he yet stands in the creature He that standeth in God he hath no business with the creature but with God and knows him to be faithful and just in judgments To such a man no injury can be done for whatsoever happens unto him he knows it to be decreed by God Jordan is the River of jugdment to it judgment is due over it judgment hangeth thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness said our Lord when he was about to be baptised in Jordan He who understands any thing which he hath not experienced hath no real understanding thereof For he is like to him who speaks of a fair Country in which he never yet was CHAP. IIII. NO man can have humility without affliction Herod the fiery dragon and the mountain lifted up would have killed the little infant under the shew of devotion or worship The greatest danger is hanging over our heads from Pride which dares kill every birth Christs humanity is the highest of figures I desired and I sought but whatever I sought and found it now lies in death and suffers destruction together with all that that was gain to me and that too without all hope of recovery For that which must rise again is not the body which is sown for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and therefore must a man be slain according to the Flesh for it 's according to the Flesh that a man dyes and is made alive again according to the spirit If a thing should rise again as it dyes it would rise again in nature and would be natural but it is not so done Paul faith It is sowen a natural body Nature partaketh not of the Kingdom of God hence it is that the death thereof is without all hopes The natural man hopeth to be the heir of the Kingdom and thinks that the promises of God belong unto him and applies all that is written to himself but then afterward the thing comes to be otherwise apprehended when one is lead whither he would not and God is glorified in and by his death There nature is renouned and it must be robbed of all salvation and be denyed That which the natural man applied to himself another taketh They that went out of Aegypt desired to come into the promised Land and did divide it out to themselves but they abode in the wilderness and dyed there and their posterity only entred into Palestine Whatsoever therefore the natural man understands or sayes concerning these things yet all this is against him for it speaks of a sword which is to kill him Now they which are in this exercise and speak any thing thereof they speak it with affliction and not with delight nor can they ask for more then formerly because it belongs not unto them seeing all things tend to corruption and death and into death a man is unwillingly dragged he conveighs not himself thither for if it stood at his dispose he would never choose this state or condition but he is catched and put thereinto by another who is above him and stronger then himself Just as it is now with the death of the body so the matter is also carried in this other death of which it is said viz. When any one thinks he hath found his Soul and that he is confirmed in life yet must he be subjected unto death Now the Lord suffers him first to grow and to increase and grow ripe in youth but when he is accomplished in that youth he plainly careth not for death and though he knows that a time of dying must come yet lie laies it not close to heart till he be grown old then death frights him and stands before his eyes and yet neither then does he know how much misery there is there to be met with for if he knew it he would dye aforehand for mere grief They who depart from earthly things according to the testimony of conscience that they may seek the salvation of their Souls and to arrive at true ripeness of youth rejoyce in this death when they hear of it and understand it because of the fruit that springs from thence But they who are in this death are destitute of that joy for if they could yet have any joy they would still have life and consequently could not be in death because what ever dyes is separated from all life Posterity only lives and rejoyces Nothing is due to corruption but death and destruction and in death all things are removed as faith and trust and hope and charity and all joy and every thing that is founds is to be forsaken Now if it be to be forsaken and lost it must first be found out and taken up for that which one hath not he cannot give up Now that which here is thus to be forsaken is also destitute of hope as was said and therefore this desertion is donâ— not with delight but with great aâ—â—â—ction The first desertion indeed is doâ—â— with joy because then some better thing is hoped for But that hope is not here but in this point there is a total forsaking and a being made naked oh all sides Gain as they say makes labour sweet But mat labour out of which no gain is hoped for is without doubt a matter hard and bitter and sharp Labour at first was sweet because gain sprung therefrom viz. that the life or soul might be found which also was found But when this life is found it is lost again in that same dying and a man is alienated from himself and God possesseth the place of self and there is no more mountain or valley but God alone for Nature is quite shut out CHAP. V. IF sin were not neither would death be if death were not neither would there be a resurrection therefore all things work together for good for the elect Now that which first departed from earthly things is presently after elevated into divine and so remains in it self without death For though it may dye as to its gross earthly nature or creature yet as to its self it is without death as having only changed one state into another and standeth still in its own life and yet is but the natural man in his own propriety though in a more pure estate And thus he proceedeth from state to state from a lower to a higher from a pure one to one more pure And although all that is here said of states are by the means of death and corruption accomplished yet the man himself remains yet in himself without and beyond death and corruption for he is still the same and cannot forsake his propriety and stands in desire as to God as he before stood inâ—desâ—â— as to the creature and thus he ascendâ— and goes forwards until he arriveth at the most pure and nobler state it is possible for him to arrive at And all this 〈◊〉 still but a figure and a notion but a purer and noble figure but if we must come above
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
the Resurrection To the same person DEarest brother we will beg of the Lord that he may have mercy on us and that he will lead us into the power of the Resurrection every one according to the measure of his illumination by the quickning power of his spirit by the benefit of whom all seeds do put forth their faculties in growing For the natural life faculty understanding wisdom and sense do all tend to death in time and though a man deluded by some fair shew may imagine to himself an eternal permanency of these things yet when the sun is risen to a burning strength all these will dry up or wither nor is it possible for them to consist or abide the just judgment of God as being that which melteth all down yea furthermore the very discretion it self of the soul must dye likewise as far as the natural man studyeth to preserve it if that that man according to the testimony of his conscience is willing to satisfy the Law least that soul do tumble down into utter destruction Now because it is not the proper disposition of the natural man to lose any thing but rather with the top of the life of the Soul to preserve all things therefore it is subjected to the divine judgment that is to death and because he is willing to conserve life in himself and in his Soul now there is life no where but in God the soul cannot come at the true nourishment of life but is to be deliveral up to death inasmuch as the natural man properly is death it self and belongeth to death For they are bound up together into one body and both viz. the body from the soul and on the other part the soul from the body are moved together whether it be to grief or to joy yea though it be in the state of the highest knowledge unto which the soul according to the natural rule of life could possibly ascend For she cannot be elevated higher in understanding unless first as to her knowledge by which the natural man is informed by her she shall dye so as that it behooveth both soul and body as one man to dye after that the spiritual conception is now out of that deadned seed is wont to spring forth a new plant enriched with divine fruitfulness which no death can touch any more neither according to soul nor according to body because this generation not of man but without man nor out of his will but without his will not with hope but without all hope arriveth at the state of eternity out of the eternal grace of God so as that it is of God and of life always abiding nor is it corruptible even as also God is in his own nature Every thing therefore returneth to that out of which it first sprung viz. the natural man with its perfect body and in its sphere to death without any resurrection at all according to its own proper nature and the supernatural man in its perfect sphere to eternal life abiding eternally in God and yet as a Creature but glorified in God He who comes to this state cannot deny the truth of the thing but he who partaketh nothing thereof also as a natural man uttereth with truth that he believeth that there is no resurrection and although he should confess it yet even that confession of the resurrection must dye because unto the natural man as such there never even eternally belonged any resurrection even as it is impossible for a seed sown to come to a perfect death unless it be wholly corrupted in its self If therefore it can be brought to pass that a man can give up himself to death with a hope of receiving forthwith another life and as to that state and according to that rule of his knowledge wherein he is dead a better for no man can whilst his present understanding is in being attain to another understanding or life unless the former be first dead then indeed there would be no need to proceed to a further death because it can only follow that which had been in being before Now therefore there is here place for death when by the benefit of corruption through the operation of God a new plant ariseth according to the nature of the corruption done every thing according to its own kind as there is example in all creatures and in the corruptible propagation of them So that by how much the more the natural man affirmeth that there is no more Resurrection by so much the more he confirmeth it because he truly is preparing himself for death and uttereth publickly his Testimony concerning his corruption and his eternal death for there is to be no Resurrection of him and thus also to his may together with the Keepers whom the Pharisees set a Testimony concerning the Resurrection of Christ be given which also by this means is mightily confirmed for them who stand in the very door to such a state and do believe it For when the Pharisees having sealed up the Sepulcher had concluded that they had shut up a kind of dead Corpse and to have kept it in that pit of Death the keepers of the Sepulcher who yet were sent to do mischief became witnesses of his Resurrection although it is not believed to this very day but by his Disciples by the Keepers is meant the natural man My Brother this my own true Epistle will clearly open to thee my mind and will be to thee as it were the hand of a Dial which thou must well eye and consider that thou maist likewise write back thy opinion to me whereby it may appear wherein we agree and wherein we differ if we are careful concerning this opinion The Lord look upon us all in his mercy and bring us into his own clearness EPIST. XXVII A faithful Admonition concerning the Resurrection of the Flesh To his Brother A. W. MY Brother Let us go to that man and let us set before him Death and Life Resurrection and incorruptibility all unfolded in their own degree and nature and it shall be at his pleasure to make choice of any one of these For if he shall choose nature in his life then in good earnest he must perish in an eternal death nor shall he ever arrive at such a life as he seeks but if he will approach unto the truth even as also the thing is he shall live while he dieth and he shall acknowledge the true Resurrection which else is denied to him My Brother May God exhibit to him and to us his mercy according to the variety of his compassions nor may he ever leave us in our miseries but remember us in this life subject to so many sufferings in which we cry out laboriously unto the Lord with many sighs that by his hand we may be promoted to incorruptibility which can by no means be effected but by our death which comprehends in it self the relinquishing of all those things which we know by
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—
in the death and not in the life of the flesh it much more behooveth him to possess use know and behold the creature in the same death of the flesh for if this is to be done inwardly as to God much more ought it to be done outwardly as to the creature for all things must be beheld and applied in death and not in life if it be to the rightly done Whilst therefore we are not yet dead but are yet alive we ought to be lifted up on the cross and lay down such a life under a just judgment For else we cannot be conversant in or with the sight of God unless when we lye down in death and our conversation which is without death is no conversation in the sight of God and though in the sight of Men it may have a semblance yet it cannot stand before God But when life is as was said so laid down we are by the resurrection of Christ raised up again into a new life for unless the resurrection of Christ should be we should remain eternally in death When the thief on the right hand leaving all did turn himself unto Christ he begged to be heard of him in his Kingdom Therefore he yielded up himself into conformity of the death of Christ wherefore also he was conformed also in the resurrection He was crucified by Law which like a just Magistrate did not desist from him till it had thrown him into death and then he had finishâ—d his office and so became justified from â—in he also revived not any more into â—hat life to which he dyed by the Law â—therwise the Law would have had power over him again But Christ vivified him another way and in his resurrection raised him up again into eternal life which is God himself Then the Law had no more power over him for that life for which Satan by means of the Law accuseth a Man is judged by and thorough death and is taken out oâ— the way All that came out of Aegypt must dye in the Wilderness but their Children came into the Promised Land by these particulars that fruit is denoted which follows upon a going out When a man comes into the Land of Promise and there grows fat and gross if then he doth not behave himself rightly he is again expelled into the Land of the North where much misery grief and pain 〈◊〉 sustained till the Lord doth bring him from thence again then he enters into again by another way viz. with a greâ—ter glory and riches then before anâ— then he shall never be cast out again Fâ—â— though they which Returned from Babylon did not find that in the temple which they had before yet the Glory of thâ— last temple was greater then that of the first CHAP. XXVIII WHen a Man loseth himself he nevers finds himself the same again as he was when he lost himself and he knows not the fruit as yet of that losing of himself when he as yet hath not seen it or experienced it When corruption is present Fruit doth not presently appear for that does grow by degrees even to its full ripeness He that is free from all persons hath need that he be free also in his own person and that not only notionally but also essentially When a man hath lost is body he never findeth it the same again but in his Soul he finds a supernatural understanding Light and Claritude and whâ—â—â—â—ver then he understands of Gods is 〈◊〉 â—et God but rather the contrary 〈◊〉 A â—herefore he hath found his Soul so 〈◊〉 also â—ust he again lose it as before he 〈◊〉 did is body so as he shall never firâ—â—â—'d it such a Soul again But the calamity of this destruction and death is vast but out of these a man comes into the true essence viz. God and then that is much more essential then it was at first when he was to lose himself with so great an anguish and Death CHAP. XXIX WHen a man loseth himself as to the body he afterwards findeth himself as to his Soul in the supernatural understanding knowledge vision and use then when he again loseth himself as to his Soul he is stripped of all these again and then ariseth great calamity Hell and Misery yet if he goeth forth out of them then he findeth himself in the vision of God and in such wisdom understanding and claritude as the former understanding vision and use of his Soul when he first â—ost his body could not comprehend Christ therefore so assumed humanity 〈◊〉 that he was united therewith But 〈◊〉 after that the inferiour Powers also aâ— to be assumed by him there is yet need of another death Then a Man stands in a full purpose of persevering in Christ and never to go back again from him just like him who sitting at a Table spread and filled with various and delicate sorts of Food desires not to depart from thence or like him who living well and sound desires not to kill himself How much misery and difficulty of death is required before a man is purified â—s known to them who have experienced the thing and when a man is purged and prepared for the seed of God that â—t may be sown yet he does not hitherto apprehend nor perceive that seed and knows not that he is sown therewith until it cometh up nor yet doth it come up until it be corrupted in the Earth How great miseries and anguishes in dvâ—ng are required to that corruption of the â—eed is also known to them who have â—elt it This death of the Soul happeneth â—fter the death of the Body is past for a â—eath also belongeth to the Soul both which deaths must be fulfilled in a man When the body is lost the Soul also must be lost And this is that same Talent which the Lord required of the man besides those Ten for both sums are due unto him and he will have both paid unto himself That which was said before concerning the seed sown in a purified mind which is not perceived until it be corrupted and growth forth the very same thing doth more clearly appear from the similtude of the Field sown with Corn. CHAP. XXX IN a man from whom sin is taken away and who is purged again from sin no more motions thereof are found in the bottom of the mind for from a root cleansed from all sins how can any evil spring forth For that would be â—â—sign that somewhat was still deficient there and that the bottom was not wholly purified If Plato had had his foundâ—tion thoroughly purged he had not indulged his anger over his servant Whâ—â— motions soever happen in them that aâ—â—urified proceed not from the bottom of their minds but from without only and such do presently drive them out again whether it be anger or honour or ambition or such like To a man once purified there is yet need of a closer purification â—nd after that of another yet more close Death and
he weighs in the balance and because he doth not see it to bâ— a true going forth he forth with lets it gâ—â— and waiteth upon the Lord. This faith bâ—â— holdeth those things which appear not anâ— which a man knows not whence the are to be taken for he hopes where theâ—â— is no hope The Thief saw Christ naâ—ed hanging next unto him upon the Croâ—â— so that there could appear no Kingdom no Salvation or Life to belong unto him but contrary to all his whole capacity 〈◊〉 Understanding he did believe that whicâ— he did not see By how much the farther off and by how much the moâ—â— incredible the things are which are propounded by so much the greater is thâ— Faith And by this faith cometh Salvation and righteousness above all the understanding faculty and capacity of man Christ saith I am humble These words sometimes do dart like a flash of lightening into a man and then vanish away again if they should abide so many adversities and injuries could not fall upon a man for he would alwayes think that these were justly done unto him and they also were still to be heartily loved from whom these were done unto him Yea though these should be a hundred sold more and greater which do happen to him either from God or men yet would he alwayes abide without complaint or murmuring and would confess all to be rightly and not injuriously done unto him When Paul said that he was the lowest of the Apostles then was he the greatest Better is an humble sinner confessing his sins then a just man puffed up boasting much and handling others with hard words All things may be fulfilled in a man which are extant in Scripture but not by a man's but by God's strength and when thus the meaning of Scripture is fulfilleâ— in a man the Scripture is a representation of the things which are fiulfilled iâ— him so that when he looks into Scripture he may have the representation 〈◊〉 all things which are in himself CHAP. XXXV IN all height of condition humility is to be kept and in the Deity the Humanity is not to be forgotten nor must any one fall back into himself but property of person is always to be excluded and God alone is to be beheld No man descendeth I say more humbly then did Christ who yet was the most high for he comprehended both God and man So also ought we when exalted up into the Deity to retain the humanity noâ— to forget our finderness for our emptiness must always be beheld and we are to be humbled beneath all others We can never come unto poverty oâ— Spirit unless first we be taken up into God and after that be let down again from him in the condition of the created Nature that is into our emptiness or anity and then Christ for certain reâ—aineth alwayes with us No man is â—â—fer then in the creature that is when â—pon the acknowledgment of our own â—mptiness we renounce ambition that 〈◊〉 the endeavour of appropriating The â—eacock helps us to a similitude for this â—or when he beholdeth his tayl he setteth 〈◊〉 upright but when he looks down upon â—is feet he lets his tayl fall so doth a man set in the vision of God he desistâ—th from all aspiring of mind when he â—ooks upon his feet that is the state of his â—reated nature Littleness is to be learnâ—d of Christ for we ought to be afraid â—â—est thorough high speculatious we be liftâ—d up and so fall like Lucifer Christ â—aith I am humble if he was humble â—ho was so high in the Deity and one â—ith it what then ought not an elect â—an to be Humility therefore and littleâ—ess should be always the care of an elect â—an that he may give to God the things â—hat are God's and keep to himself that which is his For in pride consisteth the highest enmity to God and the greatest fall from him If therefore an elect Man be a little too much elevated in sublime matters let him acknowledge his errour with the deepest grief and let him confess that he oweth a thousand talents when another perhaps who is still living in nature scarce oweth one The delight and study of true Christians is always to desire humble and low things and there security abideth with them and Christ dwelleth in them CHAP. XXXVI WHen a man is exercised about the loss of his Soul he knows no way of escaping out eternally but he is quiet and chooseth to remain in that same death and perdition of his Soul without any condition made nor can he believe any redemption or salvation and if one talketh to him of these good things he refuseth to hear them yea all comfort is a bitter affliction to him when now he shall be at rest in this eternal damnation and death Of these Jâ—â— saith I despaired nor shall I at all live beyond this moment thou hast set me â—t the very bottom These happen to a â—an in the perdition and corruption of â—is Soul his body being already dead But concerning those things which are done after the death of Body and Soul nothing can be said for they must be â—elt all that are spoken are quite contrary to the thing it self all this abovesaid is â—he way to that end that lasteth eternally He who is exercised in the aforesaid way â—ometh to attain the apprehension of that end just as he doth who finds his way â—ut This end and this way are the actions of God only but the passion or sufâ—ering belongs to man This is that way â—nto which a man is against his will â—ompelled by God here will prevails â—ot but coaction as the Lord saith to Peter When thou wert young thou didst â—â—ird thy self and thou wentest whither â—hou wouldest but when thou shalt be old â—hou shalt stretch forth thy hands and thou â—alt go whither thou wouldst not He who persevereth not in the said passion â—ut goes back from Christ that is freeth â—imself that liberty of his belongeth to time but not to God and that man is abortive of whom Esdras saith There shall be many abortives CHAP. XXXVII THe Elect stand yielded up and left to God and what ever they meet with they accept it from God alone and acknowledge it to be God nor do they respect the creatures Wherefore also they love their enemies and are in themselves free from envy and hatred and can pray for their enemies whose friends they are confessing all to be good that happeneth to them but for them that injure them they one the other side count those things not to be good True Christains with all that they have are not their own but God's propriety Whatsoever therefore hapeneth to them happeneth to God also they take all as from God Nor do look upon men nor upon other things but upon God to whom they give up themselves knowing that all things come from him They who are in this state to them every
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
When a man stands between Conscience and Flesh and when conscience ceaseth then the flesh urgeth him and to him it is said Amend thy life or thou must dye but when one stands between life and conscience and transgresseth as to his life presently it is said to him from God Thou must die CHAP. XIV THe Will of God is the death of the Flesh Faith when it is upon trial God then proving it it experienceth the greatest misery There are many waies of coming unto regeneration but the end of all is one and the same yet one ascendeth in some much higher then another doth as when any one cometh into the Sun-shine he hath the Sun yet is one nearer to the Sun than another This is my counsel that a time be set to attain unto God The inward mind is free but the outward humanity without grace is exercised under a severe judgment I have no prop under me whether I respect God or the creatures or heaven or the Earth and I have nothing but that I can lay my self down in the Divine Will being wholly set down under God The Kingdom of Heaven is present but I cannot enjoy it the Sun indeed hath shined but now the falling thereof is come and it shineth no longer I lie down in darkness and in the shaddow of Death nor is there any comfort left to me but in the will of God for I will nothing but only what he willeth Into which state if any one really cometh he is of all men the most miserable I say this that I may express that misery in which I lie To understand these things is pleasant but really to feel them most bitter When the Spirit suffers the flesh ought to suffer with it But when the flesh suffers there is no need for the Spirit to suffer It is never better with me then when I give up my self into death The flesh suffereth its own judgment when the Spirit is in peace but when the Spirit suffers the flesh must suffer also The poor animals must dye for my sake though against my will But because I also give my self up to death I do not refuse the death also of the animals he that giveth not himself up into death cannot take his food with thanksgiving He that is to exercise modesty he ought to be exercised by various afflictions oâ—herwise he will wander if he shall use it without the experience of the cross If I should stand betwixt two things nor knew which of the two I am to do I would weigh them and would take that which is contrary to my flesh When I do so it is well with me and I call God to witness saying Thou knowest O Lord what I have done But when I do otherwise viz. that which is grateful unto Nature it is always ill with me and I cannot call God to witness Conscience indeed is free but I dare not alleadge that for it is of grace The suffering is hard when no hope is left in the future for the natural man for though the day-break is come yet there is no redemption nor comfort but a man must wait without hope and be quiet in death And though all the joy comfort and refreshment of the whole world were present yet he is bound as it were with cords and can tast of none of them And therefore he never desires that time may run out that a day a week a month a year may come for whatever cometh to pass in them is to him as it were a non-entity because he can rest no where nor use any thing for his delight for he is made bare or naked of all and is put upon the crost Hence is it that both things present and to come are indifferent to him when even then he shall be the same as he is now But those to whom the body of sin is not yet crucified they are touched with the desire of time For they are free and can take up such things as they meet with But this state cannot last long for judgment will come then whatever shall be with him for the furture he cannot take it up and that which is contrary to him he cannot reject for he is impotent whilst he hangeth on the cross nor can he execute his own will CHAP. XV. ALl things are or consist in order order must be kept If one is willing to knit together superiour things that he may loosen inferior things he would break order and wander in errour of which we must beware The Lord saith He that breaks the lest Commandment and shall so teach c. We must seek a free condion in God in which one is free from himself for to be free from ones self is a liberty which is to be attributed to God The grossest and the lowest things are images of things superiour which is to be understood as well of things spiritual as things corporeal for we ascend from the one into the other and from the inferiour to the superiour even as pleasures and the abuse of good things and the building on the sands are images When things are most gross and low then are they the image of things superiour and that which is visible denoteth that that is invisible The Spirit also hath its flesh in which it dwells Also mysteries have their external Histories They who urge mysteries so as to exclude historys disturb order and do err Although Christ the blessed fulfils all things in spirit in his elect which he performed coporally in the days of his flesh yet were they also corporally done in him therefore the historical sense must remain but also it behooveth a man to experience in his own self the mystery likewise The Lord saith Love your Enemies The cross passion adversity Death c. are our enemies which we are to love and embrace The natural man is surrounded with death and which way soever he turns himself he hath a sword presented to his sight just as when one turns on this and on that side should look about him and still some body runs before his face so also is judgment always meeting with the natural man ready to snatch away his life which way soever he turns himself At last he yields up himself when he can no more make his escape But the spirit is in life when the body or nature hangs stretched out upon the Cross Zeal in kindled with divine pleasure is a great pleasure but the Cross and violent plagues follow after it Myrrh was the last gift For it is written They offered Gold Franckincense and Myrrh When I hear the Scripture I am frighted for it denoteth the natural death Nature will have an appropriation therefore communion is a death to it at which it is affrighted CHAP. XVI TO desist from propriety and to help another at our own loss is a thing truly pleasant To find gain in loss and to abstain from that which is best in our esteem and to prefer
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
death that is knowable to the humane wisdom And because aâ— to their own strength in which they live they dye not in body and soul being wholly condemned before God hencâ— it is that they usurp to themselves as theiâ— propriety that intellect of God that is that they themselves might by the benefit of that thing conserve life which properly ought to be the condemning sentence and the death of their ipseity For if the Truth of God should enter into them in by a certain essential state it would be impossible that a man could endure one spark thereof without being melted quite down Therefore we must dye not only as to our wisdom in the highest degree but as to our own proper Salvation that God alone may be our Wisdom life and Salvation This done our ipseity is condemned before God and thrust down into a death according to the flesh which is as it were essential whence nothing can again bud forth either in respect of God or of the Creature so that whatsoever had bin ours ought to be altogether made subject to its death judgment and sentence of condemnation That same small last Chapter is contrary to that writing inasmuch as it determineth that sometime calm seasons may be gained even according to the flesh for so I transfer it even as the writing its self speaketh so as they then may esteem themselves pure because they who are purified know how to apply all things to a true use Which I also affirm but in its own meaning but that at which this writing aimeth is contrary to my mind for the liberty of Christ belongs to the inward man and doth only affect the mind unto eternal salvation in Divine Truth but the flesh is condemned and suppressed and bound down into death so as that no man can then rightly use the Creatures of God but with grief and misery because that in all these a man may behold his own death in which formerly he had thought to have found life and yet with these very things he is well contented acknowledging this divine judgment for truth and so remains yielded up into death But the Inward man is then conversant in eternal joy being signed or sealed by the Spirit of God I have wrote this in haste that I might satisfie thy desire according to the testimony of my mind The Lord have mercy on them on us all and pluck us quickly out of our errors Alas who am I a miserable wretch who thus writeth I beg Grace of the Lord for without his Grace I shall never be advanced nor abide in him EPIST. XXIII A further consideration concerning the opinion of H. N. To his brother A. W. DEarest Brother thou maist read over this small Treatise and send it back again to me because I must treat something thereof with N. that I may oppose him somewhat about those things which he accounts for true for that which he makes his scope is not pleasing to me which they call the Intellect of God in which both heaven and earth are indeed locally moved and every creature vanisheth out of its condition or state and yet in the same mystery and inheritance they conclude nature to be left alive whereas notwithstanding Nature cannot in and by its life arrive at that pass but only and alone by the benefit of its death introduced into it by Christ our Lord and Saviour and that in so much verity that Nature appears no more with its own proper life but remains eternally cast off with the death and curse thereof But that Nature which thay call purged and dead to its reason in my opinion doth indeed only depend on principles of understanding and science but not on Truth it self for hitherto it hath not approached to the essence it self nor is united therewith for though Reason layeth aside its natural discretion that thereby it may be nearer to the divine intellect yet for all that the intellect is not yet then made one with the Essence but is rather contrary to it and as it were an enemy to Truth seeing that that spiritualized Nature hideth it self under the shew of intellect but not of essence and is in that still entertained Who shall deliver a man from these intricacies The Lord have mercy on us anâ— My Brother I therefore write thus that I may also discover to thee my opinion for that man is endowed with no smaâ—â— understanding yet he is deeply seduced and is deeply wise but withal he is deeply to be disputed with The Lord keep us humble in the Truth that that which belongs to death may be also thrown off into death but let him reign and rule to all eternity EPIST. XXIV Being a brief argument that the foundation of the family of Love is laid and built upon carnal liberty To the same person I W. was here and hath utterly and cordially renounced the thing its self because he had experienced found from their presence that they were infected with the venome of carnal liberty and that all issued out of that fountain Also I restored to him the books if haply they might be willing to have them restored again to them he also was most fully satisfied admiring that so sublime an understanding was subject to errours for he confessed that my opinion was beyond all doubt true seeing that a man is always to be subjected to divine terrours But that such elevated spirits do fall into errours is from thence that they too much covet their proper security whence at length springs up boasting and pride and then after that a fall The Lord preserve us all from evil according to his great mercy that seeing it is of grace that we are saved so also in grace are we conserved and not thorough our own selves EPIST. XXV Concerning the Opinion of Plato To the same person MY brother I send thee back the little book concerning Plato which when I had read I found just so as thou writest For the falling of these who call themselves the family of Love is subtile though in that small tract they are mightily defended all things being interpreted for the better yet the excuse relisheth not well with me except I should say that by their ultimate scope to which they think they shall come by the means of Love their wisdom is shameful as in them so also in us yet with this distinction for what in them is righteousness truth and wisdom must be to us unrighteousness falsness and foolishness if so be that glory to the Lord must spring up thorough us all which yet they are willing to reserve and ascribe to themselves as also did the Jews though in a more excellent degree Now it behooveth a Christian to dye as to them both and by the Lord to be condemned to death viz. as to wisdom and righteousness Moreover may the Lord also freely bestow on us his grace according to his most holy will EPIST. XXVI A Christian consideration concerning
Lord hath â—orn with him and with how much ado he â—edged up his way And his returning back â—nto Aegypt and how as it were forced â—nd compelled him and consequently â—ith a certain kind of violence as I may â—y he was brought unto God Nor is â—e Ignorant of such Means applied to him â—y the Lord and therefore he also never â—veigheth with Sharpness against others â—or judgeth Sinners but is Gentle and Merciful towards them and desireth not their Deaths but rather that God may convert them If this is to be done towards the Viler and Harder fore of Sinners whom no repentance toucheth much more Gently will He act with his weak Neighbour who being in the state of repentance seeketh the Lord This person surely he deservedly beareth with in all his defects and Infirmities and Sustaineth him even as the Lord Sustained him when he endured much about his Conversion yea even as also that very Neighbour himself hath formerly Sustained and born with his errours He that doth this he meteth to his Neighbour in the same Measure which was not only from the Lord but from his Neighbour also measured to him He who will not bear deserves not to be born with And he who will alwayes shew himself unmerciful and Judge and reject others he ought in like Manner to expect from God Indignation Judgment and Rejection CHAP. IX THe person of any one is not to be respected but he who is in the Person and operateth from it that is God whose only is the Glory Respect of persons is the worst of things as if the person it self should be that that should know and do any thing when yet it is not the Man but God in the Man and therefore to him alone is due the glory of Wisdom Justice Virtue Strength Triumph and Victory and all these are not to be attributed unto us but to God alone in us and in our Neighbour For in us nothing is to be respected but our empty nothingness for this only is proper to us otherwise nothing belongs to us neither God nor the Creature Consequently also no injury can be done to us by any Man although they should take away from us our goods and Life yet is not that which is ours taken from us but that which is God's for our Life Spirit Soul Body and all goods are God's and not ours Wherefore we are not to be angry but whatever God hath ordered to Fall upon us we must alwayes acknowledge to be well and Rightly done Hence also no Man is to be Hated nor are we to envy any one nor to detract from any mans reputaion but we must rather exercise mercy Furthermore a Regenerate Man cannot be provoked to be Angry nor to be Proud or of a Haughty Mind seeing he himself is purged from such like vices and is become a New Creature and is detained in the Regeneration every ways given up to God and is contented with whatsoever God shall do with him or determine to come upon him either in time or in eternity either inwardly or outwardly either by Means or without Means he receives all these from the Hand of God and yields the whole direction of himself up to God God as is above said who inhabiteth in the person is to be respected but not the person himself else when the person fails he also would fail who should respect the person Nor is God's honour attributed to him if respect of persons should be applied letting therefore the person go nothing but God only is to be looked at CHAP. X. WHether a Man be freed from the Creature is then at length acknowledged when he Seems to be willing that it should be taken from him A Man gives up himself to every Creature and to every other thing and desires it so as that without it he cannot live And if so be he cannot at length obtain it then is nature enraged and sometimes Falls into a Disease and the Mind is vexed with many other Cares Let us therefore renounce all things thorough Death and give our selves up to the dispose of God and possess our Souls in Calmness and true peace and we shall have Eternal Life So long as a Man hath not plainly yielded up to the Creature and renounced it the Ideas of that Creature alwayes enter in upon the Mind but when that Creatrue is perfectly denyed then the Ideas thereof vanish away So soon as ever any thing is yielded up it loseth that strength it had to force a Man and then it is an easie thing for a Man to pass it by which before to do did seem difficult yea impossible When a Man gives up his will to God then he belongs to God and if so be a Man is sometimes willing to put this in Practise and to abide by it God doth otherwise order it for him and will have him enjoy that which is his Behold this comes of that free yielding up as a Man may clearly perceive in himself now God detains him least he should slip into worser things They who are lead have not any longer any will nor Desire nor Choice but God willeth desireth and chooseth in them By how much the more a Man is fixed in the Old Adam by so much the more it seems Impossible to him and by so much the less can he believe that he can become Righteous So long as a Man does any thing Violently against his own Conscience whether it be of Small or of great Moment yet he cannot get forwards He that is a Transgressour in one sin is guilty of all sins If any one consenteth to one Temptation all the rest present themselves and desire to Gain that Man as being him upon whom they have gotten a new right or claim CHAP. XI A Man ought not to pass over that which stirs up in him some secret Impediment if he will be Sollicitously concerned for God or else that same secret Impediment may still remain Seperated from God and when the Man shall come to Examination that secret of his heart shall come forth and shew that it still hath been alive in him Therefore is he to bear an Examination and in the Examination this secret of his heart is to be struck out and to be mortified that so he may come unto God noâ— must we at this time Fly away but search thoroughly and then a Man may bâ— truly Sollicitous in God and so exercisâ— himself viz. by laying aside all Impediments that are by Means of that Examination Detected and Manifested And then the Man comes to a certain liberty when thorough Examination he is proved and tryed he can no longer be terrified at any thing If yet somewhat remains that without his knowledge hath lurked in his Mind that also shall be manifested when he repeats the Examination Nor can a Man more rightly know whether he be free or a Captive then when he is thus touched and therefore this Tryal is not an evil thing nor also
is it to be avoided because by the help of it occult defects are discovered and the Man confesseth them to the Lord with Contrition who also is able to purge him from them As long as a Man lives he is under the Law and when by his own Endeavours he is come so far that he cannot ascend higher yet he shall get higher and be advanced But it is necessary he should put forth his hand that another may closely take hold of him and lead him into the way which else he will not find that is he must give himself up to God so as that he suffers him only to operate he himself only sitting still and Submitting himself unto God Whatever then is performed that is no longer done by Man but God himself worketh above all actions of Man or his knowledge or Power God acts and Man suffers if this be done God by such sufferings and dyings leadeth and exerciseth the Man which are matters far surpassing his strength and knowledge even as before also the thing was utterly unknown to him nor was it possible for him to undertake such a thing or exercise himself in it And in this death it is that a Man is purged and all things are taken from him all Whatever were able to hinder in him the undertaking of the true essence Then is all propriety and Nature renounced for in God is no propriety but all things ought to be of a Divine Nature nor can any other Nature be brought into God In that death the Soul is lost and when ever this is done then a Man cometh to the true essential Life of God and there Christ revealeth himself most Evidently in Man and then there is no need to search many things concerning the Place wherein Christ is to be worshipped or any other such Particulars because all these will be very perspicuous or known to our eyes The Law is fulfiled by the new Man without all dispute or Imagination Jesus hath strength enough to be able to save and Purify a Man from sin but Christ doth also anoint the Man thus purified with his Holy Spirit CHAP. XII MOre does not belong to a Man then that by God's help he may abstain from sin and that he may have the Law for a School-master for to enter into Death Darkness the Pit and destruction and to be brought from hence again and to rise again into a new Life and a new Heaven and Light belongeth only to the Lord who himself worketh that in Man without all action of the man and that out of meer grace which a man at the time of his Resurrection when that New Day-break Shineth first upon him most clearly acknowledgeth For he acknowledgeth it was the alone Mercy of God which so exerciseth him and brought him back from Death to Life which Mercy he could not acknowledge when he was still under the Law for there his Propriety and his selfness was yet present but the Commiseration of the Lord was hitherto unknown to him because he had not as yet been thus exercised by God above all Operation and Power of his own that he might come to the Denial of himself but he stood as yet under the Law being touched by no Death when he thought that a reward ought to be Given him out of Desert but not out of Grace and then it was that he sought to Establish his own Righteousness but such a Righteousness was unknown to him which above and beyond all his own Operation and Power was setled only by Faith in Christ which Faith is acquired only in Death Darkness and Hell or the Grave A Man in whom the Law hath exercised all its Power and hath slain him remains not in Death but by the Resurrection of Christ is raised up again into a New Life but is not raised up again into the Old Life for when he should hang with Christ upon the Cross and beg to be Freed that he might return again into that Life he is not Heard but he must dye then not can he ever be thus made alive again but by the Resurrection of Christ riseth into a New Life Here the matter is so carried as if the Thief on the right Hand and the other on the Left and Christ also did Hang Naked on the Cross in one Man and as if he was reviled by both of them for faith the Evengelist Which very thing also did the Thieves who were crucified with Him reproach him withal The same is here also as if the Left hand Thief was not willing to Dye yet he must Dye but the Right-hand Thieâ— yielded himself up unto Death Also aâ— if the legs of the Thieves were broken but not of Christ and here it should be considered how Christ received the Thief on his Right-hand but the left which denoteth Nature also Perisht unwillingly and shall abide Eternally in Death also how the Right-hand Thief willingly gave up himself to Death and how he shall be Raised together with Christ unto Eternal Life Christ said upon his Cross to the Thief on his Right-hand To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He did not say Thou art with me in Paradise for this could not be so long as he had not yet dyed but he said thus Thou shalt he with me in Paradise viz. When thou hast suffered Death for it is as equally Impossible that a Man who is not yet dead can be exalted in God as it is Impossible that a Hundred Pound Weight of Lead should Fly upwards unto the Sky The Thieves did not Nail themselves to the Cross but they were Nailed the Trees upon which the Thieves Hung were cut Trees and do signify the Old Man or Nature in us for we must dy in this cut Nature and afterwards be revived again in Christ All the promises of God do respect Christ but Christ denoteth all Christians of all whom there is one only Head which is Christ who is all in all CHAP. XIII GOd cometh and openeth to a Man the sence of Scripture as it were in one Moment like lightning which comes as it were in one moment and goes away again in another and then a Man acknowledgeth the sence of Scripture to be far otherwise then before when he had considered it in his own strength And thus God can effect more in one only Moment for the truer understanding of the sence of Scripture then all the Epistles which some can write to others When the Light cometh in process of time it becomes clearer and clearer and again also it is wont to return again yet more clear so that more is still discovered and Manifested to a man which before now lay hid from him If this first Claritude cometh into a man as if it were Angelical but then forward it rusheth in much clearer and so a Man gets from one degree of Angelical Claritude to another Higher degree of the same and then presently he ascendeth yet Higher until he arriveth at the
can not now own it that this is that very case True indeed he wisheth O that this were it and yet he judgeth that this his suffering is plainly some other thing till God bringeth him forth as purged or cleansed And then he is cloathed with Righteousness and is translated into the true essence then also he hath utterly lost himself yea and all that also wherein he sought himself and is made one with God who is made unto him all things Formerly he sought to save his Soul alwayes fearing lest he should lose it but now he stands in the hand of God given up to God and with him and out of him God doth what he pleaseth both in time and in eternity for he acquiesceth in all things and desireth nothing but that the will of God may be done in him CHAP. XXIIII WHen sin is discovered to a man then it seemeth to him to be as it were a Sword at which he is frighted and fleeth to God and so Satan is kill'd by his own Sword Paul saith From out of many sins Righteousness is manifested when sins are multiplied that is when the multitude and magnitude of sins become known to a man then he turns his back at last upon sin and goes to God who delivers him from it and in the place of sin manifesteth to him his own Righteousness for as sometimes many Hounds pursue after one Hare when the Dogs are taken off the Beast is freed and remains alone so also God doth with the multitude of sins so as they all at last leave following a man Therefore it is written in the Psalms A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand and they shall not come near thee This falling of thousands and ten thousands is done in man but it approacheth not unto a man but he is kept upright in God and is taken into his glory And then he becomes as if he were not he is as it were so wholly deified that he can find nothing but God neither himself nor any creature And when he is thus in an exstasie and in a rapture above then is he void of discretion and without reason Not as though they were not still in being in him but that he is not sensible of them until he returns into his mind again but it is a pain to him that he is forced to descend again into discretion For it was a great bitterness to Paul that he was forced to return back into discretion for the sake of his Brethren No man understands those places of Paul's sin Experience is the mother of understanding If one hath once tasted Hony he needs not to be told that Hony is Sweet He that seeth a white thing there is no need to say unto him that thing is white for he will answer what need is there to tell me that when I my self both see and understand the very thing He that hath the very thing it self stands in no need of the type or shaddow of that thing CHAP. XXV CHrist descended so low as we also are to come down he went no lower but he ariseth much higher then we can Now can we also possibly come into that depth unless first we shall arrive at exaltation Man hath Christ first in Nature and alwayes receives him more sublime yet so as what hath gone before is still sown again to spring up into a more noble plant so that at length man receiveth Christ without all or any creature Thus man is alwayes ascending by and thorough the creatures until he hath found Christ without the creatures A man ascends by the Angels unto the Son who gives him up unto the Father Generation proceeds from one degree unto another until one climeth above all things into Eternity and there generation endeth for there is the eternal abyss in which he is wholly swallowed up and he who arrives so far knows all things in a constant Idea out of which God snatcheth him and he alwayes sees most clearly by what degrees God was present with him and therefore he persisteth in a perpetual giving of thanks Also in such a claritude and vision of God he is in a perpetual death and is as it were some hungring Soul to whom it is not lawful to eat of Meats set before him But if he doth throw his life into danger and doth eat then must he again dye a new death therefore such kind of men are both poor and rich for though they are in the bosome of all comfort yet they want all comfort so also they in joâ—s want joy and in pleasures want pleasure And these are they who are poor in spirit who have not whereon to lay their heads and dare touch nothing and stand they do as it were upon a round Globe yet they have wings but know it not As to themselves they are altogether distitute of all security but in God's sight they are secure Whereas they who are secure in themselves want security before God This state is not the state of Esau but of Jacob for Esau hath God for his propriety but God hath Jacob for his own propriety who stands in being given up to God because God hath made him fit and capable and hath reduced him to obedience and therefore the man possesseth God with acquiescence and in the midst of all riches and glory he accounts himself a poor wretch he is quietly satisfied in all things which God shall do If he gives him Heaven he is quetly pleased if he cast him into hell it self he bears it patiently and still continueth resigned up to the will of God also what things soever God puts upon him by other men he receives them all as from God and hath nothing to do with men but with God who does all these things by means of men therefore is he at peace with all men and can hate no man for any adversity done unto him for he takes it from God and not from Man whom he still looks upon but as on instruments by which God worketh as when a trumpet soundeth it is not the trumpet maketh the sound but the Trumpeter Hence it follows that he standeth in a willing patience against all that can happen unto him by men so that if they hate him blaspheme him injury him hinder him punish him revile him detract from his reputation take away his goods his friends his house and do persecute him captivate him bind him on wracks torment and kill him he takes all these from the hand of God alone and hath no business with men and in all these he looks upon God only and not upon Men he renounceth to all persons and can take all in good part So also on the contrary if any one good happeneth to him from men he takes all that also from God because he hath taken off his eyes from all means and hath fixed them upon God alone he also hath no respect of persons which God hath withdrawn
from him and hath given him the Wisdom that he can behold God in the person of man and can take all things from his hands And so he can give all glory to God and is a true worshipper of him CHAP. XXVI ALl fear of God which any one hath before the birth of Jacob is a servile fear and the filial fear comes not at first but when there is a new birth The servile goes before but lasteth not and the filial follows and abideeth When Esau was born he knew nothing as yet of Jacob but supposed that the inheritance of the blessing was his First he came forth but in part and in time was put further out till also his feet came forth then he looks back upon Jacob and is smitten with grief and he saw also his own danger and yet he contrives to kill him and to take him out of the way but the more he endeavours to suppress him by so much the more does Jacob come forth It is written concerning Esau Though thou shouldst build thy nest amongst the Stars yet I will pull thee thence Betwixt Esau and Jacob there is no dying for Jacob held Esau by the heel and followed him Esau is the beginning that which follows is Jacob the habitation of Esau was in the desart Moreover concerning Esau and Jacob Esau proceeded from Isaack which is a divine birth yet the judgment cometh upon him Such a thing is Righteousness in a man upon which also cometh judgment Esau hath the Righteousness of God as if it were his propriety and he applieth it unto his delight and he seeketh life for himself therein and therefore the judgment of God must come upon Esau that he must lay down his life till he comes into the state of Jacob who abideth resigned up unto God and whether God giveth or whether God taketh away any thing he is satisfied therewith So soon as a Man receives a new life he â—s again subjected unto judgment and is forced to suffer death CHAP. XXVII THat which is moved together with the body of Christ that is a member in the body of Christ The humanity of Christ is a middle thing between God and us and God cannot come into us but by mediation of this The feeding on the most pure body of Christ transferreth us into a divine essence and that food consumeth all flesh Christ when he had taken the Bread said In doing this ye shall declare my Death This is the sense and the impression of the death of Christ the expression of which is the declaration thereof Hence it may be observed what kind of food it is to eat the flesh of Christ and to drink his blood viz. such as many who formerly had been fed and filled by Christ going back did forsake him when they should have come unto his food Great is the difference betwixt the essential truth and the notional truth Also between the essential death and the notional death There is also great difference between those who know God in Nature aâ—â—â—â—cordingly do possess and use him and 〈◊〉 who know God in God and accorâ—â—â—ly do possess and use him for purâ—â—â—ture such as is created from God â—â—â—â—eth into God without all Adamicaâ—â—â—cidents It is true indeed that the Israe◠〈◊〉 who came out of Aegypt did eat Heaâ—â—ly bread in the Wilderness yet that coâ—◠〈◊〉 not preserve them so as that they shoâ—â— abide but dye they must as Christ saâ—â—â—â— Your Fathers did eat the bread from Heavâ—â— and are dead When first we come out of Aegypt 〈◊〉 cometh to pass that we can in the 〈◊〉 of flesh or of Nature see know posseâ—â—â— and use God yea and hold him in oâ— propriety but that nature must come 〈◊〉 to death and be judged of God anâ— then we possess and know God not 〈◊〉 the life of the flesh or of Nature bâ—â— in the death of the flesh and then God is possessed without appropriation without touching or handling for whatever feels or touches in us is the flesh and is delivered up into death from God but afterwards in a true quiet resignation God beholdeth himself in us and there knows and loves himself and although formerly we knew and applied God in Nature or the life of the flesh yet that state remains no longer but by and thorough judgment is pressed down into death and hath nothing in God neither pleasure nor joy nor comfort And although Nature or the flesh had for some time some such thing in God yet now it hath it no more Whatsoever came out of Aegypt and did rejoyâ—â— to go forward into the promised Land that must fall in the Wilderness and dye but the Children sprung from them did come into that Land Now thouâ—â— the flesh is thus condemned unto death that it can have no delight nor joy 〈◊〉 God yet the mind is and resteth in peaâ—â— and joy and then the man when thâ— flesh is thus dead is like to wax which softened by the fire and is made fit receive all Impressions As often as a 〈◊〉 is willing upon the appearance of Gâ—â— to gain his life in God and he himself â—â—prehends the very thing he ought theâ—fore again to be judged and to suffer a new death It behooveth the thieves to remain under judgment upon the cross retaining no life either in God or in the creatures nor for the obtaining of life can they be heard until the thief on the right hand forsaking all accidents shall turn himself unto Christ It also behooves this man to remain in judgment according to the flesh till as to that he shall be dead Nor shall he ever be raised up again into that life according to which he hath dyed but he is eternally to forsake it out of or from that just judgment But he shall be raised into another life which is God himself And this is then that pure nature that pure humanity that pure flesh which Christ assumed as it is written Zach. 2.12 And the Lord shall possess Judah his portion in the sanctified Earth And such purified flesh hath access to God and God does manifest himself to it with delight and it standeth given up under God and possesseth God without appropriation seeing he leaves him also free Such a man possesseth God no more in Nature that is in the life of the flesh but possesseth God in the death of Nature It possesseth God in God it knoweth God in God it seeth God in God It knoweth Christ no more according to the flesh as formerly but according to the Spirit God in this man enjoyeth all things and does with him according to his pleasure both in time and in eternity and this Man is at rest in God But the anâ—iety which he suffers in the flesh or nature he indeed perceiveth that sometimes he knows not which way to turn him but he so is at rest that he wills nothing but what God willeth if therefore it behooveth a man to possess God
advancement And then also that which is evil in us is felt and for its fake we can be affected with sorrow and can confess it in the sight of God Therefore prosperous things are not to be sought nor adversity to be avoided For adversity is always safe and does advance us in the Knowledge of our selves And it behooveth a man to be wary and to be in perpetual exercise and trial Sweetness is deceitful and Nature desireth it Bitterness is a Medicine and Nature hateth it and therefore we must do not that which we will but that which we hate CHAP. XXI TO abstain from inordinate and unprofitable words makes a man as if he were dumb and causeth him to be silent in many cases which else he would talk of A lascivious tongue extinguisheth zeal and renders a man inordinate and weak and unfit to overcome temptations In which way soever I am willing to go forwards according to life the gate is shut against me and then death is my refuge I must therefore shut the eye of life and rest quiet in death If I had before-hand known this affliction in which I now lie I had dyed for meer grief but now when I am in it God keeps me in it and I can bear it I never before had believed that the case would be thus as now I find it Judgment doth so drive me that I can have neither comfort nor hope nor faith either in God or in the creature Thus the Natural Man is suppressed by judgment and thus the rod hangeth over him and which way soever he looks death meets him but the mind is free I have no torture of Soul and such sufferings as Francis Spira endured I am ignorant of them Adam was created pure in spirit Soul and Body but by his fall he departed from God and tumbled down into his ownself he became estranged from God and was made his own propriety and a servant of the creatures And this same growth of self is nothing else but our desire endeavour or study of appropriating to our selves which afterwards is so subjected unto judgment that it can have no comfort or life either in God or in the creature Therefore it behooveth us to be reduced again into nothing in respect of all things about which we are made somewhat and then at length God will be all himself in the man himself and that instead of his own propriety and then a Man is restored without propriety And then a man findeth God with God and serveth God with God and that is pleasing to God For God hath no good pleasure but in his ownself Judgment is exercised upon this his propriety and then that loseth all hope of restitution and nothing is due unto it either as to God or as to the creature Thus it may be understood what the fall of Adam is viz. appropriation Therefore are also he is to expect judgment and that too must be acknowledged to be just CHAP. XXII WIthout affliction it is impossible to be promoted in God and to have inward peace for where one is to be promoted or advanced in God and to have inward peace there it behooveth the natural man to be purged from lusts and to have no more delight life or joy in the creature but to want all these and to be suppressed in death and to be fastened to the cross So the Apostle saith They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and 〈◊〉 thereof It behooveth me to give place to judgment and therefore I am without alâ— solicitude for things temporal whence they may be acquired For I have not 〈◊〉 much time left that my senses can meditate on such a thing It behooveth me to be stripped of the images of all things and therefore I remain without purpose and without councel nor do I know what in time to come I am to do or leave undone to be silent in or to speak but as things are at present so they glide away without my privitie and when all things are past and done I am no more sollicitous concerning them My business is to attend that that is present and incumbent upon me That I thus suffer it is not for my piety but for evil sin and propriety because I descend from Adam over all whom judgment and death is impending without hope of recovery For whatsoever Adam hath he hath it unjustly he is therefore to be dispoiled of all things that he may want all things and retain nothing neither comfort nor pleasure nor joy either as to God or as to the creature for nothing is due unto him nothing belongs unto him he also himself can never attain unto any truth but he is condemned and dyeth in Christ But whatsoever afterwards riseth again in Christ is clean and without appropriation That Christ hath condemned sin it self is not to be understood as if he had sin in himself or he is pure like the sun void of all impurity Whence it is that no unrighteousness can stand before him but as filthiness it is condemned by him just as in the Sun all impurity is detected and demonstrated to be impurity So that the sun cannot endure it but rather desâ—râ—yeth it So Jesus Christ is the Sun of righteousness who by his own proper light virtue and pulchritude condemneth all injustice and unrighteousness and suffers no darkness to stand before him I lie like the trunck of a tree nor have I in me any activity but I suffer only all that that is done in me but I cannot act either by reason or by understanding My state is passive not active the active went before and I also once had it so as also it ought to be or else I had not come unto this Only it is not permitted to me that I may or can act or form in my self the image of any thing We must suffer even in the smallest matters for he that refuseth that cannot be promoted in God by the suggestions of the spirit the suggestions of Nature are to be denyed that satisfaction may be given to the Spirit no man ought to follow Nature that so the will of God may be done and not ours The affliction and misery of Nature is to be sustained for the sake of God and the peace of conscience It is better saith Solomon to be invited unto green herbs with Love then to a fatted calf with hatred Poverty of nature with peace of conscience is better then the delight of Nature with anguish of conscience Necessaries are due unto Nature that by their means a man may be converted unto God but not on the contrary When the conscience is satisfied many sorrows do invade nature But Peter commands that sorrows are to be born for conscience sake viz. Sorrows that are against Nature for conscience sake but not the contrary When it was Summer season to my Nature the heat thereof did stay me but now Winter is followed thereupon yet the Summer is
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
then â—nto the understanding his salvation also â—n go no further then into the underâ—tanding and reason so that it must at last needs dye in that death that is so necessary to all Christians viz. wherein Reason is destroyed for in this death there remains nothing but the Soul or mind only But if it be objected that our faith and knowledge do penetrate even into the most inward regions of the Soul and mind I answer thereto That then also it is necessary that this our Soul and mind when it shall live with such an estrangedness from the flesh that it cannot but with great Nauseousness and tedious disdain bear in its self all the desires and lusts which spring from the nethermost parts of the flesh so as it would rather dye infinite deaths and to be freed from them then with pleasure even once to perform them in the verv act Behold my G. this brief proposal how every one ought to prove and try hâ—â— faith If any man believeth in Chriâ—â— from the very bottom of his Soul 〈◊〉 must need be wracked with great doâ—lours in his Soul by reason of sin so thâ— he will account of sin for the most grievous torture that can be found in all thâ— world and for his greatest enemy and how then for the sake of acting it can he enter into a friendship with it Although therefore the Vulgar knowledge of those who glory in the Gospel may say on this wise Sin if so be it is not perpetrated in the very act though it should lurk in the heart doth us no hurt yet do thou I pray hear how Christ doth nevertheless assert that he who looketh on a woman to lust after her is already guilty in the sight of God by which words surely Christ excuseth not but accuseth the lusting of a man and will really have it accounted for sin in the sight of God Dearest G. I beseech thee do not despond in thy mind because of this hard saying for all things are possible to God I only write this of purpose that thou mayest seasonably learn to judge of all things least thou shouldst consume thy youth unprofitably and that thou mayest bear fruit to God â—in thy own soul they in the mean time who are of the dregs of the Vulgar though they may have knowledge yet they lye down tired in sloth nor do they oppose sin with the least burning zeal or breaâ—â— its impetuous assaults Nor yet doth this external abstinence from sins and the debilitating of them suffice for it 's necessary to descend to the very bottom it self when even the thoughts are to be judged in the presence of God Far therefore be it from us to commit sin in the very act Also this my Letter intends this at least that thy young limbs be stirred up both night and day to the worship of God by continued prayers in temperance purity meekness of heart long-suffering lovâ— of thine Enemies as also in the Reading of Scripture in holy proficiencies anâ— in other virtues conducing to Christian discipline Concerning which thy owâ— Conscience will afford to thee a testimony all which being performed thou wiâ—â— every day rejoyce in thy great success iâ— the work of the Lord that at last wheâ— thy most miserable condition is known thou wilt be a terrour to thy own selâ— and therefore thou wilt so much thâ— more diligently call upon God for help that his most powerful right hand maâ—â— at length gratiously support thy Soul and conquer the power of the enemy in a real victory The Lord have mercy on us all and heal our diseases and effectually cause us to hunger and thirst after his righteousness least we be left naked in our own impurity EPIST. VIII How any one who is studious concerning the way of the Lord ought dayly to exercise himself MOst beloved Neece Because I understand that thou earnestly desirest such a disposition of heart as truely to walk in the ways of the Lord I could not withhold my self but must write to thee these few things for thy greater confirmation in them that thou being once entred into this way shouldest not desist from vigorously proceeding forward and to adhere to the Lord with thy whole heart together with a total suppression of thy carnal part Be therefore diligently studious that thy diligence be not tired out in reading in humanity in Silence in meekness in temperance forbearance patience and compassion also learn to exercise thy self in all studyes of virtues that thou being found faithful in little things mayest be made ruler over much greater for if thou shalt not be faithful in these few things assuredly thou wilt never be entrusted with more But I hope that thou wilt receive wisdom and prudence from the Lord that thou wilt have a care of and diligently attend unto thy own self least some bitter root should spring up in thee and so thou and thy Soul tumble head-long into destruction for the flesh doth very subtilly assault a man to beguile him and turn him away from Godliness Wherefore making a strict watch upon thy life and conversation carefully incompass thy self round having cut off the world and all wantonness of life speech and thoughts preferring every one with all gentleness and patience not only the good but also the evil and the immodest Learn also to bridle in thy self and to humble thy self being always turned to the Lord in thy heart Never let vain evil and unworthy thoughts arise in thy mind but always oppose them with great earnestness pouring out to the Lord fervent prayers and if thou gettest any spare time on holy days or otherways employ it in reading the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament or else of that little book intituled Of the imitation of Christ and in these exercise thy self and learn to ponder them often in thy mind If thou readest any thing which thou doest not understand call upon the Lord with ardent sighs and dayly tears that he would open to thee the true sense of his most holy word for to be the Necessary food of thy Soul for the more thou shalt follow the Lord the more thou shalt understand of holy Scripture and by how much the less thou art intent to wait upon the Lord by so much the less shalt thou understand Scripture Therefore let thy constant endeavours be to approve thy self faithful in these things which are viz. made known to thee in and by mortification and a continual access to God by prayer nor let any time slip by thee in vain and withouâ— thus doing If thou repliest that thou understandest not what thou readest again say that though thou mayest noâ— understand all yet is it incumbent oâ— thee to exercise thy self in the sacred word of the Lord as also to be unwearâ—edly sollicitous about it For by thesâ— exercises thou shalt sooner be amended then by idleness and these are the beâ—â— means of instituting and of exercising anâ— man
desire as also that I placed more confidence in the Lord then in my own letters being fixed in this firm hope that he would direct all things to the best end and that he would apply a remedy to all distractions of thy heart and that he would thrust them all under his obedience For even as I my self according to my simple way do confide in the Lord alone in all my necessities waiting for help from him only so also I judge the like of thee with firm belief that the Lord will out of his compassion behold and look upon thy case and will deliver thee from all thy troubles of heart although this thy state may press thee to so much the more diligent and fervent and more continual calling upon God and to a greater abode in his fear because else it an be no otherwise done but that all labour glory cogitation fruit and pleasure of the flesh with all those things which belong unto the world and have communion therewith do all at last together tend to eternal destruction nor can they by any hope of life be firmly fixed to eternity for Death and an eternal blotting out do pass upon all things which are without God! But the faithful and merciful God will have compassion on us that we may be subjected to his chastisement with a continual meditation on the divine judgment under which it behooveth all flesh to tremble and to give glory to God alone that thus being yielded up unto God we may be wholly governed by him and that we may serve him in all righteousness and holiness as it becomes the Sons of God God grant this to thee which I wish from the very bottom of my Soul as the Lord also knows that we may together remain given up to the Lord both in body and soul O would to God that our hearts could be always mindful of that misery destruction and eternal death which hangeth over all flesh and where it is truly made manifest how far all joys are distant from us as also the pleasures in this earth together with all the advantages pride and other vanities that are pleasing to our flesh and all the other motions tending thereunto Nevertheless from the Lord I always hope that which is best viz. that it wilâ— come to pass that he will purify us miserable creatures even as gold is purged by the fire and that he will wash us from all impurities The Lord grant that our familiarity which we have in divine love may not by these sufferings be diminished or decreased but rather be comfirmed by the divine benediction which is fertil in all who are patient and who in Goliness and the fear of the Lord do constantly persevere even to the end of the fight although they were vexed with all manner of tryals The Lord of all grace have mercy on us all that we may never but be proficients and seriously and diligently walk in the way of his fear that we may always be more and more endowed with his grace EPIST. XIV A brief Instruction how any one may in due order arrive at Regeneration and whence it is the new creature may have its Original To the same person DEarest N. I could not withhold my hand but must send this letter to thee seeing I am not at leisure to come unto thee therefore this Epistle shall supply the want of my presence For I am wholly perswaded in the Lord that thy heart yea when not admonished by me will not yet be tyred out of the continuance in the work begun and in the growth in the fear of God our Saviour least that any one happly should disturb confound thee by these or any other perswasions for to come at the very thing its self there is no need of many rules and exhortations Search narrowly into thy own self and if thou canst find any thing for whose sake thy conscience shall accuse thee then it concerns thee to desist from that and to dye thereunto This therefore is requlsit that thou learn to examine thy self whether thou sufferest any thing against thy will and with a certain kind of indignation nor art thou willingly subjected with humility to all others For its necessary that in all resepects thou shouldest account of thy self from the very bottom of thy heart for the least and the most despicable and that thou willingly submit thy self to every body yea to him that injureth thee If thou wilt endeavour this thou wilt soon find in thy self a great defect nor wilt thou willingly perform that but wilt be moved to indignation and to impatience But if thou art never looking back and art subduing the flesh with a just and true zeal and wilt accomplish the rooting out from thy self the serpentine nature at length by the breaking forth of the divine illumination thou shalt find great grace in these things But here is need of great and accurate examination and the Lord is at all times both night and day to be call'd upon with a fervent mind that he will bestow wisdom on thee to know thy self and all thy stains of nature even the most hidden that thou mayest be able to cure them diligently to renounce them and wholy to dye unto them For after that the flesh is withered and nature dead the new creature may at last be planted in thee whose source is out and from God and not out and from man and the admonitions of man nor out and from any external ceremonious rite for it is born of God who is a spirit in our spirit so also is all the true spiritual circumcision of all things internal in our Soul where it is also promised to us that by the holy Spirit the eternal God the Saviour shall be raised up in us out of his own seed who shall abolish all enmity which still lieth between God and the inward man himself and will eternally unite us with God and will bring us to our Original which is God himself Dearest N. I should indeed writ more of this to thee for I further desire that thou wouldst thy self set too thy hand to the performance of these things and that thou wouldst get a living sense in thy heart of all these For in thy own self thou wilt find a true monitor who will more rightly then I can observe thy defects neglect him not but lend thy ear to his accusations and then forthwith will thereupon follow certainly very notable advances Also the Lord who heareth the desires of all who persevere will not reject thy prayers and tears but to all whatsoever thy heart pressed down with straights and griefs proposed to its self he will behold with merciful eyes and succour thee with a strong hand And if sometimes he may seem plainly to have deserted thee nor that he will ever hear thy prayers then do thou fully believe that at this very time he is nighest unto thee that he may succour thee with his help
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
taketh all as from the Creator whether they be grateful or ungrateful and though we may not as yet come thus far yet is this to be accounted for a rule and to be followed with all endeavour And with this I would have thee recommended to the Lord who will be helpful to us all and keep and promote us all more and more in his own way EPIST. XXX How a Noble Plant springeth up out of the Dead Seed through the Divine fuitfulness To his Brother A. W. DEarest Brother The Herb we have received The omnipotent Lord who from his eternal beaming forth hath made to come forth the out-flowing powers of all his Creatures according to the common and out-streaming operation of the Law of Nature replenish thine and the common emptiness of others with increase in the blessing of the most noble Plant of God according to his nature that that only Seed which by the benefit of corruption hath utterly lost all its own propriety in a deadly and eternal intemperance and is eternally united with the earth of an imperserutable perfection will fructifie in thee through God contrary to all hope or glory to the greater glorification in the vertue of God Moreover my Brother we received all which are to be brought back again to God as to the Original of all with thansgiving even unto the scope of our death Thus we miserable wretches in this our received way are faln down into to that which we call our propriety so that when we are to depart from that our assumed life we are overwhelmed with sorrows and bitterness although all this is done out of the just judgment of God that all may come unto his truth even as the heavens and the earth are called unto the truth because undeniably all things must come to this state and to render their source glorified by their death and by their being melted down thereinto I wish thee my small portion of health in my state of rejection and disertion from the Lord which I suffer but yet not without mercy that which may happen also to thee but with real commiseration according to thy calling as also to all that are the holy ones of God My brother be mindful of us all may the mercy of God and his eternal and to all creatures his incomprehensible grace come upon us with plenty that by the virtue thereof that miracle of the supernatural spiritual and eternal life may be discovered and acknowledged together with the spiritual salvation in Christ his eternal and only begotten son in whom miserable we are depressed down into death with verity EPIST. XXXI Concerning the right uncloathing of self and of the yielding up of the soul in all sufferings DEarest brother The Lord be mindful of our misery and first to behold me the most miserable one with commiseration and offer to himself my heart made bare and emptied by many pressings together and that he will renunerate it with the blessing of fruitfulness in a divine and eternal redemption and freedom from all the Enemies of my heart who hold it captive in the chaines of darkness out of the just judgment of God to whom I am subjected being ignorant whither at last I must go hence seeing that my anxiety the longer it is is so much the more vehement so that I must always fall into the hands of the Lord seeing all else are fallen away from me The Lord look upon my nakedness and be my preserver that being kept up by and in him I may bring forth fruit to his glory and to the sanctification of things temporaneous in the effusion of the blood of my own proper life and in the liberty of the divine obedience With these I recommend thee to the Lord who can advance us higher in his ways and can fasten us firmly to the cross in true submission and yielding up of our wills that in him we may be kept safe all that short space of our faintings in this time being in his fear delivered up unto death according to the ordination of his judgment impending over us that so we may be led and get forwards in his ways and that we may bid farewel with all our might to time that eternity may take place in us and that we may so dye to our selves that we may walk here on the earth only as Pilgrims The Omnipotent God deal with us in his good pleasure according to his mercy and lead us thorough with Victory even in our imbecillity unto the very end EPIST. XXXII Concerning the death of all created things and of all those which are born out of them MOst beloved brother All things do tend to the end and death of their created nature whence do arise many sighs and a most bitter agony But the Lord will again bring forth his holy one out of death and the grave that he may not see corruption My brother thy pressure is great and severe I know thou desirest comfort but from God only who cannot come but thorough the death of all creatures or of the whole created nature until the last breath of life be also breathed out nor can any refreshment of members be hoped for Let us in a free communion be made partakers of thy sufferings with divine compassion patiently expecting the accomplishment of the judgment in its own order furthermore we will labour according to the will of God and we will sweat till we come to the appointed end even as the hand of the Lord shall over rule us May the omnipotent Lord by his fatherly grace lead us thorough this most difficult labour and strengthen us according to the inward man that we may forsake that which is external and deliver it up to eternal corruption from out of the first judgment to his eternal praise and glory to which we all aspire everyone of us according to his own manner and service but not for our sakes or for our commodity as some now unjustly do and think wherefore also this counterfit opinion shall sink down into defect and death together with the death of the creature by a most hard and terrible fall Because all that that we possess with a lye in time must be yielded up to the eternal truth but all to the glory of God so that at length one may become a looking-glass to the other and God at last may overcome all and persist alone but we in our lies must perish My brother the times of our parents and forefathers are passed and labor belongeth now to our time to the end also of which all things preparatory are at hand The Lord stretch out his hand with mercy over wretched me and over us all that we may be taken into the order which is pleasing to him thorough faith under the obedience of his eternal will so that our will life and choice being subjected to his judgment may be condemned and consumed May the Lord give to us all communion in God with a