those who â—â—ve not a true light although they have 〈◊〉 understanding very Subtil as also â—â—ose who are tired out from Continuing 〈◊〉 the way of the true light And these â—â—en stand in a false liberty nor are wilâ—â—g to pay Tythes to the Lord but only â—â—e Thousand parts and yet make no â—â—l payment of either by Tythes is meant the outward Conversation in the same manner they lay down one load and are willing to take up another and yet carry neither But he that walketh the true Path doth not thus urge one thing that he may neglect another but be bringeth forth both into use and studieth how to render both to the Lord. But they who are described above are those false Men who admit of a false Liberty not can any one gain any Victory over them or resist them except he be one that is come to Regeneration for such have the true essence of the thing and in the true Light the errours of these Libertine are heheld and they seen wherein they err and how they go beyond alâ— due bounds nor do Rightly persevere Otherwise they are above every ones understanding and make nothing of thoâ—â— who would resist them because they havâ— a sort of Supernatural understandinâ— which they derived from that Clarituâ—â— which formerly had shined in them 〈◊〉 therefore that is still a Natural Man 〈◊〉 not reach nor understand them anâ— much less oppose himself against them yâ—â— though he be a Famous Learned Man But he that would reach them and oppose himself to them and get the Victory over them it behooveth him to be not an Animal Man but a Spiritual born of God of whom Paul saith The Spiritual Man judgeth all things c. else â—et him let all disputings alone unless he will be made a Laughing-stock Because â—hey are made yet more Angry and Provoked by his weak Argumentations We must know that Righteousness â—nd Unrighteousness are so alike one to â—he other as are two Hairs of the same Head but God can divide those Hairs â—nd expose their insides to be beheld of Men. The way of happiness and the â—ay of Unrighteousness are gone in by â—he same steps and the one leadeth to â—ighteousness but the other to Unrighâ—eousness We have a Similitude in a â—reat heap of Mony that makes up one â—ertain Sum. Now if an honest just man 〈◊〉 to count it and to give the total Sum â—â—though he may not rightly know some â—â—eces thereof yet if he counts them hoâ—â—estly and keeps back none of them for his own use but compleateth the full Sum God doth not therefore reprove him for his ingenious mind but he who takes any piece from them is a Thief and must expect the Judgment Now he is the man who takes some from them who would excuse his Carnality by the help of the Scriptures In every Illumination Revelation and understanding the essence only 〈◊〉 a thing is to be expected A man had need to have diligent care about all that he meets with lest he admit that which is a fault CHAP. XV. A Man must Endeavour to lead 〈◊〉 innocent and unblamable Life 〈◊〉 which if he shall arrive God wâ— call him into Judgment and will purgâ— his floor from Sin at the bottom thâ— budding forth of which did formerly 〈◊〉 much hurt to the works and thoughâ— of a man thorough the Law of sin 〈◊〉 the mind But when sin is perished 〈◊〉 Judgment and is Condemned and wholly cast out Then indeed the mind is no longer Subject unto the Law of sin but is free both from it and its slavery and is now become subject to the Law of God Concerning which Paul saith Rom. 8.2 The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the Law of sin and of death To this belongeth also that saying in Rom. 7. A man therefore is no longer a Servant of sin in his mind but is set free from that Law of sin in his mind unto the Law of God although he still serveth in his members the Law of sin Sin is cast out of the house nor is it any more moved from the internal root but it comes extrinsecally into the house Wherefore it behoveth to place the Law of sin near to the gate that the man inwardly may have converse with God without impediment CHAP. XVI NO man ought to utter forth his words in vain All men cannot be called by the same terms but it must be governed according to the quality of every one To them who are rude as yet nothing of the more Sublime Mysteries may be talked of but they are first to be admonished to put off their thicker outside barks and if they accept that counsel they may be admitted to discourses of Higher matters and so by degrees may be yet farther proceeded with until no Root of sin any more appeareth But he who is not Faithful in lower matters the more Sublime may not be proposed to him or else the discourse would be holden to no purpose Now no wise man does prodigally throw away his rich Merchandise or his Mony He who has purchased his words at an easy Rate that is who hath by no experience apprehended the Truth in himself he easily bolteth them Forth which another can never do to whom what he saith cost him more dear upon which account it is that he utters them in such a manner as if they were cut out of his very Heart and this he does indeed when he certainly sees that they are not spoken in Vain nor does beat the Air for words are extorted from him with difficulty and pain also And this is the difference betwixt those who speak out of Illumination or Revelation and those who speak out of the Essence Substance or Truth of the Thing they speak with Joy and Delight but these with Grief and Sorrow They are defiled with Pride but these speak out of Humility to the Glory of God alone and the amendment of their Neighbour Great also is the difference betwixt those who have their knowledge and understanding only from Reading or Hearing and those to whom it is revealed whose understanding is endowed by Illumination Moreover there is another and great difference as is abovesaid betwixt those who have Revelation and internal Illumination and those who are come to the essence or Substance it self of the thing and do apprehend the Truth thereof for they have their knowledge acquired only by Illumination and therefore understand not what God the Truth and Essence is by it self untiâ— they arrive thereat themselves They know by Illumination that the thing is but not what the thing is until God by his grace leadeth them so far by and thorough Death CHAP. XVII IF any ones Heart is on the sudden pierced quite thorough that man indeed perceives nothing of the true order of Death but if first his Hands were cut off next his Arms and his Feet and then his Thighs and so
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
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
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
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—
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
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
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
Claritude or Light which is God himself without the Interposition of the light Angelical and then God co-uniteth all the foregoing Lights in his own Light which is nothing else but himself and a man is made so sure and Certain from God who is that very Light that this degree of his Light is God himself and not Angelical Claritude that he needs not ask others who have experienced it for God brings with him that certainty when he comes But before this Light cometh which is God himself those Angelical Lights do first appear and do as it were prepare the way for the true Light for if this true Light should come without sending before it those enlightenings a Man could not bear it But the Angelical Light is such whereby a Man rejoyceth for a short time Just as Christ said of John Yea were willing to be exalted in hâ—â— Light for an hour But when Chriâ—â— that Eternal Light cometh the joy iâ— him is not for an hour but to all Eternity When the Angelick Light cometh many mistake thinking it to be that Eternal Light which is God himself yet is it not so the reason of which may be observed to be this if one cometh up to a greater Light the foregoing is not cared for and if yet he gets up to a Higher Light also that that went before it is no more accounted of If therefore those Lights were God himself in his own Claritude without the Interposition of the Angelick Light it could not be otherwise but they would be alwayes Highly esteemed of and would never be deprived of their Estimation A man who is arrived at God is above the Angels for he passed thorough all the Angels into the Son A man must pass thorough a Combate a Death and the Grave to come unto God wherein is no need of the Angels in as much as they do Contemplate and use without a Death that Eternal good Now the Angels were appointed unto the Service of Men. When therefore a Man does Contemplate on these Lights and Revelations he must Sedulously beware lest he break out by speaking or teaching thereof but to wait with Silence and Calmness for his Advancement and be Internally Sollicitous concerning those Gifts But if he do break forth he miserably hinders himself and renders himself unworthy of these Gifts and abuseth them and as it were Prodigally throws all away with Pleasure Singularity and Pride There are also false Lights which shine in a Man and give him an understanding and do unfold the sayings of Scripture Yea even Satan is wont to appear under the Shape of an Angel of Light and all these are done in a Man Here therefore a Man is to have a care least he mistake these for Divine Lights and if he be in doubt whether they be Divine or not there is need only of Silence for he cannot err by being Silent whether that Light be Divine or whether it be false But by how much the purer is the Zeal of a Man by so much the less do false Lights vex him For the evil Spiâ—â— hath in our times appeared in many wiâ—â— false Revelations As Lucifer that fiâ—â— Light fell so also the first Light whiâ—â— cometh into a Man ought to fall and dyâ—â— for by that a Man may sin by loftiness 〈◊〉 Mind thorough Pride not yet eradicateâ— Now in that Death sin is plucked up bâ—â— the Root and then the true essenâ—â— entreth into a Man as it is in it self and Man is transplanted into it and it can nevâ—â— more be extripated as it is promised 〈◊〉 the Prophet The time cometh saitâ— the Lord where in no more c. Thâ— Angelical Claritude which a Man gâ—â—teth shews to him his Prison and 〈◊〉 the Impurity in which he idly tumbleth but it doth not bring him out of Prisoâ— nor takes away his Impurity from him But this Christ only doth who draâ—â— him out of Prison and frees him froâ— his impurity nor is that done but by â—â—cending into Hell or the Grave Anâ— before this state of the Grave a Man caâ— not bear that Light which is Christ himself nor receive it therefore Christ cometh after that that Angelical Light haâ—â— first inlightened his Prison and discoverâ—d to Man his sin and casteth the Man â—nto Hell And then all are taken from â—im thorough the Fire which made him â—efore unfit or uncapable of the Eternal â—ight of Christ But the Man is thus led â—horough the Fire that he may be purified so as all the Wood the Straw and â—he Chaff in him are burned in the Fire and he himself being purged by this Fire shall be saved He himself perisheth not in the Fire but sin only perisheth and is rooted out so as it can never grow out again but the Man is brought out and made alive again in God He indeed also perisheth by the Fire as to his own former Life so as that he is no more revived to the world and to sin for he is brought out thorough a Back-gate and is vivified that is he riseth again in God and is revived in Righteousness As we spoke of an Angelick Claritude that it shews to a Man his Prison together with his Impurities which then are to be purified by Fire that he himself may by this means be made Capable of the Eternal Light which is Christ so some there be who do not rightly understand that Matter for when that Angelick Claritude first shew to them their Prison with the. Impurity presently they think that this lesser Light is God himself nor do they take care that they should first be freed from their Impurities but with an impure Nature they presently apprehend that Claritude and arrogate to themselves great knowledge of Spiritual Matters which also they do divers ways abuse by Speaking Writing or Teaching for their own Advantage Pleasure Glory and Ambition but their impurity and their sin they account not off for sin but for a thing Lawful wherefore neither do their Consciences accuse them until God himself smites them for they ought not to abuse Claritude but it should have served them for that end for which it was given to them viz. For the acknowledgment of their sins from which they are afterwards to be Purified by Hell or the Grave and then at length they should have been made Capable and fit that that Eternal Light viz. God himself might have been received of them nor ought â—â—ey to have broke out into acts of speacke â—â—g writing or teaching nor to supâ—â—se themselves to be made perfect CHAP. XIIII ALl the understanding of those who abused the first Claritude is alone derived from that Claritude which by us termed Angelical and indeed it above Nature but is by them applied Nature so as that they utter things range which cannot be Comprehendâ—â— by Natural Men nor can any Man by â—â—s own reason arrive at this understandâ—â—g But such are very prone to do harm â—â—cause they can move all
they are not We must eat as necessity requireth but we must eat drink and sleep with fear all propriety must expect its judgment God suffers no appropriation That which is commonly said we can do nothing without God is easily said but what that is in the very thing it self or what it is to be conversant in that very thing no man knows but he who is come thereunto Where God teacheth and governeth there is no place for reason but it is set aside The teaching leading and rule of God doth far surpass it and the matter seems to it to be impossible Divinity is learnt with joy but experienced with sorrow They which study divinity are for the most part enemies to those who experience it If grief invadeth us it is not to be oppresed lest its fruits perish but we are to abide in it and yet not to despair CHAP. V. TO have a nature wholly self-denied both as to God and to the creatures is a deadly thing Unless Nature should be equally denied as to God as also to the creatures it would not go into death When the root is extripated death is present When that is accomplished the renounciation is eternal When God hath once renounced nature then is the end come for it can never return back again to its former state but it remains in self-denial even as to God also for flesh and blood possess not the Kingdom of God But the young sprig grown out of death that shall be the heir When any one still stands in labouring under the Law in continency then to morrow may that be committed which is to day omitted Because the root and foundation of sin hath not yet been condemned even to the very death He that abides in a choice of things is always in affliction He who alwayes seeks after better things and is not contented with the present must necessarily be alwayes very thoughtful and restless He is one who saith When I thus stood in the appetite of things my appetite did enlarge it self so vastly and towards so many varieties of things that I could never be at quiet till I had wholly renounced all desire and denying my own self I came to be contented with a few small things and when I saw I could be sustained by the meaner sort of things I did not choose the better nor was I afflictedly sollicitous about other things Then at length when I had found rest I was contented which way soever things fell That which agreeth with Nature is chiefly to be omitted and that which is most disagreeing thereunto that is to be done with how great a difficulty these things are done may be perceived God in the wilderness overthrew and wore out those Israelites that still savoured Aegypt and brought up and new generation which knew not Aegypt Debility consists in the lowermost faculties not in life but in death when the mind is taken up to God If the Gentiles did constitute any thing they did it firmly together with security and knowledge knowing the matter to be thus and no otherwise But the Christians do not so but they stand in faith founded on no security or firmness being also ignorant of all things but are in the obedience of faith whence Paul saith After the resurrection of Christ was established the obedience of faith The new creature hath nothing for it self neither knowledge nor security nor firmness as have the Gentiles but walks in faith The faithful are led into faith beyond security knowledge and science for all things are taken away from before their eyes and from out of their hands and they stand in the sight of Goâ— and in the hand of God Our birth is accompanied with appropriation yet must appropriation be separated from Nature if the Law of Goâ— must be set up in us which cannot be doâ—â— but by the death and destruction of thâ— natural man for it is impossible for Nâ—ture to do the will of God and to fâ—â—â—â— the Law and if that must be done the must it dye and perish against its wilâ— for no death is voluntary nor actinâ— but passive and happens against the will When therefore God himself accomplish his own will man's will being dead and fulfils the requirings of the Laâ— then he draws glory from men The natural man can no more leaâ—â— his propriety then a tree planted at rooted can desist from growing 〈◊〉 bearing its fruits No more also can 〈◊〉 natural man fulfil the Law of God deâ—â— his own will or perform the will of Goâ— If therefore to keep a tree from growinâ— and bearing fruit it must be cut down aâ— quite rooted up So thus must the naturâ— man dye and God must be in his steaâ— Christ saith He that eateth my flesh c. the flesh of Christ is meat not that which we consume but that which consumeth us Of Abraham it is written that the earth was to be possessed by his seed and not by himself therefore he must go out of it if room was to be made for his seed In this going out a man goes into strange countries and he knoweth not the way nor can he ask thereof Yet he alwayes seeth one step before him In this dying there is great affliction but that it may not seem such and that a man may carry himself also couragiously acquiescence only can effect that for him CHAP. VI. WHen a man hath any thing in his proper possession rightly he thinks it is due unto him and judgeth it unjust if it be taken from him till he is convinced But then at length he acknowledgeth that he cannot stand before the severe judgment of God and pronounceth God to be just in threatning to him in judgment death and destruction Then he knows that he is not worthy to live and cleerly seeth that none of them are due to him which he had appropriated to himself either as to God or as to the creature and therefore he can desire no more but suffereth his death with the deepest misery and coaction He is convinced concerning his appropriation according to which he possessed all and endeavoured to possess all unjustly just as when one is convinced by sealed deeds and writings that this or the other inheritance is not due to him though he long kept them in his possession for his own but now is deservedly commanded to give them up The natural man is never made perfect but is only translated Perfection is the man Christ Jesus and as much as is received from him that in him is perfect holy new and just yet it is not so in self for he must renounce self whose natural part is evil and sinfull and must be made his from whom it may become just good and holy and that is brought to pass in Christ who is all these nor is there any other name given in which these things can happen unto us If any song writing or words are accepted of a Christian and are grateful
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
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
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
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
make themselves more assured or may expect or receive it from any creature whatsoever but feelingly livingly and internally being convinced in their own hearts do truly become sensible of the highest love in the deepest enmity of the greatest riches in the extreamest poverty of the profoundest joy in the most pressing streights and misery and in the fiercest combat the sweetest peace and in a word in the lowest despondencies and weakness yea desperation and inconstancy the highest faithfulness and constancy ought to be found in God Here Faith comes to be tryed whether it be of man or whether it be of God for if it be of man it refuseth to choose for it self true poverty of Spirit together with the abnegation of proper happiness which it elected for it self for it denieth to assume for its conservation and happiness any thing but what is before its own eyes and is promised in words grosly understood from the Scriptures and acquiesces in the doing of them only that the Soul may be saved but if some things seem to it to be impossible to be performed it layes all that upon the shoulders of Christ as without and beyond it self and so quiets its own conscience in the best manner it can be possibly performed When as if from the most inward secrets of its own Soul it would confess the truth it would indeed tell you of a conscience not soundly pacified but rather of one that gnaweth and tormenteth unless it strives of set purpose to hide the true state of the matter But if such a one be about to object and say This is the Devil that thus accuseth and blameth a man in his conscience from which notwithstanding any one may be freed by and thorough Christ Well then it this is the Devil that thus accuseth him without any Lie and yet by this accusation keepeth him still captive in his chaines for he hath not as yet forsaken him then Christ dwelling in him also hath not as yet set him thus at liberty from the Devil Hell and Sin that his freedom and reconciliation might be truly found to be in Christ himself Because for him for whom Christ dyed in him also he ought to rise again so as Death Sin the Devil and Hell may have no just right over him yea not so much as to touch him with the least finger because that he being plainly freed from all these by Christ dwelling in him he is become a member of his body against which can no accusation or condemnation be brought for even as the head is found blameless in innocency so also is the whole body with all its members Let every one narrowly prove himself before he boasteth himself to be a member of this body for Christ is not so vile in us as we may think him to be nor is the imitation of him so small a thing that it can be comprehended and known by our gross natural reason Because as he was supernaturally conceived and born so in like manner did he operate and speak yea whatever is manifested concerning Christ ought to be most exactly expressed in us in Spirit and Life and in divine truth therefore he that will glory that he understands and knows Christ and is a partaker of him it behooveth him in the same manner with Christ to be regenerated in Spirit so 〈◊〉 that it is no longer he but Christ who liveth in him And then indeed no Devil nor any accusation can touch him moreover he also will himself judge of all far otherwise then by the light judgmenâ— of a natural man seeing all the mysteryes of the Scripture are to all that iâ— of Nature left in him occult and hidden until the man be transplanted into thâ— likeness of Christ where not the leasâ— room is left for nature inasmuch as she is condemned already as being at enmity even with God himself Thus I have briefly and succinctly laid before thee those things which are ordinarily met with in them who conceive a zeal for God that thou mayest learn cautiously to proceed in thesâ— matters and that thou be not driven hither and thither by every wind of doctrine but that thou mayest finish thy combat with a serious and most arden zeal until the Lord shall guide thee aâ— last unto the regeneration which is doâ—â— in spirit being frequently invoked bâ— prayers and sighs after many adversities and both inward and outward sorrows by which a man is wonderfully put forward towards that which he aims at The Lord grant to thee his grace in his own time that thou mayest at last become joyfully sensible in the secret of thy heart of those most excellent helps and victories which are attained to thorough the cross sufferings and pains EPIST. II. Concerning the most subtil craftiness of Humane Nature To the same Lady THe Lord multiply unto thee the benediction of internal grace and the right understanding of his will inasmuch as his will cannot be acknowledged by nature left to herself seeing she is plainly contrary thereunto although sometimes she may seem to be thoroughly united unto it for all men do with open mouths boast of the knowledge of God and no man will be wanting in that every body cries that he is arrived thereat and that he hath fully obtained it I speak oâ— those who study their own righteousness and give up themselves to God and trusâ— confidently before God that they arâ— made free thorough Jesus Christ wherâ— notwithstanding such a man never yeâ— arrived in the least to truly know himself and hath never as yet observed the most crafty temptations and the seducements of his own nature because he esteemed that for good which on the quite contrary did draw him farthest away from God and his motions and comes quite opposit to all those things which God willeth and desireth Here thou must diligently have a care rightly to understand the nature and desires of that propriety which give me leave to call Tuity or Thiness which dwells in the flesh and yet bears before it a certain appearance of some spiritual quality For all men are lead captive by this enemy none excepted though he be the most devout yea though he may seem to live the life of an Angel and may bring to light wonderful secrets yet will he be no less then the rest catcht and bound in these most subtle fetters And although some begin to be aware of these snares yet for all that some other such like trap is laid more fineâ—y and secretly which the fall into â—ometimes which afterwards doth afresh â—â—â—rify them when as before they seemâ—â— to themselves to have obtained illumination salvation Yea even God himself Now this a man cannot know unless 〈◊〉 be lead thorough them and tries all 〈◊〉 God for in such a man these matâ—ers cannot be more plainly or deeply â—â—planted so as to abide in that presence of God true indeed they may partly be â—omprehended by Nature but when Nature is withdrawn
evil affections and the depraved root of inbred lusts more then it is possible ever to be effected by letters written For this is the work of God alone and is effectual in them who study and endeavour to submit themselves unto his will For it is impossible that they who are disobedient and never strive to quiet the accusations of their consciences by conversion can be so accepted of God as to attain to the grace of Christ Jesus to dwell in them for he that is not faithful in the least matters can never be made Ruler over greater things if therefore any one is not faithful to his own Soul with which yet he is one and firmly united how can he love God from whom as yet he is far away removed In this manner it is necessary that every one should strive with all his might and power for the testimony of his own conscience to renounce his own proper Soul as far as it is possible for him in the sight of God according to the highest degree of his knowledge now if any one shall do thus in that highest degree with the greatest diligence the Lord will in part enlighten the darkness of his understanding as to perceive more profoundly in himself what is the true power of the Law viz. what sort it is of in him viz. spiritual and not only is concerned about an external abstinence from evil concupiscences but much more rather about the most deeply fastened root of sin in us in which we all were conceived out from Adam For so long as the Root remaineth in â—s the action or power of the Law is always against us viz. the bottom being still polluted not being yet purged by a true amendment but by some certain â—â—â—d of likeness thereof And therefore the Godliness promised unto us doth not only and properly require of us that we should desist from external vices but that the very inwards of our hearts should be purified so as that a man should be cleansed and perfected most exactly in his understanding appetite and in his will that he may no longer serve the Lord and obey him unwillingly inasmuch as at first a most troublesome task is to be undergone in turning away his heart from temporal and spiritual captivity but when he is united to Christ he must perfectly be freed from all the earthly concerns of his lusts For seeing that in man there is nothing nearer to God then the Spirit or mind of man therefore it behooveth in the first place to cleanse that from the darkness and grossness of reason in which we are involved by the fall of Adam so that we may be lead into a fuller and more pure degree of divine knowledge unto which no man yet abiding in his corrupted nature can ever come Wherefore whoever desires to attain the true knowledge of God and of himself it behooveth him before all things to strive with all his might to with-hold himself from every vice that is become familiar to him and to which he inclineth and which sometimes he committeth even in this very work For man even while yet he is in his corrupted nature in which he was conceived is not so far removed from the presence of God but that yet he still retains in the supreme part of himself an occult and a most inward spark of some knowledge of God as it is notoriously seen that all men possess some kind of power in knowledge by help of which they discern good from evil insomuch as whilst they remain in the state of evil they are accused in themselves by that same knowledg but when once they are introduced to the state of good then they are at rest If therefore a man follows the dictates of that knowledge inherent in him from his first nature and abhorreth the evil that he knows but sticks close to thâ— good then at length he arrives there where he comes to understand that it'â— utterly impossible for him to give thâ— highest and fullest satisfaction to that knowledge which he hath by nature whereupon he is brought into great troubles of heart especially if he be diligent about the study of Good Moreover because man is wont to fall so back again into himself as that he doeth that which is good rather from the force of his conscience backed with some threatnings of the judgments of God then from Love and an earnest desire of the good then he searcheth out means by which he may be freed from that accusation of conscience Now when he can find no means thus to bind down the appetites thoughts and motions of his flesh but they always still get loose again then indeed it is that he apprehendeth that tho all outward vices and transgressions were laid aside yet there still remains in the flesh the root of them and that he cannot be freed by all his endeavours grievings and mournings from that appetite of the flesh which stirreth up in him Anger Wrath impure lusts and vain thoughts and such like but some time or other it will again seise upon his Soul and thus he comes to see that he is not so set free from the dominion of the Law but that he always must yet endure that accusation concerning the root of sin yet lurking in the most inward parts of his heart Now although the more vulgar and common external knowledge of Christ is willing to palliate and cover over this inward stain by the blessed death of Christ saying these things cannot hurt a Christian Christ dyed for them nor indeed shall I contradict them nevertheless because Christ therefore came and appeared that he might destroy the works of the Devil and that he might free the captive Soul from the burthen of its sins it is indeed necessary that the same Christ should destroy the very foundation also of this satanical building and by his own seed again sown therein should thereby get the possession of the heart and mind as it ought to be done and as it is agreeable to the Lord alone Even as these things were figured out by the type of the promised Land which was promised to the seed of Abraham upon on this account that every evil seed might be eradicated from thence But before things could be brought to that pass the Israelites must suffer many mischieâ—s from their enemies by changing the lives of many for a most cruel death as it came to pass in the wilderness where every thing that was still infected with the knowledge of old Aegypt was punished with death that no impure thing might enter into the promised Land In like manner also no impure thing is taken up by Christ conforming in us the promised likeness of his most holy humanity but all these must first be laid aside by the death of sin that we being thus purified by him should be fitted unto his body together with the most perfect and common conjunction of Christ as of the head of this body from which all
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
that being corroborated with the sweetest promises it should of beten renewed because it proceedeth not from God but from man whom it concerneth to use an external comfort because he is destitute of all internal comfort For the dwelling of God is not but in the most inward recesses of our Soul and we then at last acknowledge and own his voice when we are wholly freed from nature else we remain always seprarated from him by and thorough that Enmity which is put betwixt God and out nature As much therefore as we still persist in our own nature so much are we still separated from God and do understand his whole Essence government means directions gifts and discipline in a sence depraved and parverted by nature for it holdeth us so captive that as often as God sends us certain means and helps for our spiritual death presently this very nature by her counsel turns us off from them to others that at last this chastning rod becomes frustrate and fruitless and these gifts of God are accounted for plagues afflictions and heavy burthens and are received with murmuring and indignation Most high God! how evil is our eye may the Lord gratiously please to open our eyes in his own time that at length we may be able to see EPIST. XI An admonition how Youth may be put off from the world and how it ought to seek the Lord with all modesty To J. M. DEarest J. That which I peculiarly desire is that which also I trust the Lord will effect to direct thy ways to the chiefest scope whereby thou mayest now in this lifes-time modestly compose thy senses to the studyes of the paths of God and to the dayly and nightly endeavours after virtue Thou hast now seen the world and hast experiencedt hat there is nought to be found therein in which can be any quiet of Soul inasmuch as she is much rather lead in this world into disquiets and troubles Because therefore the Lord by his long-suffering hath born with thee and hath deigned most indulgently to wink at thy youth it now altogether would become thee to be more diligently set upon thy watch by better using thy time then as yet hath been done whilst thou art still tossed up down by the waves of this world The Lord will I hope more and more draw thy heart with fervour to himself that thou mayest seek him more seriously even as formerly thy mind was wont to be stirred up by the novelties of the world and which yet have in time vanished or will yet vanish seeing none of all things temporal could ever persist as we dayly observe with our eyes that all are subject to change If therefore any one shall indulge his inclination in time it is needful that he be together with time afflicted with sorrow so that nothing is more safe then to withdraw himself from time even with the loss of all and to turn himself to eternity which is capable of no mutation and in which nothing dwells in our hearts but a pious and constant tranquillity That we may come thither we must endeavour with all our might to learn to blunt the Edge of all our pleasures and to abdicate our own will and appetite so that all things may be cut off and supplanted in which our flesh would live and play the wanton Then shalt thou truly please the Lord who also will strenuously help thee to rout the enemies of thy Soul that thou shalt be carried from one righteousness to another together with all proficiency and increase in divine knowledge and Love Herewith I commend thee to the Lord. EPIST. XII How all things are to be accepted from the hand of the Lord with true Submission To a certain betroathed Gentleman DEarest N. The Lord will in due time turn thy grief of mind to be for the better for as in all so likewise in this are we to be given up to the divine will only When the time shall come which he hath proposed to himself no man shall or can prevent the matter but if the time be not come we indeed may desire it in our own wishes but the thing shall want its success Not that I strive as it were to resist thy desire but that the alone providence of the Lord is to be accepted so that there be no difference of choice in us whether we are to wait or whether to go forwards and on the contrary For this is to wait expecting on the hand of God to stand submitted to God and not to live to ones self or to follow ones self or to desire If we find any difference in our selves so as that we desire rather this then that then the whole thing is from our selves and not from the Lord for that which is from the Lord is free and wholly commended to God without any desire of this or that thing so that the divine will be done which also is done if we find our selves uncloathed of all desire how advantagious soever the business may seem in our eyes Yet by all this I shall not intangle thee for I know that thy mind earnestly affecteth a freedom from all appetite of fulfiiling desires The Lord who is a true helper in all needs will be mindful of thee and of all of us and will comfort thee with his wonderful operations and will lead the from the Love of the Creatures to the Creator of all whence all have their Original and emanation and to whom as unto their end all things do return in their own time so that we also even all of us must appear in him by our departure and death in which notwithstanding his eternal subsistence is manifested as being that which is to be glorified in all those who by the benefit of his death and of the death of all those which are found created in them do arrive at that eternal communion which by the most powerful hand of God quickeneth and raiseth up the dead but not the living If therefore we would enjoy the same resurrection with Christ we are also to be transplanted into the same death being yielded up to God with all our might and becoming obedient even to death May the Lord instruct thee with a true understanding that thou mayest meditate on his will with a piercing and continued consideration and may that be a help to thee in thy sufferings according to his mercy and may it direct all things for thy benefit as they are decreed in him from eternity Which is what I confidently believe he is about to do and to bring all to the desired end by his eternal grace EPIST. XIII An Exhortation raised from that consideration that whatever is without God tendeth to eternal death and destruction and how we ought always to set the divine judgment before our eyes To the same person MOst beloved N. That it is so long since I wrote to thee this is the cause that I wanted an opportunity according to my