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
the creatures shall do unto him he ought not to intangle himself with them because they are all of God whose he is When one runneth so long that for want of breath he lies down then he dispiseth whatever is his own and so at length room is made for faith To stand therefore in faith is a most miserable thing for then is man's estate quite consumed so that he lives upon the savour of another from whom he expecteth that which he wanteth Paul saith If ye live according to the flesh ye shall dye They who are in death if they would draw life from else where yet have they no time for to be accused because judgment is forthwith ready at hand and the sword slayeth them But others who are yet accused are not yet in death A Malefactor who hath already suffered punishment and is dead is no longer accused for justice hath pass'd upon him and now because of that he is justified from whence was his accusation God freeth a man but not so as to take him from the cross but to leave him there God reconcileth a man's enemies to him so as that he patiently endured them as sent unto him from the hand of God Before acquiescence a man is unbridled but in acquiescence he beholdeth the will of God and there finds rest Nothing is so strong and powerful in a man that God is not above it and which he cannot overcome and drive out and so set the man at liberty For nothing is prevalent against the Lord before whom all things must fall and be as nothing that the victory may be to God and all things be confounded before him Before justification by death sin hath the dominion in man but not after justification because then it is crucified in him CHAP. XI WHere the new creature is God assumeth the Spirit of man who then becometh a stranger to himself nor stands no longer in his own place inasmuch as God taketh it up who is over him and keepeth him This man is saved out of grace and he stands with fear and trembling before God on his part wanting all prop as having God only for his upholder and then he is held up as it were by a hair only trembling with uncertainty as on his part nor hath he any thing in which he can glory besides his infirmity which he always beholdeth all things else are loosned from him and stand on God's part and do arrive at him only thorough grace and yet he must not look upon them for â—â—e ought behold nothing but his infirmities Far be it from such a one to say he cannot fall for he that says that is either fallen already or very nigh unto falling He who meditates what way things will go with him he understands not the thing it self as that which is pleasant but thinks it to be against him and is frighted with death When a man comes under grace then also he comes under the cross for then the natural man is in a continual death When a man understandeth what he is to lay aside he speaks not of corruption rashly and with joy There is such a thing as a resurrection but it is not so gross a thing as is believed God indeed pardoneth infants if they speak foolish words but he doth not so to others for far be it from them to speak like infants Now such are infants who have not yet been exercised by God A cut finger is cured again but a heart wounded is never cured That which is in the state of abstinence can return into the first state of life but that which is dead riseth not again in that state in which it is dead CHAP. XII THe torments of the Martyrs are the glory of the death and resurrection of Christ for these have demonstrated that a man is to be led in a certain way above Nature thorough the death and resurrection of Christ which way is impossible to Nature We must then die to all humane strength that the virtue of Christ may operate all these thing Whence it is that they are called the lights of mankind because they are led above all the strength understanding and will of men And all these things can the virtue of the life death and resurrection of Christ perform if it be not without a man but really cometh into him Where there is a real death and corruption there also succeedeth a real life and salvation but where that is not really done but notionally only and remains without a man there also life and salvation is not real but notional only and without a man The Martyrs in their torments gave glory unto God Glory is not given to God before that a man arriveth at or cometh unto his death and is estranged from himself and God doth take up his room or place who keepeth governeth leadeth and exerciseth him above all reason which reason here neither sees nor knows any door of escape but is held captive under the obedience of faith because a thick cloud and a dark mist hath covered the eyes thereof that it cannot see the way whereby God is wont to lead a man This is here that passive state when a man dyeth and suffers God But in the active state under the Law when life still is present it was not so for then a man was governed by reason to whom was added Will and Knowledge about the actions and omissions of a man though all things are directed by divine help and in divine claritude which struck reason down so that a man could govern himself conduct and conserve himself day and night yet when all these are taken away he must at length come into death that God may come and take his place and administer all things himself Then a man is drawn another way then what he walked before and it is that which excels his own will knowledge and strength This man is become passive and God operateth in him As the conscience and the mind was captivated and sadened when it was well with the flesh so when the flesh came into death the mind and conscience was exhilerated and set at liberty Many and great gifts of the Holy Spirit do come really into a man which yet are not Regeneration But they go and come Whereas that is Regeneration when where God hath planted his habitation and God is become one with man In God neither the world not pleasure nor joy is suffered Nature must want all these when the mind standeth in God They who stand under grace their outward man is always conserved or kept by a deadly judgment their internal man by vital nourishment thus they are always kept by God Into the mind which standeth in God no motion to joy or grief can penetrate But there comes a great sorrow which descends into the flesh that the mind may remain free What is patience is it or not when a man suffers and complains to no man no no for this is
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
is no longer desired when viz. any one desires to arrive at the true Substance or essence There is a Claritude given which foretelleth to a man that essence of the thing in which he is not yet got and to which he at last cometh Just as a flower is a certain demonstration of the Fruit that is to come in the future CHAP. XIX WHen the Lord said to the younger Son My Son go and Work in the Vineyard to day and he answered I go Lord but coming unto the Elder he also said Go Work in the Vineyard and he answered I will not Those two Sons are but one Man For when a man begins he will do all he will Suppress sin purifie himself he will Worship Love and adore God and adhere unto him c. He thinks that he is able to perform all this But when the Business comes to Trial then a man at last apprehendeth that he can scarcely observe the outward show of Virtue or Righteousness and that also with much indignation and reluctancy because he hath not that true essential Righteousness and Virtue whence true desire springeth For it is essential virtue only that makes a man pleasant and willing to do whatsoever he is to do and to omit whatsoever he is to omit and if this Virtue be essentially in him then is he more backward and full of loathing against Vice then he was before against Virtue when Vice was yet in the Throne Therefore unless the very root of Vices and of Unrighteousness whence external wickednesses do Spring as the Fruits of a corrupt Tree be purged out no true Virtue or real and Substantial Righteousness can grow forth in a man And therefore all men are Liars and have only the outside-shew of Righteousness without the true essence of the thing for the thing comes not forth out of the mind because the mind hath not received it For the Heart of that man that is full of any thing the man himself is the most Subjected servant to that thing Also sin is not heartily or from the mind omitted as being yet in the mind though as to shew it may be omitted I say not all this for this Purpose that a man ought to wait so long to omit the shew of the Vices and perform a shew of vertue till Vice inwardly also be extirpated and essential virtue Implanted but that none should remain contented if as to the shew only he omitteth Vice and have the Possession of Virtue nor that then he account of himself for a Just man or should think that he hath then so fulfilled Righteousness and to have departed from sin For we must Earnestly Pray both by Night and by Day that it be omitted Heartily or out of the Mind which externally is omitted as to the shew thereof But the truth is that is not the work of man but of God only for it is not Possible for any man to extirpate sin from the Root it self but a man can suffer only that God may do that according to his faithful Promises If a man could perform that thing it would not be a constant or an abiding thing because whatsoever a man doth is inconstant and is annihilated again by man If therefore a man should suppress sin it would again Bud forth for the work of a man is not Permanent or lasting but may be broke off by others But that which God worketh is Subject to no Destruction When he Suppresseth sin and extirpates it it must remain Supprest for Evermore and Righteousness implanted in its stead must abide the same to all Eternity CHAP. XX. THis is the meaning of the Parable of the two Sons who should go and labour in the Vineyard he that would not do it he did it that is he came so far as to confess that it was impossible for him to extirpate sin and to implant Righteousness And when he thus became deficient in himself and despaired thereof he waited for the Gracious promises of God viz. that God himself would do that when it proved Impossible for man to do it And that same will to perform of the first Son and all his other Actions and Omissions exercised as to shew are prefigured by Abraham's begetting Ishmael for he brought him forth by working he himself doing it but he was according to the flesh But he could not produce Isaac by working for as to him he was to wait on the Promise of God viz. That God himself should work it and he be born after the Spirit And when these things are fulfilled whatever is to be omitted is omitted without labour and whatever is done is done without labour for the Lord hath willing Servants who do all willingly and omit also because that which at first made a man backward and loath is extirpated and in its room righteousness is implanted To resist the breaking out of sins by the law of sin and to have a show of vertue cannot be done with man's working but the extirpation of sins and the implantation of righteousness is done without mans working according to the word of promise which is to be expected with desire if this shall once come upon us it cannot be again suppressed but must remain eternally Before Christ comes the Law and makes a man contrite and and sorrowful so as if a Man will submit unto it he will desire Christ That which the Law shews it does not take away and that which it commands it doth not give But at length Christ cometh and taketh away what the Law had discovered viz. Sin and he implaneth what the Law had commanded viz. Righteousness therefore Christ comes at last and he doth all this and then begins in man the time of the New Testament that in him all things may be fulfilled and confirmed which had been promised of Christ but before this he lived under the Law viz. in the time of the Old Testament and wanted Christ The Friends of God live in the continual death of the flesh but in mind they live and are free To rejoyce in sorrow and to live in death is to take safety from ones enemies For what enemy is greater than Death and yet out of it how much Health springeth for by Death we are separated from that which came into us by the Fall of Adam Before Death a man hath a Kingdom in God but in death God hath or giveth a Kingdom in man Man is led against his will into this death as Christ said unto Peter When thou wert young thou didst Gird thy self and went whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thoâ— shalt stretch out thy hands and another shalâ— bind thee and lead thee whither thou wouldâ—â— not A man ought not to depart from men that are his Adversaries for being with them he is prepared and his foundation is uncovered to him but let him depart from those who esteem highly of him lest perhaps he fall into Pride to gross works there is need
ever else is flesh And then Christ takes this purified Man for Christ took 〈◊〉 him the pure humanity so also a man ought to be pure which state he comes to in hell before Christ takes him up and is united with him Before death is suffered glory is not given to God but after that it is given to him After death man is in the truth but before death he is in a lie Before death a man appropriates all things to himself viz. life substance and all and he thinks that these are due to him of right nor that any of them can be taken from him but by injustice Yet he possesseth all in a lie and by injustice â—hough he thinks that he doth possess â—hem by right and in truth until death â—vercomes him And then at last all â—â—re acknowledged and looked upon oâ—herwise and all are yielded and ascribâ—d to God and to him alone is glory in Man given And a man is delivered â—om all his own propriety and is made â—oper to God who possesseth him and â—â—cteth him And thus Hell is made Heaven at last by reason of his yielding â—p When the elect do come into hell they willingly endure it out of Love although it be a great torment to them Just like him who subjects himself to sufferings for the sake of some other who he most dearly loveth and desires not to be freed from those pains although they by not small ones so that that other may but be freed from that evil Or else 〈◊〉 one should submit himself to poverty anâ— want for the sake of his beloved that 〈◊〉 his beloved my be relieved from waâ—â— or indigency and although those sufferings are great enough yet Love rendeâ— them easiy and lovely By how much the greater is the Death Hell and condemnation by so muâ—â— the greater is the Life Heaven anâ— Salvation by how much the greater the Death Hell and anguish so muâ—â— the greater and more sublime biâ—â— Heaven and life followeth thereupon man possesseth himself therefore he alâ— loveth seeketh and in all things defenâ—eth himself But when he is given 〈◊〉 to God he is not his own but God and as before he possessed himself now God is in the room of himself aâ— possesseth him This man therefore with all his accidents is God's and hath nothing no more but all things of his are God's yea so fully or absolutely that if one should give to or take away any thing from this man or do good or evil to him or love or hate him all these are done to God and not to man Moreover this man applieth not these things to himself and therefore also cannot be angry nor hate his adversaries seeing that all is done not to him but to God But it is proper to God to Love and to do good which now do â—hine forth thorough this man CHAP. XXII WHen a Man turneth his eyes inwards he will behold sin so great within himself that all he defects and spots of his Neighbour will appear to him small and few yea â—hat which belongeth to others will in respect of his sin by him be accounted â—ather for good then for evil But if any one weigheth the sins of others in a too strict balance and judgeth too rigourously of them it is a certain sign that this man doth not know himself nor is come unto Regeneration How much that which we hitherto seek is contrary to that thing which iâ— truly obtained then at length appears when God snatcheth us away from thence and together with Paul overturns all our understanding knowledge and will and whatever we have wrought he so breaks it to pieces that all dyes with the man and remains confounded Alas how great is the misery and how much the anguish in that same death and corruption There flesh and blood which cannot attain to the inheritance of the Kingdom of God aâ—â— consumed and all things perish which a man thought to have been somewhat But afterwards when a man is weâ—â— purged and purified in this purgatory then he comes to the truth of the matter and then at length acknowledges thâ— whatever he thought to have had 〈◊〉 possession of before death to be nothing and that he was before this death in a lie Just as it is commonly said of him who is Dead that he is in the truth but we whilst we yet live are in a lie All things in death proceed otherwise then before even as if the Sun should go backwards When Paul was overwhelmed all things which before he had thought to be in being were now perished together with his pleasure knowledge and understanding God rejected all but he â—gnorant of all cryed out Lord what wilt thou have me to do CHAP. XXIII A Man must go as far as it is possible for him to go and when he shall â—trive at that point that is impossible for â—im he must joyn his hands and bend is knees and stretch our his arms that â—od may do with him what he pleaseth with whom that is possible that is imâ—ossible with man A similitude we have in a Beggar Just 〈◊〉 when one seeketh an Alms from door to door and it is still said to him God look upon thee so also is it done with a man who falls into this misery all creatures to which soever he approacheth refuse him so that at length God only must help and save him When all things stand at great distance that there remains no more underpropping or refuge then is the Lord urged to come in for God cometh not unless he be urged A man must be left naked and stript of all things if God only must be made his essential life and prop. Also in desertion it cannot be but God will come When God begins to purge the floor of sin and to root it up from the bottom then it is that at last a man begins to know himself and he is in his own sight what he is in truth and what he was both before and after that and that which now is required is plainly another thing then what he thought formerly when he was still under the works of the Law and it repenteth him much that he ever had esteemed himself for a Godly man because he acknowledgeth the contrary now viz. that he hath been a sinner and an unrighteous man but not a good man And now God taketh violent hold on the root it self to pluck it up But what a stroak this is any one may know who will experience the very thing it self When a man burneth with zeal and is willing to purify himself then in the end is he become impure and unrighteous for then God discovers to him the very foundation it self of wickedness and sets before his eyes that which was from the beginning There therefore must the man abide and stand in the examination In that exercise of the Cross nothing can relieve a man and what was before told him of that cross he
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
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
for really it is without judgment nor hath it any need of any means by which it may abstain from judgment because it hath no such thing in it self But proper Salvation hath hitherto carried along with it judgments and if it must abstain from them it must do it by some means which the real Salvation wanteth Now those means are the creatures for the essence is God himself who endureth no creature Before the essence cometh all images must vanish Real salvation hideth or withdraweth it self from no man neither is it separated nor included nor made proper But if any one secludeth or separateth himself he withdraws or hides himself from it then the blame is not to be laid on that but on him who doth it Thus is the man who is in this Salvation and where this Salvation taketh place CHAP. XV. THe chiefest and greatest affliction of all the damned is this that they are separated from God so that he that feels that separation feels the pains of hell God is essentially very good nor is there any good but God he therefore that is deprived of that hath nothing Whence it 's said He is a poor man who goes to hell For some years together all things have fallen away from me yet hitherto the chief and real death followed not thereupon as now it does Death indeed was always present with me but it was never essential death till now For here a man lieth in death and destruction nor can he take or use any discretion nor think this or that nor conceive images unless it be that he lyes essentially in death and that death is really present And when in this misery one begins to talk of these or the other divine things even for that Nature is to be punished again and to be crucified with yet a more bitter death Nature cannot enter in again as she went out for here she took breath again and was recreated and yet there belongeth nothing to her but destruction and death They who lye in this affliction if one propoundeth to them any comfort of life they esteem it for poison and for bitterness and for adversity nor can they listen to it Even as if one who is lead into death looking round about him should see all and every one to be dead all whomsoever he beholdeth yea his kindred and familiar friends Here let it be observed how great is that affliction to be deserted of all and to draw life no where and to be a captive and bond-slave unto death even to the desertion of all creatures But God ennobleth the case by changing it and that thorough a great difficulty of sufferings when they are not ennobled as to an outward fair shew before the flesh but in Spirit The former state is always more noble then the following but not in the sight of God for the tents of Kedar are black but God knoweth them to be otherwise inwardly Christ comes not as it was expected His face is sad like a man of sorrows c. CHAP. XVI THe following combate is always terrible in respect of the foregoing and that which follows that is yet more terrible and so is every other after the former so that the preceding conflicts in respect of the following are always light though they also in respect of those that were afore them were heavy And all this God doth who leadeth a man by and thorough these hard ways till he hath rightly prepared him and rendred him purged from all dross and filâ—h and this a man suffers and God operates A man is overcome by God and passively lead and though at first he was also active under Law yet afterwards he is not so Because thorough this whole state even to the following he suffereth and the state which followeth in respect of the foregoing is horrible whereas before that it did seem to be noble yet in respect of man and not of God For by how much the sublimer is the corruption by so much the more noble will be the fruit for a man is still lead more deeply and deeply into affliction The former state is always more eligible in respect of that which follows so that a man as far as he is in the foregoing cannot account of himself in regard of the following an heretick When Christ saith If they shall say Lo here is Christ go not forth he would say this We must not depart from affâ—ition Into them who lie down in death Life cannot enter They who have not yet lain down in death and yet obey the governance of their conscience stand in the midst between Life and death they are subject to great labour and strife who endeavour by the help of conscience to suppress that life which they have in themselves These men as yet can know no death until they come into that state but yet they believe it They who are in death even their very cogitations do lye in death that they can be delighted with noth ng neither with God nor with the creature For if they could still be delighted with any thing by thinking or cogitation that would still prove to be a life which cannot be in this case It one placed under a naked sword should be asked whether he took delight at that time in any thing without doubt he would answer that he sat in death nor could possibly fancy to himself any other thing but a certain and a real death If such a one should get up on his legs to look about on life and things temporal he would see nothing before him but a cloud that is judgment and death The state of such men is plainly miserable and painful nor is it to be wished for as if perhaps we should say O would to God we were like such or such but this is to be wished that the will of God is to be accomplished in us that we may bear it and be united with it Moreover those men who thus lie in death have little or no comeliness in them but are very much deformed and therefore he who is conversant with them must beware least he imitates their words or behaviours For whatsoever they do or omit to do are silent in or speak it 's all performed in death nor can any life joy comfort or pleasure lay hold of them in this state They are untouched by delectation and are filled with death If therefore he who is without the bounds of this state should imitate their words and actions he would do thus whilst he is still full of life and with a feeling of comfort of joy of pleasure c. and then would he wander egregiously because he would be in no want of delectation in regard he would still remain full of life and therefore let him have a great care and keep his life safely least he put it forth into jeopardy for though he be still often accused in his conscience for negligence yet inwardly he hath much joâ— and comfort which
they who are in death do utterly want CHAP. XVII THey who are not yet dead ought with great diligence and severity to abstain from lusts whereas they who are dead have no such matter For those means in which lusts do make their abode are by the good help of judgment so shattered and broken that delectation wholly ceaseth in them because these men are dead as to these matters and whatsoever they do whether they eat or drink or speak c. they do all in death and with affliction also this death is a sensible death nor is it like that in a post that wanteth sense neither also is it such a death which being once accomplished then ceaseth but it is an incessant death every day for they sensibly dye every particular day But for the others who still abide only in continency they as I said have not this death but are still alive For those means in which lusts do abide are not in these men as yet condemned to death and therefore they ought to abstain under the labour of the Law and sedulously to beware because they can scarce do any thing which is not done by the use or help of life But they who are dead do the same thing in death with misery and affliction And therefore as was said above he who liveth must not regard him that is dead to imitate him until he himself also is arrived at this state of death then are those things granted unto him and are become pure unto him which whilst he was alive were impure Yet is it not here so to be understood that one may therefore think that unjust things are lawful for him or are pure as at this day some erroneous spirits David George and Henry Nicholas do profess who think such things are lawful for them which are not of themselves lawful but are wicked and unjust before God and the Elect by which they demonstrate that they salsly boast themselves of their dying and death Let all those who desire to find out God beware of these kind of men In the book of Psalms it is said Thou shalt change them but thou thy self art still the same and thy years shall not fail c. He who feeleth this mutation for his part and a permanency on the part of God that man feels some-what Let no man so much esteem of the sufferings of the Soul as to contemne the afflictions of Nature for the matter upon examination is otherwise found When a man standeth in the trial between God and Nature and is equally on both sides grievously afflicted so as that he must deny one or the other Let I pray that man bear up and let him deny nature and not God Let him I pray bear up vigorously and not shrink for God helpeth him CHAP. XVIII WHen a man's props fall from under him by which he was born up it is a sign that he himself will quickly fall into ruin and then it is said Alas how long will this endeavour of appropriation last shall this my Meity or mineness always endure and then misery and affliction rush in when that net of propriety is to be unloosned because that is to done by the means of many sufferings He who knoweth grace rightly is in great affliction for he is wholly made sin and hath nothing in wch he can be at rest By how much the less one hath of grace glory Illumination devotion and of strength when he suffers the mortification of Nature by so much the more excellent and worthy is that esteemed in the sight of God But when one suffers with the glory of an exceeding high grace with devotion and with virtue c. the thing is easy nor is it so highly esteemed as when one labours under want of all those excellencies and yet is afflicted yet is not one better then another for he that lies in the sun how I pray is he better then another who doth not lie in the sun except it be because he hath need of greater humiliation which must be done for him by and thorough so much mercy so that he must bow himself down under the feet of all men and submit himself unto them Conscience is our next neighbour with whom we are to be reconciled before God will accept our offerings therefore we ought rather to suffer the loss of our own selves then to keep an evil conscience yea all adversities are rather to be accepted then that Conscience should torment us He that hath an evil conscience cannot be advanced forward An evil conscience is a great burden We must therefore use all diligence that our conscience be brought into an innocâ—ncy but that can never be effected without affliction and without the want of all things pleasant He who is full of lusts is often afflicted when those things are not done which he desired It is not wisdom to reveal the folly of another unless one hath a very lawful cause else the business of another is not to be discovered The art of God is God himself and it is taught by God and infused without any means although some certain things should preceed which have been useful so to dispose a man that God can immediately touch him It 's no art to have no care in great abundance but by care to abstain in want comes to this at length not to be sollicitous If the eye be shut to lust and appetite we may endure much Affliction can bring it so to pass as any one can deny himself in great things which without affliction he could never have renounced He that is free from many hath need also to be set free from himself not that he be a captive to himself but be freed from himself Many think that they have discretion which notwithstanding they have not yet He in whom discretion is to be found both bitter and sweet things must have been tasted by him To be free in Conscience from those accusations which are wont to be made dayly is a great gift of God and that liberty can advance a man unto a notable growth if he can use it rightly No man knows what he hath but when he hath lost the thing then at length a man acknowledgeth what he once had A man is full of the study of appropriation so that he always thinks that this or that is due unto him and to be his and that he hath a right unto that He that standeth in God walks speaks thinks and operates as in the sight of God nor is he sollicitous how men do receive it Men are willing to hide under an evil and false worship those defects in which they are therefore involved because they have not satisfied their consciences And that false worship is therefore accounted for the true and remaineth unknown but when one satisfieth his conscience then it is detected to be a false worship for when one satisfieth conscience there conscience is cleared and illuminated and there a man is
always more and more streightned and at length comes into that affliction anxiety and sorrow by which he is so advanced forwards and his conscience is so clarified and illuminated that he can gain a true discerning of things and no falsity can ever deceive him to all eternity CHAP. XIX A Certain man said That burden and trouble which my neighbour hath upon my account does affect me with much grief formerly such a matter was to me a light thing and not grievous but afterwards it became a running sore No man ought to use any liberty towards his neighbour after that I had relieved my neighbour by my own proper trouble and had transferred the burden from my neighbour upon my own self I found my self notably advanced forwards And when I did not so do I was thereupon still under blame for in this very particular I walked not in the sight of God If a man must be advanced it behooves him to be quick-sighted that he may rightly converse with his neighbour It is often times necessary that one should neglect his exercises and his zeal for the sake of his neighbour and he shall commend himself unto God nor shall he therefore suffer any damage The levite and the Priest would not perform that because they were about their business and had their exercises and took care of themselves but left their wounded neighbour without help applying to him no compassion There was a true cause which yet they did not observe whence also it was that they were not praised of the Lord. A man attends fervently unto prayer and yet let him rightly weigh the causes of things and God will know he is to be advanced Oftentimes an advancement springeth from such a thing out of which there seemed that an hindrance would arise When a man observeth his conscience then is he always more and more streightned that sometimes he knows not which way to turn himself To neglect all things unto which lust reacheth out its hand and not to use them afflicteth a man When Nature is suspended then is not a man rejoyced though he hath the affluence of all things nor is he made sorrowful though they should be wanted if good things do abound yet they are not his for he cannot enjoy them truly so as to have a life in them but if they be wanting he hath lost nothing Wherefore he passeth between both parts unconcerned neither being rejoyced in those nor made sorrow in these To deny ones proper commodity and gain and for our neighbours sake and advantage to suffer detriment affecteth the conscience with great pleasure but if one seeks commodity and gain by the detriment of his neighbour or advantage by his neighbour's in jury or honour by his neighbour's disgrace then the conscience cannot be at rest and at last becomes grievously gauled Much is placed in this point so that he who desires to be advanced let him rightly use or handle his neighbour let him walk with frequent exercisings and with severity as under the Law and in all things let him observe his conscience He that spareth himself and does detriment to his neighbour rather then to himself he can never be advanced Also a man ought not to admit without lawful causes that his neighbour should serve him That the Fathers of old did so openly avoid gormandizing and gluttony this was the reason that gluttony is the chiefest of the vices under which all vices are contained Gluttony is the bull-work and defence of all the other vices which being broken down they can no longer maintain a war but the man goes on to fight them and to get the victory and one victory after another till by God's help he quite conquereth his carnal life and begins a happy life that so the flesh being corrupted and undone the Soul begins to bud forth and is gained But when afterwards these things are again to be lost certainly that death and affliction is much greater then was the death of the flesh In things necessary as meats drinks sleep cloaths c. they ought always to be only so taken as Nature can be contented therewith and not that pleasure or joy may arise out of them Such a use of them takes away all superfluity so that Necessity only may remain as in the sight of God Time is to be esteemed as too precious and worthy then to be squandred away in the reading of unprofitable books Conscience ought to be above all cases not ought any case to prevail at all if it be against conscience Carnal afflictions such as are these to be spoiled for the sake of the word of God to suffer persecution to be captivated to be tormented c. these I say I have not tried but I highly esteem them and the more because I have not experienced them rather then if I had experienced them That which is beyond Necessity is to be omitted and not used If any thing exceeds Necessity omit that for it will be grateful to you nor will you repent thereof although at present it may afflict you If you will not do thus greater pains and afflictions will arise therefrom That which is at present grateful at length breeds sorrows and that which at present affecteth with sorrow that at last will bring forth pleasure That which is sweet at first does at last give a bitter tast Boethius saith The end of pleasure is pain Also he saith There is no sin without pain and affliction as there is no virtue without its reward A man cannot be inwardly advanced nor have peace and rest unless outwardly he be withdrawn from all things in which he liveth and which he desireth and lusteth after and is imployed about slender and mean objects But thence resulteth great affliction without which notwithstanding no man is advanced Affliction is the food of the Soul To dye to the flesh is the life of the Soul Disquiet affliction and pain as to the flesh is peace joy and pleasure to the Soul for the one is also contrary to the other CHAP. XX. IT is necessary that a man should be made ashamed in all things and glory be given to God alone We must condole with our neighbour if one cannot do that yet must he hold his tongue and abstain from rash judgment When all things succeed to a man according to Nature pleasure appetite and proper commodity these are not the means of advancing him towards God but when all things go with a man against Nature viz. otherwise then Nature requireth and against delight and appetite then whole dayes are consumed in afflictions and then one may be advanced in God When things flow according to the current of will and Nature then there is nothing towards advancement but when we must sail against the current with men from whom many grievous things are to be born and who are altogether adverse unto us there in is advancement for such men are both the means and the cause of
still adjudged by me to be excellent and worthy yea even when it 's Winter time but the will of God is more precious to me then all things My business or labour is increased and agravated yet am I contented I keep my sorrows in silence for if they should burst out and be made publick clamours and complainings would dayly be heard from me because judgment is alwayes exercised upon me without consolation nor can I have either delight or joy or life either in God or in the creatures At the beginning for some time I enjoyed comfort when it was propounded to me that I was no longer my own and my goods were no longer mine but his with whom I should be married These endured for a while but they quickly vanished away again And from that very time to this I have been without comfort nor can I set my self to read in this condition seeing it is not lawful for me to assume so many images Nevertheless I esteem of the Scripture at a high rate for it is dear and precious to me Just as he who takes not a thing into his mouth cannot be sensible of the tast thereof so also can no man understand know or comprehend this state unless he himself does experience it and come up thereinto The event or success of things is plainly another thing then we thought of without the wisdom and beyond the understanding reason or judgment of man They who are in this state are not admitted to reason When others admit comfort these refuse all consolation For whatsoever can be said that they know And yet even from thence they can have no comfort CHAP. XXIII HE that desires to overcome his hard temptations or trials it stands him in hand to be calm or quiet to speak little and to pray much It is necessary for me to submit my self to be under men yea the most foolish yea also under such as live in errours and those of the worser sort I say I must be submitted unto them all If they sit upon the bench I will lye under it nor will I esteem my self to be better then they For who am I that I am not such a one my self But that the power of God hath turned me therefrom and so kept me therein for the sake of which the glory is not mine but God's If I sometimes out of urgent necessity speak of them viz. David George and Henry Nicholas in truth I do it with fear and trembling and not with pleasure I neither may nor can assent to their opinions for they are depraved and mightily lead aside inasmuch as they are fallen into a false liberty Their fall is most dangerous and most terrible for no man can come at them to reprove them so as to touch their conscience because nothing touches them and they esteem and deride all as if they were childish trifles But if they were to be reached there would be need of a more sublime spirit We must beware that we fall not back again into that which we have once forsaken and left by continence yea we must have a care that if we have proceeded forwards we slip not back again and if we have gained any thing let us not lose it again for it was gotten with great hardship or difficulty God acts thus with a man that how much soever a man hath profited yet is not the glory his but God's only to whom also it is deservedly to be attributed as unto whom it only belongs But man is to be kept under in humility and his person to be excluded and God alone to be glorified to whom alone all glory is due CHAP. XXIV THe most ready and next way to proficiency is this that a man should closely and diligently observe whatever pleaseth tempteth or moveth his carnal appetite and deny them all By so doing a man sometimes becomes so overwhelmed with misery that he knows not which way to turn himself whence it is that he is driven to his prayers If any one is willing to have all things done so accurately and according to his own mind he must on that score suffer so many plagues and for the sake of one commodity to indure two incommodityes in the stead thereof A man ought to learn to bear and suffer whatever is contrary unto himself else he can never come to rest and peace Tauler saith Abstain and Sustain hold thy tongue and hold thy peace Patience only leadeth me into the still rest Patience is the food of the Soul Yea in time of pure necessity Patience is that bread of heaven and that fulness or plenty kept secret in the Treasure of God Silence and patience quiet a man To have no delight neither in God nor in the creatures but to perish on both sides is the most miserable and desolate of all conditions If then thou askest is there therefore no hope left for thee I answer thy case is now the very same as if a grain of wheat that at this time lyes in corruption should ask whither or no there is any hope for it For if there could be any hope in and to corruption there would be no need that the thing should be corrupted and he that hath hope hath no need that he should die In this death and annihilation the affliction is so great that a man knows not what he is to do for which way soever he turns himself he finds life delight or quiet no where there meets him nothing but corruption and death and he himself acknowledgeth that this case is deservedly his so that he cannot so much as ask that these things may be removed from him he therefore does nothing but bows himself down and shrinketh saying O Lord O Lord And that conversation he once had with God with faith fervor labour zeal and severity doth plainly go down with him into the grave and he no longer hath any thing but lyes in the pit in death and annihilation and suffers the will of God and whatever he utters in words concerning these things he doth it all with grief and not with pleasure and when he speaketh he is involved in greater streights and difficulties so that he had rather hold his tongue Such then as can yet with delight and freedom talk of these matters by this very talking do they demonstrate that they are not yet come unto this state or condition or unto this exercise because delight and pleasure is still alive in them and they are yet sull of corrupt desires and appetites And although they are drawn off from the lowest dreggs yet are they turned quite to the other extreme But yet such are not to be reputed to be like the men they were before For now they are honest whenas formerly they were dishonest and now they are become more averse from themselves then they were before Yet although they are now in part made more noble and more pure yet for all that there must come a death even
a new promise of grace because grace in the regenerated hath taken most deep root according to its own true nature so that such have certainly no need to seek out some remedy out of their own selves Which whilst others do they do in this very point testify that they have not attained to that of which they boasted and which they by the testimonies of the Scriptures attributed to themselves in the very truth and according to the proper essence of the thing For the old man who always by force usurpeth the empire in man with transgression which indeed is termed a tripping and is made light of yet nevertheless in the sight of God it can never be tollerated in the new man without real mortification alledgeth a contrary testimony viz. that we yet live the life of the old man nor as yet are disposed unto death because that no sin can be committed against our wills and without pleasure or delight Hence therefore is it manifest that we still are kept in the life of the old man and are not yet arrived at the new life for a man comes not to the death of natural strength in his carnal life and with the complacency of proper will or by the study of proper righteousness and austerity but against its own will viz. it is to be subjected on the cross to the obedience of God by the means of pouring forth of the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord into whose communion we are taken by a like death according to the inward man so that on the cross we wholly put off our natural life which we had in the flesh being buried with Christ and afterwards raised up again into another supernatural life so as the power of the Law which being as yet not perfectly killed lurketh in the members of our natural body is wholly enervated in the mind and Soul and in the whole humanity having utterly lost all right in and upon the life of man For a man is not excited into such a life ove◠which the jurisdsction of the Law can domineer with a deadly accusation but when it hath fully finished this judgment in man by this death the man also by the benefit of the same death is altogether freed from that Law EPIST. XXII Being a fundamental Relation in what properly consisteth the Oeconomical Government of the Family of Love To the same person MY John I received thy letters together with the books and having somewhat perused them I gain'd the understanding of the greater part of the opinion yet I shall keep the Books till thou comest But the opinion of the Writer is contrary to my mind because it consisteth in the knowledge only of a seeming divine truth and not in an essentia◠truth of God And this is my opinion seeing no man can be more instructed according to this way than the Writer himself of these Books If I may understand his fundamentals from his Books it cannot possibly be that any of those who are inferiour to him can more happily explain the thing to me Yet I am willing that thou shouldest enquire how they carry themselves in their conversation that thou wouldest as exactly as possibly thou canst find out also the rest of their state or condition for when thou shalt come hither I shall more fully discover to thee my opinion concerning those Writings Now I only ask pardon seeing that matters are thus the cause whereof if it shall please the Lord I shall tell thee at thy coming May the merciful and faithful God have mercy on them and us that in an acknowledgement of their darkness they may be led by the Lord in the straight way unto his essential truth before which the natural Reason which inordinately appropriateth God to it self may utterly perish whereby I fear they are still too much bound though they think themselves clearly set free therefrom For all that for which they labour and contend and which they account their utmost aim as far as I can imagine must yet be judged of God for that which reason endeavoureth to effect with them by knowing all that must be God himself so that nothing but God can acknowledge himself in us we in the mean time being by a real death of body and soul as to our creaturely part wholly laid aside and then that life which ought to be in us can be nothing else but Christ as Paul saith likewise so that after we are buried by death we are no more raised up again into Nature but into the Spirit For nature remaineth condemned upon the Cross and being once dead is not again revived Now I judge that nature in these people is still egregiously and in very deed and especially alive although they may think that they are already purified because that they perswade themselves through their ignorance and blindness that they have already plainly conquered that combat of an accusing conscience I write all this to thee with the greatest brevity because thou didst demand my opinion but when God permitting thou shalt come thy self we will talk more concerning them My Opinion therefore as I said is contrary to these Writings and my mind can no waies assent unto them For that aim which the Writer himself calleth the Intellect of God in my sense is indeed nothing else than that they would have Nature as yet not deadned to become a propriety to themselves when indeed Nature before it be dead cannot be otherwise in it self for in it the highest death consisteth True indeed that by reading I find somewhat concerning Death and of the abnegation of the reason and the discretion of Nature so as that the Author would have all humane wisdom and knowledge overturned before we can come to the truth of God yet nevertheless the Soul of a Man doth remain proper to him yea though he renounceeth his intellect so that in this very point the Writer erreth in which he taxeth others and in truth far more vilely seeing that he thereby would come to a greater knowledge but especially that he by the means of his temerity would arrive at that which others seek by means of worship and ceremonies For these from a vow do love their body goods wife and children that they may possess the inheritance of heaven but they do forsake their natural and humane wisdome and reason that they may obtain something that is better viz. the understanding of God and yet both of them are still captivated in that that their Ipseity or Iness still remaineth proper to them although to some more miserably then to others Now it is impossible that they should this way arrive at the truth of God and can possibly be planted into liberty as in the sight God because that they are not lead in tha◠true and as it were that essential death to be found in both Soul and Body bu◠are only instructed by knowing though for this very reason they reject others 〈◊〉 of a certain
nature and possess and love and in which we live The power of death shall be known to all things living but by so much the more difficulty by how much the greater knowledge some have on this earth for at the time of death all things are to be given up to God and then all things are shut up and ended in the truth of God The Lord unite us with himself who himself is the beginning and end old and new yet is he one and immutable void of all increase in himself though in the temporary creature he is known with increase and decrease As much therefore as we depart from temporariness so much are we united with God in whom there is no time and in him who is the last and the first with an everlasting presence and in him all Multiplication and Substraction of time is taken away and made co-equal and all flesh which is spiritualized and which was wont to express it self in time doth melt away before eternity The Lord be merciful to us all as of one flesh that bidding farewel to that shadow of time we may grow in his fear and let his name be more and more sanctified over all his creatures in time and let our life perish and vanish away like smoke even as in is evidently done to all flesh together with which all things do tend to corruption whatever it was that ever sprung from it whether they were deeds or whether there were thoughts But it is not so with him who is godly for he with all his works is preserved and will grow and live to Eternity because every appetite life and desire of his is nothing else but God and therefore whatsoever is his tendeth to Eternity As on the contrary the desire and scope of a worldly man is nothing else but flesh which alone doth also move and direct him therefore the effect must perish with the cause as experience testifies for the fruit cannot be otherwise then is the root whence it is sprung May our eternal Saviour Christ Jesus purifie us that in him we may bring forth true fruit and according to the multitude of that his most abundant Grace which God hath richly poured forth upon us from the very beginning of the World we may abide permanent in him Amen EPIST. XXVIII Being a most beautiful Admonition very profitable as unto the death and departure of Nature To a Sick Man I Heartily salute thee in the Lord most dear N. as to what concerneth thy disease I hope the best of thee according to the mercy of God and that his hand was not in vain lifted up over thee For he by his Discipline will lead and conserve us that no rottenness shall grow in us but that by his judgment we be still more and more purified and cleansed from all impurity of Nature bred with us and dead still lurking in us The grace and mercy of the Lord be with thee dearest N. in that thy misery and disease which thou must bear in the flesh and may he grant to thee true submission and yielding up under his hand that with a bowed heart thou maist bear all things in obedience to him according to his holy will concerning thy miserable self that thou maist be lead in his way with perseverance to his glory and be preserved in the death of thy flesh whereby the life of the spirit may from day to day more and more increase in thee and be manifested in the heart of thy dying body Moreover I beg of the Lord that he would strengthen thy Limbs for his service so that if they become deficient as to Nature which yet must be done by continued labours in the way of the Lord that our essence may in time wax old and decrease yet through Christ they may be raised again to an eternal and fresh-springing youth in God where no fainting nor old age nor death can touch them The Lord preserve us and his mercy be present with us in all our adversity lest perhaps that prove able to hinder us in our way that our continued anxiety conjoyned with the highest danger to which in this combat we must subject our selves lest it be in vain nor draweth us back but rather may fruitfully promote us to a perpetual progression and success of his grace and of divine benediction maist thou remain recommended unto God who will free us out of this present Dungeon of this temporary flesh and imbecility according to his own acceptable will will elevate us into the sublimity of Eternity into the life of the spirit through the Resurrection of Christ to whom be the glory to all Eternity EPIST. XXIX How a purified mind ought to bear without any commotion the failings of his Neighbour with all patience To his Brother D. John W. DEarest Brother that that man is affected with such streights and with such griefs of heart that we also must suffer together with him For in that that he is alwaies subjected to sufferings nor can come at any peace is indeed not the work of man but the gift of God yea a great and eminent gift to endure the folly of another and to cover it over with an unvariable mind towards his Neighbour For though we be unduely used or handled by our Neighbour yet in truth a purified heart ought not to be moved by it but must alwaies act according to the bond of Charity which is alone its aim for in that there ariseth no suspicion of evil and although modest reason also may descend to make an excuse yet even all that too must be alwaies done without any motion of mind for as much as he is such a one as the injury and trouble of no creature can move him because he remains confirmed in that which is truly immovable Dearest Brother I therefore write thus that if that same trouble should be reiterated thou maist alwaies have this aim fixed in thy sight For although as to the creature the justice is on your part yet the mind ought to remain alwaies free without the use of this right otherwise there would arise an enmity from thence and a bitterness of heart For thus that which is earthly overwhelmeth that which is heavenly with such a blindness that it plainly seems to a man that he hath some divine right whenas yet God cannot but love nor doth he require any other thing of us according to the measure of his Justice Not as if I would willingly lay some blame upon thee do I say thus but that thy heart may not be nor that any rule should be wanting to thee if you behave your self otherwise thou wilt be obnoxious to a heavier judgement except thou proceedest with caution My Brother strive to have a mind unmoved which cannot be hindred but rather promoted by the enmity of the Creatures All things to a just man turn to good whether it be death or life or dissention or love for such a one overlooking the Creature
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
consideration of eternity according to his unspeakable mercy Moreover my brother as to my state or condition that abideth in perpetual agony of death with most sharp persecution performed within me after various manners yet to one only end for whose sake all must be done What the Lord may in time do with me is known only to himself and his eternal decree But which way soever I turn my self and whatsoever I consider or behold nothing but a vast abyss and a parching heat of all misery do continually represent themselves to my eyes The Lord in his commiseration lead most wretched me by his fatherly hand thorough things present and to come in this unknown uncertain desert and desolate condition yet I give thanks to his goodness that under this his powerful hand he revealeth to me his fatherly mind The Lord be my helper and my conducter in all things and keep me and teach me in his School and under his discipline His grace be over us all together with his unspeakable mercy Amen EPIST XXXIII How ignorant Nature well stumble in much disputing and will comdemn its neighbour also how the sense of all Scriptures ought to be apprehended in our own selves under the cross MOst beloved N. I pray the Lord that he will promote thee in his way in which thou mayest follow most diligently his will without much disputing by which the flesh rather then God's spirit hath to do we therefore must lay out our time with more advantage For when for the most part we think to speak from the spirit of God perchance nature lurketh under the fair show of the spirit so long as we are still cloathed about with flesh so that when we least believe it yet we then account of the flesh instead of the spirit Therefore we are to walk before the Lord with fear without any bold disputings and we must beware as much as in us lyes to walk innocently before God and before men lest we fall into our own condemnation whilst we are condemning others if not in words yet in heart Moreover most dear N. that writing which I received pleaseth me well although I have not read it thorough so accurately by reason of the weakness of my head For though I cannot truly reach the sense of any writings unless I can apprehend the virtue of them in my own self under the cross whence the true fruit is manifested seeing I tread no further then unto the state in which I then consist by suffering I always follow the steps of Chirst where the latter always discover the defect and imperfection of the former Yet let every man mind his own calling and observe it diligently so all in time will clearly appear and come forth into the light Salute P. N. our friend heartily God will look upon him to his advantage and will make his dayly sighings fruitful thorough his eternal mercy which we are all to expect none excepted The Lord endow thee with wisdom and prudence that thou mayest act aright in all things and that thou mayest walk before him with trembling There are books enough for us to look into if we will but perpetually observe our own consciences that we may most accurately follow their dictates Moreover thorough the providence of God we have the Old and New Testament for our only external rule but the holy spirit above all these for our alone master or Teacher Blessed is he who is deprived of his own proper wisdom and is instructed and instigated by the spirit of the Lord alone The Lord be with thee and with us Amen EPIST. XXXIV Concerning a certain danger that hung over that place by reason of persecution unto which he was about to go DEarest Brother may the Omnipotent Lord preserve my mortified body according to his mercy in his divine will I have purposed to go to that place and to expect the will of God concerning me beseeching him from the most inward and deepest bottom of my soul that he will set me before the enemy and that the remnant of my life which is very small may not tend to the destruction but to the salvation of any one this I beg from his eternal goodness and mercy withal hoping that this danger will prove destruction to me only and will go no further The Lord make known his will to me in this one desire of mine according to his commiseration If the Lord shall suffer me in this tabernacle tolerably to pass through so as still to subsist as I have occasion I shall signify it to thee But my brother which way soever I turn my self or look back all things renounce me and of the present there remains no place more for me And therefore I convert my self to that which the forsaking of all creatures sheweth unto me The Omnipotent God take care to secure me under his own protection EPIST. XXXV An answer sent to his brother concerning a woman that dyed also concerning his own condition together with a devout exhortation MOst beloved brother a real grief hath possessed me for the departure of that woman out of this temporary world I trust in the Lord that all will be done for a good end and from him I expect peace and tranquillity with commiserating grace which we all hunt after and heartily seek for our Souls together with an expectation of an eternity to come I find in my heart that I am now obliged to her children and I love them with a true tendency of mind according to my poor slender ability May the Lord for his mercy-sake turn all for the better Moreover as to what concerns my condition the same kind of bonds do always hold me bound according to the will of God in a disease and an infirmity So long as it shall please the Lord May he direct my ways and bow them down under his fear in the obedience of his most holy will and may he bestow freely his grace on us all that we may continue our lives in righteousness with devotion and a diligent observation of all our works and counsels least in all our actions there be somewhat found that is contrary to the will of God May the Lord give his grace to us all that we may go forwards in his way and bear such fruits as may be pleasing to him In the eight following Epistles is somewhat described of that great misery into which the Lord cast him a little before his death I. MY brother my body hath an increase of some strength just as a man groweth but very slowly so as it can scarcely be observed though yet it proceedeth on Yet is the purpose of God unknown to me although like a pestiferous cloud a many difficulties and sorrows are set before my eyes out of which I can spy no deliverance but by death that so I may wholly penetrate even unâ—â— God which will come to pass if the times shall prove prosperous yea and further also of all means