us that our whole humanity is shocked inwardly and outwardly when yet we do think it to be the zeal of the Lord. But before we can come to the purity of these motions as it manifested it self in Christ against them who dishonoured God and profaned his Temple certainly there are many things to be eradicated out of our fleshly part if we would be thought to be wholly burning in zeal of spirit But as I hope the Lord will in his time manifest these things to us more clearly for when we are grown old we must carry so no things with great pains which whilsâ— youth flour sheth with a flaming zeal we cannot own and undertake Because all that is talked of death and dying to young persons they cannot in good truth come to them seeing that their bones and marrow are alwaies full of all fleshliness with that fervent vigour together with a full strength of the growing faculty and voluptuous tendency which for the sake of its own power and the glory of self-will is wont to oppose it self to God But then if any one proceed further and draweth forth all his strength even unto the top of all his age then comes decreasing that we are unwillingly lead into the will of God by a manifest other process and then those judgments seem to hang over us which once we decreed to others and that youthful life free and wanton swelling with zeal is now by the just judment of God under the decreasings of old age condemned to death but then at length succeeds understanding and discretion together with continual sufferings in the ways of the Lord even unto our death and the proper sentence pronounced to us for just as all that ought to dye that is possessed of life also is that matter here For God alone if he be truly in us is conjoyned with death but not with our life because no flesh how pure so ever it be can abide in his sight For whatever shined forth externally in Christ even that by a like death must be done inwardly in us if so be we are willing in the resurrection to be incorporated into a communion of his glory Otherwise we stick only but in the flesh of Christ though glorious contemplating alone the life of Christ's humanity not yet glorified but we hinder the growth of that fruit which through the death of Christ in the resurrection by the supernatural birth and a new life is poured forth into us with eternal grace The Lord open my mind to you for here I acknowledge my understanding to be too weak and slender EPIST. XX. An acknowledgment concerning the disputation held at Francfort between John Calvin and Justus Velsius of the power of Man or of free-will To A. G. THe Grace of our Lord and his mercy be upon thee and on all those who fear the Lord and seek his truth Most beloved A. concerning what thou didst write to me about that dispute held at Franckfort betwixt Velsius and Calvin my opinion is That Velsius did stumble therein whilst he attributed too much to the power of man for humane power is judged and condemned by the Lord if it be before a man is made partaker of the divine birth because what is new born is of God and not of man it is eternal and immortal even as he is who begat it But on the contrary Calvin failed in that point wherein he rejected all the powers of man universally which indeed I allow to be true unless that I also judge that that knowledge
which lieth hid in man and convinceth him doth yet partake of reason and humane power although the Lord doth afterwards offer to the heart the light of the Gospel and the understanding of a man submitteth it self to that But for all that he is not yet one with the light for no man receiveth this light but he in whom the reason and strength of man are on the Cross become dead with Christ now such a one thence-forward because of the communion he hath received with the death of Christ is also again raised up by the same Spirit of Christ so as the Spirit of Christ thence-forward becometh his life his own reason and all his own powers abiding in death nor is there a Soul living in him but by the vertue of God and thus the man comes to renounce all his own strength and all his own righteousness in the sight of God and becomes conformed to the righteousness of God in himself which the natural man never knoweth nor can arrive thereat Therefore because the Judgment of Calvin reaches not so far and he himself is not yet dead to his own reason strength he indeed bore witness against his own self because that which in the Epistle to the Romans is demonstrated to be death by the Gospel Rom. 8.10 11. and 6.5 6. keeps him in life the light of the Gospel serving him for that purpose even to his own proper commodity For the Gospel was not divulged till after the Resurrection of Christ And then at length Christ the Son of God was acknowledged to be in us otherwise our acknowledgement was not concerned but only about the person of Christ according to the flesh from whence it is apparent that we our selves are still carnal and though we be not plainly like to the ruder part of the World and do account our selves for imitators of Christ who have left all yet still we are to be made liker unto Christ and to be planted into his death Furthermore I here further acknowledge that no man by the strength of Nature derived from Adam can ever attain unto the eternal mercy of God That study indeed and that labour by which such a man in his solicitous endeavours is tired our before he can arrive at the grace of Christ I acknowledge for humane and that it is subject to the Law but that righteousness which one acquireth by this study is not as yet that righteousness which is prevalent in Gods sight for this is at last after the Law constituted in us by Christ First therefore a man must labour under the rigour of the Law even to the highest perfection of himself and to the greatest innocency he possibly can yet when all this is done the Soul is to feel at length the judgment of God and seeing it cannot possibly abide therein it falls manifestly down into death and then at length is it by Christ raised again into the life of the Spirit But now the acknowledgment of the righteousness of God in common is by the Church which is nearer to us proposed in such a manner as this That God thorough and by Christ crecteth salvation meerly without any addition of works which I grant But because these under the law obtained no righteousness by the benefit of Works there being put no study or rigour therefore they also cannot for Christ sake renounce nor forsake their goods seeing as yet they had gained none For they would have them renounce what they have not but in the interim they suffer loss also in that which they have not yet arrived at That therefore which they say is true but it is not rightly apply'd by them as all the Scripture doth demonstrate that it is by their own faults that they come not to the truth Nevertheless I am unwilling to deny unto them all grace for their portion and according to the measure of their gifts seeing that they study with all their might for Christ and by the help of the Scripture do hear somewhat of him provided they be faithful in what they acknowledge and that to the utmost He that neglects this is condemned by his own proper judgment EPIST. XXI The difference between Repentance and Regeneration in relation to a little book of Diederick Phillips which was printed concerning the New Creature To. J. W. DEarest John that acknowledgment of Diederick Phillips concerning the New Creature I do partly own for truth if it be not stretched further then it reacheth viz. that it can according to the testimony of Scripture lead to Repentance and to lead a pious life But if that Repentance and life so corrected thereby he would have to be put for the New Creature whilst yet the Conscience is still under the burden of sins then is it erroneous for whilst that no death hath as yet happened and still sin lieth so powerfully in the whole man that by means of an accusation it often driveth the soul into sadness the Soul is yet under the Law for by the Law in our consciences we are convinced of sin And though a man may force into silence that accusation and that burden of sin that tormenteth our conscience and that by Scripture-promises and so comfort himself yet it must be confessed that then he still abides in the state of the old Man and is not yet arrived at the death of it For the New Creature is not subject to sin therefore also no accusation of the Law in the Conscience can touch it for then a man liveth wholly under grace and his mind stands in no need to be sustained by the external comforts of the Scriptures or also by the absolution from sins according to the testimony of Scripture it should bring forth to him a greater confidence for his life is in the Spirit and consisteth under the Law of the grace of God wherefore also the conscience in its purity enjoyeth the highest peace remaining sealed by the Holy-Ghost but in them who are still under conscience the Law of sin still exerciseth its power and conscience doth still accuse perpetually for some sins so that it hence appears openly that such are not yet dead to the Law because the accusation of the Law doth still remain in its power so long as by the transgression of the Law somewhat is committed against conscience and though we will not confess that we are under the Law or under the accusation thereof notwithstanding that there can be no accusation but by virtue of the Law still reigning here or there yet is the thing manifest by conscience its self which thorough an accusation for sin rendreth us guilty If therefore we could stand in purity by the blood of Christ according to the inward man then indeed the Law by its virtue which it hath in the Conscience thorough sin durst not so assault the Soul of a man as that he must seek comfort out of the Scriptures and to be reconciled with God and to be confirmed by
a new promise of grace because grace in the regenerated hath taken most deep root according to its own true nature so that such have certainly no need to seek out some remedy out of their own selves Which whilst others do they do in this very point testify that they have not attained to that of which they boasted and which they by the testimonies of the Scriptures attributed to themselves in the very truth and according to the proper essence of the thing For the old man who always by force usurpeth the empire in man with transgression which indeed is termed a tripping and is made light of yet nevertheless in the sight of God it can never be tollerated in the new man without real mortification alledgeth a contrary testimony viz. that we yet live the life of the old man nor as yet are disposed unto death because that no sin can be committed against our wills and without pleasure or delight Hence therefore is it manifest that we still are kept in the life of the old man and are not yet arrived at the new life for a man comes not to the death of natural strength in his carnal life and with the complacency of proper will or by the study of proper righteousness and austerity but against its own will viz. it is to be subjected on the cross to the obedience of God by the means of pouring forth of the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord into whose communion we are taken by a like death according to the inward man so that on the cross we wholly put off our natural life which we had in the flesh being buried with Christ and afterwards raised up again into another supernatural life so as the power of the Law which being as yet not perfectly killed lurketh in the members of our natural body is wholly enervated in the mind and Soul and in the whole humanity having utterly lost all right in and upon the life of man For a man is not excited into such a life ove◠which the jurisdsction of the Law can domineer with a deadly accusation but when it hath fully finished this judgment in man by this death the man also by the benefit of the same death is altogether freed from that Law EPIST. XXII Being a fundamental Relation in what properly consisteth the Oeconomical Government of the Family of Love To the same person MY John I received thy letters together with the books and having somewhat perused them I gain'd the understanding of the greater part of the opinion yet I shall keep the Books till thou comest But the opinion of the Writer is contrary to my mind because it consisteth in the knowledge only of a seeming divine truth and not in an essentia◠truth of God And this is my opinion seeing no man can be more instructed according to this way than the Writer himself of these Books If I may understand his fundamentals from his Books it cannot possibly be that any of those who are inferiour to him can more happily explain the thing to me Yet I am willing that thou shouldest enquire how they carry themselves in their conversation that thou wouldest as exactly as possibly thou canst find out also the rest of their state or condition for when thou shalt come hither I shall more fully discover to thee my opinion concerning those Writings Now I only ask pardon seeing that matters are thus the cause whereof if it shall please the Lord I shall tell thee at thy coming May the merciful and faithful God have mercy on them and us that in an acknowledgement of their darkness they may be led by the Lord in the straight way unto his essential truth before which the natural Reason which inordinately appropriateth God to it self may utterly perish whereby I fear they are still too much bound though they think themselves clearly set free therefrom For all that for which they labour and contend and which they account their utmost aim as far as I can imagine must yet be judged of God for that which reason endeavoureth to effect with them by knowing all that must be God himself so that nothing but God can acknowledge himself in us we in the mean time being by a real death of body and soul as to our creaturely part wholly laid aside and then that life which ought to be in us can be nothing else but Christ as Paul saith likewise so that after we are buried by death we are no more raised up again into Nature but into the Spirit For nature remaineth condemned upon the Cross and being once dead is not again revived Now I judge that nature in these people is still egregiously and in very deed and especially alive although they may think that they are already purified because that they perswade themselves through their ignorance and blindness that they have already plainly conquered that combat of an accusing conscience I write all this to thee with the greatest brevity because thou didst demand my opinion but when God permitting thou shalt come thy self we will talk more concerning them My Opinion therefore as I said is contrary to these Writings and my mind can no waies assent unto them For that aim which the Writer himself calleth the Intellect of God in my sense is indeed nothing else than that they would have Nature as yet not deadned to become a propriety to themselves when indeed Nature before it be dead cannot be otherwise in it self for in it the highest death consisteth True indeed that by reading I find somewhat concerning Death and of the abnegation of the reason and the discretion of Nature so as that the Author would have all humane wisdom and knowledge overturned before we can come to the truth of God yet nevertheless the Soul of a Man doth remain proper to him yea though he renounceeth his intellect so that in this very point the Writer erreth in which he taxeth others and in truth far more vilely seeing that he thereby would come to a greater knowledge but especially that he by the means of his temerity would arrive at that which others seek by means of worship and ceremonies For these from a vow do love their body goods wife and children that they may possess the inheritance of heaven but they do forsake their natural and humane wisdome and reason that they may obtain something that is better viz. the understanding of God and yet both of them are still captivated in that that their Ipseity or Iness still remaineth proper to them although to some more miserably then to others Now it is impossible that they should this way arrive at the truth of God and can possibly be planted into liberty as in the sight God because that they are not lead in tha◠true and as it were that essential death to be found in both Soul and Body bu◠are only instructed by knowing though for this very reason they reject others 〈◊〉 of a certain
nature and possess and love and in which we live The power of death shall be known to all things living but by so much the more difficulty by how much the greater knowledge some have on this earth for at the time of death all things are to be given up to God and then all things are shut up and ended in the truth of God The Lord unite us with himself who himself is the beginning and end old and new yet is he one and immutable void of all increase in himself though in the temporary creature he is known with increase and decrease As much therefore as we depart from temporariness so much are we united with God in whom there is no time and in him who is the last and the first with an everlasting presence and in him all Multiplication and Substraction of time is taken away and made co-equal and all flesh which is spiritualized and which was wont to express it self in time doth melt away before eternity The Lord be merciful to us all as of one flesh that bidding farewel to that shadow of time we may grow in his fear and let his name be more and more sanctified over all his creatures in time and let our life perish and vanish away like smoke even as in is evidently done to all flesh together with which all things do tend to corruption whatever it was that ever sprung from it whether they were deeds or whether there were thoughts But it is not so with him who is godly for he with all his works is preserved and will grow and live to Eternity because every appetite life and desire of his is nothing else but God and therefore whatsoever is his tendeth to Eternity As on the contrary the desire and scope of a worldly man is nothing else but flesh which alone doth also move and direct him therefore the effect must perish with the cause as experience testifies for the fruit cannot be otherwise then is the root whence it is sprung May our eternal Saviour Christ Jesus purifie us that in him we may bring forth true fruit and according to the multitude of that his most abundant Grace which God hath richly poured forth upon us from the very beginning of the World we may abide permanent in him Amen EPIST. XXVIII Being a most beautiful Admonition very profitable as unto the death and departure of Nature To a Sick Man I Heartily salute thee in the Lord most dear N. as to what concerneth thy disease I hope the best of thee according to the mercy of God and that his hand was not in vain lifted up over thee For he by his Discipline will lead and conserve us that no rottenness shall grow in us but that by his judgment we be still more and more purified and cleansed from all impurity of Nature bred with us and dead still lurking in us The grace and mercy of the Lord be with thee dearest N. in that thy misery and disease which thou must bear in the flesh and may he grant to thee true submission and yielding up under his hand that with a bowed heart thou maist bear all things in obedience to him according to his holy will concerning thy miserable self that thou maist be lead in his way with perseverance to his glory and be preserved in the death of thy flesh whereby the life of the spirit may from day to day more and more increase in thee and be manifested in the heart of thy dying body Moreover I beg of the Lord that he would strengthen thy Limbs for his service so that if they become deficient as to Nature which yet must be done by continued labours in the way of the Lord that our essence may in time wax old and decrease yet through Christ they may be raised again to an eternal and fresh-springing youth in God where no fainting nor old age nor death can touch them The Lord preserve us and his mercy be present with us in all our adversity lest perhaps that prove able to hinder us in our way that our continued anxiety conjoyned with the highest danger to which in this combat we must subject our selves lest it be in vain nor draweth us back but rather may fruitfully promote us to a perpetual progression and success of his grace and of divine benediction maist thou remain recommended unto God who will free us out of this present Dungeon of this temporary flesh and imbecility according to his own acceptable will will elevate us into the sublimity of Eternity into the life of the spirit through the Resurrection of Christ to whom be the glory to all Eternity EPIST. XXIX How a purified mind ought to bear without any commotion the failings of his Neighbour with all patience To his Brother D. John W. DEarest Brother that that man is affected with such streights and with such griefs of heart that we also must suffer together with him For in that that he is alwaies subjected to sufferings nor can come at any peace is indeed not the work of man but the gift of God yea a great and eminent gift to endure the folly of another and to cover it over with an unvariable mind towards his Neighbour For though we be unduely used or handled by our Neighbour yet in truth a purified heart ought not to be moved by it but must alwaies act according to the bond of Charity which is alone its aim for in that there ariseth no suspicion of evil and although modest reason also may descend to make an excuse yet even all that too must be alwaies done without any motion of mind for as much as he is such a one as the injury and trouble of no creature can move him because he remains confirmed in that which is truly immovable Dearest Brother I therefore write thus that if that same trouble should be reiterated thou maist alwaies have this aim fixed in thy sight For although as to the creature the justice is on your part yet the mind ought to remain alwaies free without the use of this right otherwise there would arise an enmity from thence and a bitterness of heart For thus that which is earthly overwhelmeth that which is heavenly with such a blindness that it plainly seems to a man that he hath some divine right whenas yet God cannot but love nor doth he require any other thing of us according to the measure of his Justice Not as if I would willingly lay some blame upon thee do I say thus but that thy heart may not be nor that any rule should be wanting to thee if you behave your self otherwise thou wilt be obnoxious to a heavier judgement except thou proceedest with caution My Brother strive to have a mind unmoved which cannot be hindred but rather promoted by the enmity of the Creatures All things to a just man turn to good whether it be death or life or dissention or love for such a one overlooking the Creature
taketh all as from the Creator whether they be grateful or ungrateful and though we may not as yet come thus far yet is this to be accounted for a rule and to be followed with all endeavour And with this I would have thee recommended to the Lord who will be helpful to us all and keep and promote us all more and more in his own way EPIST. XXX How a Noble Plant springeth up out of the Dead Seed through the Divine fuitfulness To his Brother A. W. DEarest Brother The Herb we have received The omnipotent Lord who from his eternal beaming forth hath made to come forth the out-flowing powers of all his Creatures according to the common and out-streaming operation of the Law of Nature replenish thine and the common emptiness of others with increase in the blessing of the most noble Plant of God according to his nature that that only Seed which by the benefit of corruption hath utterly lost all its own propriety in a deadly and eternal intemperance and is eternally united with the earth of an imperserutable perfection will fructifie in thee through God contrary to all hope or glory to the greater glorification in the vertue of God Moreover my Brother we received all which are to be brought back again to God as to the Original of all with thansgiving even unto the scope of our death Thus we miserable wretches in this our received way are faln down into to that which we call our propriety so that when we are to depart from that our assumed life we are overwhelmed with sorrows and bitterness although all this is done out of the just judgment of God that all may come unto his truth even as the heavens and the earth are called unto the truth because undeniably all things must come to this state and to render their source glorified by their death and by their being melted down thereinto I wish thee my small portion of health in my state of rejection and disertion from the Lord which I suffer but yet not without mercy that which may happen also to thee but with real commiseration according to thy calling as also to all that are the holy ones of God My brother be mindful of us all may the mercy of God and his eternal and to all creatures his incomprehensible grace come upon us with plenty that by the virtue thereof that miracle of the supernatural spiritual and eternal life may be discovered and acknowledged together with the spiritual salvation in Christ his eternal and only begotten son in whom miserable we are depressed down into death with verity EPIST. XXXI Concerning the right uncloathing of self and of the yielding up of the soul in all sufferings DEarest brother The Lord be mindful of our misery and first to behold me the most miserable one with commiseration and offer to himself my heart made bare and emptied by many pressings together and that he will renunerate it with the blessing of fruitfulness in a divine and eternal redemption and freedom from all the Enemies of my heart who hold it captive in the chaines of darkness out of the just judgment of God to whom I am subjected being ignorant whither at last I must go hence seeing that my anxiety the longer it is is so much the more vehement so that I must always fall into the hands of the Lord seeing all else are fallen away from me The Lord look upon my nakedness and be my preserver that being kept up by and in him I may bring forth fruit to his glory and to the sanctification of things temporaneous in the effusion of the blood of my own proper life and in the liberty of the divine obedience With these I recommend thee to the Lord who can advance us higher in his ways and can fasten us firmly to the cross in true submission and yielding up of our wills that in him we may be kept safe all that short space of our faintings in this time being in his fear delivered up unto death according to the ordination of his judgment impending over us that so we may be led and get forwards in his ways and that we may bid farewel with all our might to time that eternity may take place in us and that we may so dye to our selves that we may walk here on the earth only as Pilgrims The Omnipotent God deal with us in his good pleasure according to his mercy and lead us thorough with Victory even in our imbecillity unto the very end EPIST. XXXII Concerning the death of all created things and of all those which are born out of them MOst beloved brother All things do tend to the end and death of their created nature whence do arise many sighs and a most bitter agony But the Lord will again bring forth his holy one out of death and the grave that he may not see corruption My brother thy pressure is great and severe I know thou desirest comfort but from God only who cannot come but thorough the death of all creatures or of the whole created nature until the last breath of life be also breathed out nor can any refreshment of members be hoped for Let us in a free communion be made partakers of thy sufferings with divine compassion patiently expecting the accomplishment of the judgment in its own order furthermore we will labour according to the will of God and we will sweat till we come to the appointed end even as the hand of the Lord shall over rule us May the omnipotent Lord by his fatherly grace lead us thorough this most difficult labour and strengthen us according to the inward man that we may forsake that which is external and deliver it up to eternal corruption from out of the first judgment to his eternal praise and glory to which we all aspire everyone of us according to his own manner and service but not for our sakes or for our commodity as some now unjustly do and think wherefore also this counterfit opinion shall sink down into defect and death together with the death of the creature by a most hard and terrible fall Because all that that we possess with a lye in time must be yielded up to the eternal truth but all to the glory of God so that at length one may become a looking-glass to the other and God at last may overcome all and persist alone but we in our lies must perish My brother the times of our parents and forefathers are passed and labor belongeth now to our time to the end also of which all things preparatory are at hand The Lord stretch out his hand with mercy over wretched me and over us all that we may be taken into the order which is pleasing to him thorough faith under the obedience of his eternal will so that our will life and choice being subjected to his judgment may be condemned and consumed May the Lord give to us all communion in God with a
shall fail me The Lord prepare us all that we may be made fit for his work in those things which he himself seeth and judgeth II. My brother the condition of my body is tolerable as it always was but I remain unshaken in my heart and the trust or confidence of my life is so small by reason of want of strength in my limbs that I can only walk up and down the house with trembling under the hand of my God True indeed I remain like others as to outward appearance but at heart and over my orignal and root of life there impends a judgment and by my unconsidered steps thorough the terrours of death it threatneth an end and my departure out of this time such is the constitution of my whole life way and conversation May the merciful Father open the bowels of his paternal inclination to me a most wretched creature that he may keep me safe from the evil one and preserve us all by his eternal grace Be mindful of forsaken and for lorn me as my compassionate brother if perhaps the Lord may be willing to exhibit his mercy to us III. My brother mine accustomed infirmity still remaineth as long as the Lord will The Lord be my promoter in his commiserating grace and may he preserve me and continue to hold me in his discipline under a suffering obedience of his holy will The cause why I have wrote no mere is the weakness of my hand According to the Lord my writing is not necessary to thee seeing that he himself will operate by his own grace in thy heart thorough the influence of his Spirit from whom all words and all writings may be separated by reason of his immense and glorious clatitude The Lord keep and promote you all in his ways under his fear and likewise us thorough all the time of our earthly combat And so I heartily salute you IV. My brother as to what belongs to my condition it still conflicts with its usual and difficult disease so long as it shall so please God He according to the order of his Justice put me down into this death of corruption and with his own hand plucketh me up again that I may wait for eternity which springeth up from out of the seed of this corruptible mortality May the Lord freely bestow on us all his mercy as with a long-suffering constancy we hope from the Lord it will be that with a heart prepared and submitted we may receive all from his hand and may be lead thorough even unto the end Herewith I recommend thee to the Lord who will lead us all with all our strength and essence unto the true death in Christ that he out of this 〈◊〉 may build up an eternal life whiâ—◠〈◊〉 never more be subjected unto any 〈◊〉 V My brother my condition is the 〈◊〉 that it was when you departed bâ—◠〈◊〉 consideration thereof doth shake al◠〈◊〉 powers into a trembling and a terâ—â—â—â— because of that evident death by the 〈◊〉 of the Lord which as it were an obâ—â—â—re cloud of death I have always before my eyes even from that very time whâ—â— thou wert with me the reason bâ—◠〈◊〉 its beginning and of its end is whâ—â— hid from me the truth it self will bâ—â—â—â— it self forth in its own meaning and oâ—der As to my outward body which respecteth my disease I am not at all chanâ—â—â— but anguishes have taken full possession on all my faculties Be thou recommended to the mercy of God VI. My brother The Lord help us poor wâ—â—â—ches in this dangerous condition of this natural and mutable life whom it behooveth to be kept with believing under all uncertainties in the fear of God according to the faith whereby we believe that all the certainty and firmness of our purposes are to be wholly destroyed corrupted and annihilated that another 〈◊〉 fruit may spring up to eternal life 〈◊〉 â—â—ising out of the foregoing corruptible seed The Lord grant to us his salvation and grace that we may adore or worship 〈◊〉 in Spirit and in Truth even as he himself desireth VII The Lord in his mercy help us all and free us from our errours in his own time For I poor wretch do suffer the justice of the Lord and do bear his judgment upon me as long as this carnal spirit in this my dying nature still breatheth May the eternal and merciful God appear to me by his grace yea and to us all and lead us into his own will VIII My brother The Lord is my deliverer in my necessity and will confirm me in his grace even unto the end My brother I am willing thou shouldest know that my body cannot possibly endure any longer this immense misery without dying God assist me in my sufferings to the last and receive me into his eternal rest My Weakness is great all things are known to the Lord. Thy brother in the highest streights the most wretched in the Lord. M. W. To his Sister the ninth day before his death DEarest Sister whilst I am writing this I am so ordered that I can write no more My dearest sister be mindful of thy younger brother and of his wife and small children that they may be the most advanced and helped as the time may need My most beloved Sister I am in the highest content in the Lord my God and by his grace do bid the farewel with this my dying hand being according to the will God bound in so short a chain as he proposed to himself The Lord our God grant peace to our beloved brothers and sisters And now I turn me to my present call viz. to that eternal peace thorough the death of my flesh which now hasteneth it self to its end And now my most beloved Sister behold my dying salutation and my last farewel to thee from the bottom of my heart wherewith saluteth thee as departing out of this life thy brother M. W. 16 April 1560. He died in the Lord 25 April in the year of our Lord 1560. and of his own age the 39. THE END
corruption do ascend as the increase ascendeth Let no man think that he who hath a certainty of eternal life hath therefore no need to suffer It is written Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Foot-stool When therefore the mind of a man is the Heaven and throne of God then God useth his flesh as subjected unto himself and for his foot-stool There were given to the Woman in the Revelations two Wings that she should flie away into the Wilderness from before the face of the Dragon but the Dragon went forth and fought with her seed those are such men as are not yet set fully at liberty Illumination is never brought to pass in a man unless first he be purified for â—llumination must be expected to follow purification until the very last point of impurity be also perfectly purged out And then presently succeds Illumination and when the business draws towards en end claritude doth always as it were hover over him nor does he yet enter until the very last point also be purged out and then at length the enters The first purification of a man is by working under the Law the second by Christ under Grace Do thou consider how that which is bound may then be freed and how a man must be quite wearied out in the combate under this Illumination But as it was said here of the first Illumination viz. that it is not made before the first purification be accomplished even unto its utmost degree so it is not in the second purification wherein the foundation is purged viz. that we might then look for Illumination when purification was fully accomplished Now though there be a disparity by reason by Illumination yet there is none such by reason of purification for even as the first is performed gradually so also is the second There is no means extant by whose help God and our mind can be united but only the most pure body of Christ If we must be regenerated and become new creatures now in time then must that be fulfilled in our Souls which was done in the body of Christ for it behooved him to suffer to dye to be laid in the Sepulchre and then to rise again thus ought our Spirits to be also conformed yea our bodies also before they can be vivified to live eternally must first dye in much misery and anguish and then be raised up again at the last Day CHAP. XXXI THe new man doth all things out of or from regeneration He hath no need to go first and hear or read what he is to do or to leave undone because all his things proceed out of Regeneration To a regenerate Man who worketh and exerciseth himself in God eating and drinking and sleeping and every temporal need begets trouble and anxiety He who hath regeneration it self and is come into the essence of God restraineth himself within bounds nor does he act as formerly when he had the thing only in notion There is no need to command a man newly born that he should live and see and eat and drink and sleep and wake and desire and go and stand and speak c. for he does all these things unbidden by nature for it is his essence and property that which he outwardly hears and sees is only the expression of himself for he derives none of these from elsewhere for he had them before and it is his nature and he thus acteth freely Nor is it needful that it should be told him what a man is or what it is to live to eat to drink to sleep to wake to desire to stand to go c. for he knows all these by his own proper experience But on the contrary a man that is not yet born knows not what a man is or what it is to live to eat to drink to sleep to watch to desire to go to stand c. Neither can it so be propounded to him that he may understand it or by expression have it represented to him The like to this may be said of a man born of God who knoweth all things by his own proper experience whatever the Scriptures testify and express for all that is his nature and propriety and nothing is adverse to him which he cannot freely do And therefore he is no longer under the Law He knows by his experience the wayes by which we are led to regeneration or what regeneration or a man new born again is as also what is his life his food his drink his exercise his work his going his standing c. and of these things there is no need that any of them should be commanded to him for he hath all things of himself and they are his propriety besides he freely and willingly doth them nor can he do otherwise There is no need to tell a Lover what Love is nor a Godly man what Godliness is and because he is so come unto the very essence of things that they are become his habit and use and being always present with him he cannot then be angry though he be contradicted and the matter is not believed by men for else he knows and is sensible of the thing and that he who is against him ought to be subjected to his Judgment He who is fully sound in health cannot be angry nor grieved though one should say to him that he is sick for he feels that it is otherwise but he who hath the thing only in notion but not in substance cannot bear contradictions and affronts Before we arrive at regeneration we must be drag'd thorough an unknown forsaken and desolate path and God pulls a man by this way against his will For when a man laboured under the Law so that he could advance no further and supposed that he was now arrived at the end of his journey then at length must he journey and be hurried thorough this unknown way The first way was pleasant and full of fresh-green herbs though it also seemed difficult and a man thought that the end thereof would be God Yet the end proved to be no other then this aforesaid rough-way which is Purgatory in which a man is purged from all things which are of the flesh God indeed draws a man hither and thither in this way and still some small piece of flesh is torn off here or there till it be left quite bare and nothing but Spirit remains Then the man willingly yields himself up into the hands of God and into those sufferings because the carnal affections are thus consumed in this purgatory so that there is nothing remains but Spirit Then God cometh and applyeth himself unto man and gives himself to be known of man and so this man comes at length to arrive at true substance or essence of which he is made capable by this suffering for in this suffering or purgatory he is fully purged and made fit to receive God When God is willing to help us then he exerciseth us with this suffering