both day and night and seeth others full of life there it is expressed what lies hid in him whither life or death That which hath renounced time cannot assume death nor acknowledge it although it cannot flee from the same The death of all things is to be promoted CHAP. IX THere is no need that any one should be sollicitous how he ought to come into death and corruption for it comes in its own time and cannot be supprest as a woman big with child when the hour of the birth comes cannot hinder it Whatever a man knows and understands in this death it is contrary to him for it is as it were a ditch in which he lies putrifying and corrupting No ratiocination nor understanding delighteth him If yet he could be delighted with any thing he would also still live What soever therefore he hath applieth speaketh or handleth it is all done in death and he himself is detained in death that he may putrefie and corrupt even unto the corporal death and this is that ending or conclusion of the natural man Now as this dead man hath understandeth speaketh thinketh and applieth all things infected with death and lies as it were in a ditch in which he putrefieth so on the contrary a living man hath understandeth speaketh thinketh and useth all things qualified with life and as the other is in a grave so this is in the house of joy where he eats drinks dances sings till he also comes into death then all these things cease and he can receive none of them The Natural man never transcendeth imagination and though he becometh so high therein that he dares to touch God yet even then is he overthrown as it is written Though he should build his nest in heaven yet thence will God throw him down headlong Then all is done with him as with that rich man who cloathed himself gorgeously and was fed with the daintiest food but after all that he dyed and was buried and then whatever had been pleasant departed from his Soul and could no longer receive it because his prayers were not heard Yet his mind is in this place separated from Nature by the cross and is taken into God and liveth in him but Nature is detained in death under the law of sin from which the mind is freed by the cross and standeth under grace serving the Law of God and is free from sin from which Christ hath freed him And so is repulsed by the mind in the bottom of the humanity Tawler calls it the lowermost powers out of which the vitiousness is so ejected that it never can return thither again When the natural man did stand in his own increase he did accomplish that work according to his own will that is the will of Man But when God hath gained to be in the place of self he effecteth his work according to the will of God but contrary to the will of man If a man follows his concupiscence in small things he follows it also in great things that which he must do that he cannot omit For it is a thing tried and proved by experience If therefore one would not follow his lust in great things he is not to follow it then in small things for he who is willing to omit great matters will also omit smaller To be deficient to ones self as to Nature and to suffer therein is very pleasant to the mind For whatever is cut off from the flesh by reason of conscience is profitable to conscience We must suffer in Nature for the sake of conscience but not in conscience for the sake of Nature CHAP. X. IF a man should have the impression of the knowledge of himself viz. so as that he should truly know himself there could not be one of the sons of men so vile and despicable beneath whom he would not submit himself yea account himself unworthy to have any converse with him That a man is so evil so troublesome and so morose towards his neighbour proceeds from hence viz. because he hitherto thinks himself to to be something in time and in eternity nor will he be made ashamed To be in indignation because of adversity is a sign that a man is and is willing to remain something which something must notwithstanding be turned into nothing Whatever thereof is contrary to this something must be born with or endured that that may be reduced into its nothing The shortest and usefullest rule for going forward is this viz. that every one should satisfy his own conscience Conscience is a book in which we must study dayly That which every one will bring forth out of the appetite of the natural man by doing omitting or speaking c. that ought to be intermitted though the thing should be lawful in it self unless it were subject to mutability Wherefore we may not imitate them who are in death because they do all things in death which another would do in life For that which is dead is free from every thing Now to be thus free from things is the same as to have no life in things In whatsoever therefore one hath yet a life he is not free from that thing whence it follows that he is to endeavour to his utmost to abstain from it if he would act rightly For we must satisfie Conscience and in all things study to be obedient to it If any one saith that he is free from any thing unless he did it with affliction and grief but not with delight and pleasure he saith not the truth For that is still to him instead of a prison in which he is detained a prisoner so that he is bound and not free therefore let no man deceive himself nor boast before the time He who is to come into a more sublime state must be lifted up thereunto in order and by degrees and it behooveth him to proceed in those ways which lead him thither We must beware of a double heart Whosoever is ingenious hateth it The dissembler and the hypocrit have indeed an out-side fair show yet he will not indeed desist from his lusts For he does not think it to be his concern to be led contrary to his own will Fame and Glory is a short and a vain joy The new creature is not an action but a generation we come unto it by the cross for the ways which lead thereunto are the Cross and affliction CHAP. XI CHrist hath assumed our nature but not our sin That which we so often mention concerning Nature we mean of it as it is corrupted by sin and not as it is in it self For nature in it self is good but it is corrupted by sin and fermented with sin just as when water and blood are mingled together nothing but blood is discerned though both the matter and substance of water be still there Christ hath assumed naked or meer nature as it is without blood that is without sin so he hath assumed our flesh but not
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
are outwardly in affliction and captivity For these if they could kill their keeper they would readily do it that they might get loose yea if they could break the windows gates and walls But this other sort do not thus behave themselves but are subjected unto the will of God and in it do quietly rest and although they could do as other do yet that they cannot desire there is therefore a great difference betwxt the coaction of those and of these CHAP. VII GOd himself is the uncreated Salvation which spreads it self forth round about just as the Sun is every where dispersed abroad where it can be received But where it cannot be received the fault is not in it self If therefore this universal uncreated Salvation which is God himself ought to take place in man then must the proper included and created salvation of man perish for this is not God himself and therefore it cannot stand in the sight of God and a man must on that score be cast into death and destruction and be deprived of his Soul which he had with much labour saved and when by his labour he was come so far that he could not get further then was it time for God not be at rest but to cast him into death that so he might by grace establish that in the man which the man by the Law could not gain thorough much labour For whatsoever Christ represented in life and doctrine is impossible to be actively fulfilled yet it must be fulfilled in death It behooveth a Man to dye that God himself may effect the matter and that the glory thereof may not be Man's It is not labour but Regeneration Christ bringeth grace and that which is grace is not the labour of man and afterwards a man having passed his own proper created Salvation comes unto the universal increated Salvation which is God himself and this Salvation knoweth God and with this a man can stand before God for God can stand before himself And this man no more judgeth any one For this Sun hath nothing strange in it with this salvation a man hath communion without appropriation And here it is that the communion of Saints taketh place Life repulsed by one flees to another in which it lives till it self also dyeth When the life dyeth as to the creature it is nothing esteemed off in respect of that life which dyes as to it self for there life yet remains alive and receiveth other and greater objects then it had before and in them it then liveth and hath only changed one for another and instead of a worser hath received a better nor is it dead in it self but is still the very same life but when a life dyeth to its own self there is affliction unspeakable when it can have nothing whereby it can be sustained and which can refresh or comfort it for the destruction thereof is without hope for when it falleth can rise up again no more because it falls a natural thing and it riseth again a spiritual thing and therefore like seeketh like the old bottle cannot contain new wine a new patch agreeth not with an old garment therefore we must dye to deformity when conformity is to be performed It is very necessary to have discretion but no man can have it but he that hath the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit of which the Prophet speaketh and the last of them is The fear of the Lord for when one receiveth the former gifts then at last he is round about filled with the fear of the Lord and the Lord is feared in all CHAP. VIII ABout the prophetical promises of God we must always observe whom they respect for they belong not to the natural man and he participateth nothing of them but only his destruction Whatever is extent in the Prophets and the Apostles have wrot is praised as that which is beautiful yea and it is beautiful but to the Natural man it is death and he participateth nothing thereof Although therefore he shall praise it as that which is beautiful yet it is his death yea and therefore he must come into death if it must be applied unto him But Christ is constituted by his father to be the Saviour that he may apply all that and fulfil it by the cross No man that is not dead cometh under grace and the Gospel therefore they falsly boast who glory that they are under grace without death A man not dead is first to be subdued by the Law and therefore is to be prepared for death by means of which he is freed from the Law and comes under grace as long as he is alive he belongs to the subjection of the Law but when he is after that dead he is under grace for Christ is not the servant of sin that he might leave our sins in their own state but he came that he might free us from sin which is done by the means of death Sin is punished with death And Christ is no defender of the natural man that he should remain alive For if he should do that we should come without death into God which is impossible Let every one therefore abstain from false boastings and defend no unrighteousness for that thing will never find success The whole world is full of false boastings concerning Christ but we must not be conformed to the word as Paul saith A man is secretly besieged by many things of which he is ignorant and he then at last comes to apprehend it when they are withdrawn from him Also a man sometimes apprehendeth a defect in himself and is ignorant what it should be which oftentimes is so great that it must be qualified by the Lord. The misery defect and death of nature is rather to be born with then to fly to complaints anger and murmurings Suffer and hold thy tongue and thou shalst be advanced with help and assistance Break not out into words but repress their motion Flee not from the affliction of thy Nature for come it from whence it will it will bring with it great gain unto thee and will be a benefactour to thy heart If thou shalst not do this thou shalst have a disturbed mind and shalst hot be advanced forward by any exercise There are many things in which a man followeth concupiscence where yet he pretends to another fair outside show Whatever is beyond necessity is contrary to God and to all righteousness yea and to a man 's own self No man ought to boast of his exercise before others but to walk in the fight of God and to rest quiet in him For it s enough if God seeth it All high-mindedness is to be avoided least we be esteemed for some body before others Exercise thy self before God To be able to tolerate ignorance is wisdom It is the part of grave old men to wink at the folly of youth When any one lies in death and is filled therewith and both inwardly and outwardly is without rest
evil affections and the depraved root of inbred lusts more then it is possible ever to be effected by letters written For this is the work of God alone and is effectual in them who study and endeavour to submit themselves unto his will For it is impossible that they who are disobedient and never strive to quiet the accusations of their consciences by conversion can be so accepted of God as to attain to the grace of Christ Jesus to dwell in them for he that is not faithful in the least matters can never be made Ruler over greater things if therefore any one is not faithful to his own Soul with which yet he is one and firmly united how can he love God from whom as yet he is far away removed In this manner it is necessary that every one should strive with all his might and power for the testimony of his own conscience to renounce his own proper Soul as far as it is possible for him in the sight of God according to the highest degree of his knowledge now if any one shall do thus in that highest degree with the greatest diligence the Lord will in part enlighten the darkness of his understanding as to perceive more profoundly in himself what is the true power of the Law viz. what sort it is of in him viz. spiritual and not only is concerned about an external abstinence from evil concupiscences but much more rather about the most deeply fastened root of sin in us in which we all were conceived out from Adam For so long as the Root remaineth in â—s the action or power of the Law is always against us viz. the bottom being still polluted not being yet purged by a true amendment but by some certain â—â—â—d of likeness thereof And therefore the Godliness promised unto us doth not only and properly require of us that we should desist from external vices but that the very inwards of our hearts should be purified so as that a man should be cleansed and perfected most exactly in his understanding appetite and in his will that he may no longer serve the Lord and obey him unwillingly inasmuch as at first a most troublesome task is to be undergone in turning away his heart from temporal and spiritual captivity but when he is united to Christ he must perfectly be freed from all the earthly concerns of his lusts For seeing that in man there is nothing nearer to God then the Spirit or mind of man therefore it behooveth in the first place to cleanse that from the darkness and grossness of reason in which we are involved by the fall of Adam so that we may be lead into a fuller and more pure degree of divine knowledge unto which no man yet abiding in his corrupted nature can ever come Wherefore whoever desires to attain the true knowledge of God and of himself it behooveth him before all things to strive with all his might to with-hold himself from every vice that is become familiar to him and to which he inclineth and which sometimes he committeth even in this very work For man even while yet he is in his corrupted nature in which he was conceived is not so far removed from the presence of God but that yet he still retains in the supreme part of himself an occult and a most inward spark of some knowledge of God as it is notoriously seen that all men possess some kind of power in knowledge by help of which they discern good from evil insomuch as whilst they remain in the state of evil they are accused in themselves by that same knowledg but when once they are introduced to the state of good then they are at rest If therefore a man follows the dictates of that knowledge inherent in him from his first nature and abhorreth the evil that he knows but sticks close to thâ— good then at length he arrives there where he comes to understand that it'â— utterly impossible for him to give thâ— highest and fullest satisfaction to that knowledge which he hath by nature whereupon he is brought into great troubles of heart especially if he be diligent about the study of Good Moreover because man is wont to fall so back again into himself as that he doeth that which is good rather from the force of his conscience backed with some threatnings of the judgments of God then from Love and an earnest desire of the good then he searcheth out means by which he may be freed from that accusation of conscience Now when he can find no means thus to bind down the appetites thoughts and motions of his flesh but they always still get loose again then indeed it is that he apprehendeth that tho all outward vices and transgressions were laid aside yet there still remains in the flesh the root of them and that he cannot be freed by all his endeavours grievings and mournings from that appetite of the flesh which stirreth up in him Anger Wrath impure lusts and vain thoughts and such like but some time or other it will again seise upon his Soul and thus he comes to see that he is not so set free from the dominion of the Law but that he always must yet endure that accusation concerning the root of sin yet lurking in the most inward parts of his heart Now although the more vulgar and common external knowledge of Christ is willing to palliate and cover over this inward stain by the blessed death of Christ saying these things cannot hurt a Christian Christ dyed for them nor indeed shall I contradict them nevertheless because Christ therefore came and appeared that he might destroy the works of the Devil and that he might free the captive Soul from the burthen of its sins it is indeed necessary that the same Christ should destroy the very foundation also of this satanical building and by his own seed again sown therein should thereby get the possession of the heart and mind as it ought to be done and as it is agreeable to the Lord alone Even as these things were figured out by the type of the promised Land which was promised to the seed of Abraham upon on this account that every evil seed might be eradicated from thence But before things could be brought to that pass the Israelites must suffer many mischieâ—s from their enemies by changing the lives of many for a most cruel death as it came to pass in the wilderness where every thing that was still infected with the knowledge of old Aegypt was punished with death that no impure thing might enter into the promised Land In like manner also no impure thing is taken up by Christ conforming in us the promised likeness of his most holy humanity but all these must first be laid aside by the death of sin that we being thus purified by him should be fitted unto his body together with the most perfect and common conjunction of Christ as of the head of this body from which all
which lieth hid in man and convinceth him doth yet partake of reason and humane power although the Lord doth afterwards offer to the heart the light of the Gospel and the understanding of a man submitteth it self to that But for all that he is not yet one with the light for no man receiveth this light but he in whom the reason and strength of man are on the Cross become dead with Christ now such a one thence-forward because of the communion he hath received with the death of Christ is also again raised up by the same Spirit of Christ so as the Spirit of Christ thence-forward becometh his life his own reason and all his own powers abiding in death nor is there a Soul living in him but by the vertue of God and thus the man comes to renounce all his own strength and all his own righteousness in the sight of God and becomes conformed to the righteousness of God in himself which the natural man never knoweth nor can arrive thereat Therefore because the Judgment of Calvin reaches not so far and he himself is not yet dead to his own reason strength he indeed bore witness against his own self because that which in the Epistle to the Romans is demonstrated to be death by the Gospel Rom. 8.10 11. and 6.5 6. keeps him in life the light of the Gospel serving him for that purpose even to his own proper commodity For the Gospel was not divulged till after the Resurrection of Christ And then at length Christ the Son of God was acknowledged to be in us otherwise our acknowledgement was not concerned but only about the person of Christ according to the flesh from whence it is apparent that we our selves are still carnal and though we be not plainly like to the ruder part of the World and do account our selves for imitators of Christ who have left all yet still we are to be made liker unto Christ and to be planted into his death Furthermore I here further acknowledge that no man by the strength of Nature derived from Adam can ever attain unto the eternal mercy of God That study indeed and that labour by which such a man in his solicitous endeavours is tired our before he can arrive at the grace of Christ I acknowledge for humane and that it is subject to the Law but that righteousness which one acquireth by this study is not as yet that righteousness which is prevalent in Gods sight for this is at last after the Law constituted in us by Christ First therefore a man must labour under the rigour of the Law even to the highest perfection of himself and to the greatest innocency he possibly can yet when all this is done the Soul is to feel at length the judgment of God and seeing it cannot possibly abide therein it falls manifestly down into death and then at length is it by Christ raised again into the life of the Spirit But now the acknowledgment of the righteousness of God in common is by the Church which is nearer to us proposed in such a manner as this That God thorough and by Christ crecteth salvation meerly without any addition of works which I grant But because these under the law obtained no righteousness by the benefit of Works there being put no study or rigour therefore they also cannot for Christ sake renounce nor forsake their goods seeing as yet they had gained none For they would have them renounce what they have not but in the interim they suffer loss also in that which they have not yet arrived at That therefore which they say is true but it is not rightly apply'd by them as all the Scripture doth demonstrate that it is by their own faults that they come not to the truth Nevertheless I am unwilling to deny unto them all grace for their portion and according to the measure of their gifts seeing that they study with all their might for Christ and by the help of the Scripture do hear somewhat of him provided they be faithful in what they acknowledge and that to the utmost He that neglects this is condemned by his own proper judgment EPIST. XXI The difference between Repentance and Regeneration in relation to a little book of Diederick Phillips which was printed concerning the New Creature To. J. W. DEarest John that acknowledgment of Diederick Phillips concerning the New Creature I do partly own for truth if it be not stretched further then it reacheth viz. that it can according to the testimony of Scripture lead to Repentance and to lead a pious life But if that Repentance and life so corrected thereby he would have to be put for the New Creature whilst yet the Conscience is still under the burden of sins then is it erroneous for whilst that no death hath as yet happened and still sin lieth so powerfully in the whole man that by means of an accusation it often driveth the soul into sadness the Soul is yet under the Law for by the Law in our consciences we are convinced of sin And though a man may force into silence that accusation and that burden of sin that tormenteth our conscience and that by Scripture-promises and so comfort himself yet it must be confessed that then he still abides in the state of the old Man and is not yet arrived at the death of it For the New Creature is not subject to sin therefore also no accusation of the Law in the Conscience can touch it for then a man liveth wholly under grace and his mind stands in no need to be sustained by the external comforts of the Scriptures or also by the absolution from sins according to the testimony of Scripture it should bring forth to him a greater confidence for his life is in the Spirit and consisteth under the Law of the grace of God wherefore also the conscience in its purity enjoyeth the highest peace remaining sealed by the Holy-Ghost but in them who are still under conscience the Law of sin still exerciseth its power and conscience doth still accuse perpetually for some sins so that it hence appears openly that such are not yet dead to the Law because the accusation of the Law doth still remain in its power so long as by the transgression of the Law somewhat is committed against conscience and though we will not confess that we are under the Law or under the accusation thereof notwithstanding that there can be no accusation but by virtue of the Law still reigning here or there yet is the thing manifest by conscience its self which thorough an accusation for sin rendreth us guilty If therefore we could stand in purity by the blood of Christ according to the inward man then indeed the Law by its virtue which it hath in the Conscience thorough sin durst not so assault the Soul of a man as that he must seek comfort out of the Scriptures and to be reconciled with God and to be confirmed by
a new promise of grace because grace in the regenerated hath taken most deep root according to its own true nature so that such have certainly no need to seek out some remedy out of their own selves Which whilst others do they do in this very point testify that they have not attained to that of which they boasted and which they by the testimonies of the Scriptures attributed to themselves in the very truth and according to the proper essence of the thing For the old man who always by force usurpeth the empire in man with transgression which indeed is termed a tripping and is made light of yet nevertheless in the sight of God it can never be tollerated in the new man without real mortification alledgeth a contrary testimony viz. that we yet live the life of the old man nor as yet are disposed unto death because that no sin can be committed against our wills and without pleasure or delight Hence therefore is it manifest that we still are kept in the life of the old man and are not yet arrived at the new life for a man comes not to the death of natural strength in his carnal life and with the complacency of proper will or by the study of proper righteousness and austerity but against its own will viz. it is to be subjected on the cross to the obedience of God by the means of pouring forth of the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord into whose communion we are taken by a like death according to the inward man so that on the cross we wholly put off our natural life which we had in the flesh being buried with Christ and afterwards raised up again into another supernatural life so as the power of the Law which being as yet not perfectly killed lurketh in the members of our natural body is wholly enervated in the mind and Soul and in the whole humanity having utterly lost all right in and upon the life of man For a man is not excited into such a life ove◠which the jurisdsction of the Law can domineer with a deadly accusation but when it hath fully finished this judgment in man by this death the man also by the benefit of the same death is altogether freed from that Law EPIST. XXII Being a fundamental Relation in what properly consisteth the Oeconomical Government of the Family of Love To the same person MY John I received thy letters together with the books and having somewhat perused them I gain'd the understanding of the greater part of the opinion yet I shall keep the Books till thou comest But the opinion of the Writer is contrary to my mind because it consisteth in the knowledge only of a seeming divine truth and not in an essentia◠truth of God And this is my opinion seeing no man can be more instructed according to this way than the Writer himself of these Books If I may understand his fundamentals from his Books it cannot possibly be that any of those who are inferiour to him can more happily explain the thing to me Yet I am willing that thou shouldest enquire how they carry themselves in their conversation that thou wouldest as exactly as possibly thou canst find out also the rest of their state or condition for when thou shalt come hither I shall more fully discover to thee my opinion concerning those Writings Now I only ask pardon seeing that matters are thus the cause whereof if it shall please the Lord I shall tell thee at thy coming May the merciful and faithful God have mercy on them and us that in an acknowledgement of their darkness they may be led by the Lord in the straight way unto his essential truth before which the natural Reason which inordinately appropriateth God to it self may utterly perish whereby I fear they are still too much bound though they think themselves clearly set free therefrom For all that for which they labour and contend and which they account their utmost aim as far as I can imagine must yet be judged of God for that which reason endeavoureth to effect with them by knowing all that must be God himself so that nothing but God can acknowledge himself in us we in the mean time being by a real death of body and soul as to our creaturely part wholly laid aside and then that life which ought to be in us can be nothing else but Christ as Paul saith likewise so that after we are buried by death we are no more raised up again into Nature but into the Spirit For nature remaineth condemned upon the Cross and being once dead is not again revived Now I judge that nature in these people is still egregiously and in very deed and especially alive although they may think that they are already purified because that they perswade themselves through their ignorance and blindness that they have already plainly conquered that combat of an accusing conscience I write all this to thee with the greatest brevity because thou didst demand my opinion but when God permitting thou shalt come thy self we will talk more concerning them My Opinion therefore as I said is contrary to these Writings and my mind can no waies assent unto them For that aim which the Writer himself calleth the Intellect of God in my sense is indeed nothing else than that they would have Nature as yet not deadned to become a propriety to themselves when indeed Nature before it be dead cannot be otherwise in it self for in it the highest death consisteth True indeed that by reading I find somewhat concerning Death and of the abnegation of the reason and the discretion of Nature so as that the Author would have all humane wisdom and knowledge overturned before we can come to the truth of God yet nevertheless the Soul of a Man doth remain proper to him yea though he renounceeth his intellect so that in this very point the Writer erreth in which he taxeth others and in truth far more vilely seeing that he thereby would come to a greater knowledge but especially that he by the means of his temerity would arrive at that which others seek by means of worship and ceremonies For these from a vow do love their body goods wife and children that they may possess the inheritance of heaven but they do forsake their natural and humane wisdome and reason that they may obtain something that is better viz. the understanding of God and yet both of them are still captivated in that that their Ipseity or Iness still remaineth proper to them although to some more miserably then to others Now it is impossible that they should this way arrive at the truth of God and can possibly be planted into liberty as in the sight God because that they are not lead in tha◠true and as it were that essential death to be found in both Soul and Body bu◠are only instructed by knowing though for this very reason they reject others 〈◊〉 of a certain
Claritude or Light which is God himself without the Interposition of the light Angelical and then God co-uniteth all the foregoing Lights in his own Light which is nothing else but himself and a man is made so sure and Certain from God who is that very Light that this degree of his Light is God himself and not Angelical Claritude that he needs not ask others who have experienced it for God brings with him that certainty when he comes But before this Light cometh which is God himself those Angelical Lights do first appear and do as it were prepare the way for the true Light for if this true Light should come without sending before it those enlightenings a Man could not bear it But the Angelical Light is such whereby a Man rejoyceth for a short time Just as Christ said of John Yea were willing to be exalted in hâ—â— Light for an hour But when Chriâ—â— that Eternal Light cometh the joy iâ— him is not for an hour but to all Eternity When the Angelick Light cometh many mistake thinking it to be that Eternal Light which is God himself yet is it not so the reason of which may be observed to be this if one cometh up to a greater Light the foregoing is not cared for and if yet he gets up to a Higher Light also that that went before it is no more accounted of If therefore those Lights were God himself in his own Claritude without the Interposition of the Angelick Light it could not be otherwise but they would be alwayes Highly esteemed of and would never be deprived of their Estimation A man who is arrived at God is above the Angels for he passed thorough all the Angels into the Son A man must pass thorough a Combate a Death and the Grave to come unto God wherein is no need of the Angels in as much as they do Contemplate and use without a Death that Eternal good Now the Angels were appointed unto the Service of Men. When therefore a Man does Contemplate on these Lights and Revelations he must Sedulously beware lest he break out by speaking or teaching thereof but to wait with Silence and Calmness for his Advancement and be Internally Sollicitous concerning those Gifts But if he do break forth he miserably hinders himself and renders himself unworthy of these Gifts and abuseth them and as it were Prodigally throws all away with Pleasure Singularity and Pride There are also false Lights which shine in a Man and give him an understanding and do unfold the sayings of Scripture Yea even Satan is wont to appear under the Shape of an Angel of Light and all these are done in a Man Here therefore a Man is to have a care least he mistake these for Divine Lights and if he be in doubt whether they be Divine or not there is need only of Silence for he cannot err by being Silent whether that Light be Divine or whether it be false But by how much the purer is the Zeal of a Man by so much the less do false Lights vex him For the evil Spiâ—â— hath in our times appeared in many wiâ—â— false Revelations As Lucifer that fiâ—â— Light fell so also the first Light whiâ—â— cometh into a Man ought to fall and dyâ—â— for by that a Man may sin by loftiness 〈◊〉 Mind thorough Pride not yet eradicateâ— Now in that Death sin is plucked up bâ—â— the Root and then the true essenâ—â— entreth into a Man as it is in it self and Man is transplanted into it and it can nevâ—â— more be extripated as it is promised 〈◊〉 the Prophet The time cometh saitâ— the Lord where in no more c. Thâ— Angelical Claritude which a Man gâ—â—teth shews to him his Prison and 〈◊〉 the Impurity in which he idly tumbleth but it doth not bring him out of Prisoâ— nor takes away his Impurity from him But this Christ only doth who draâ—â— him out of Prison and frees him froâ— his impurity nor is that done but by â—â—cending into Hell or the Grave Anâ— before this state of the Grave a Man caâ— not bear that Light which is Christ himself nor receive it therefore Christ cometh after that that Angelical Light haâ—â— first inlightened his Prison and discoverâ—d to Man his sin and casteth the Man â—nto Hell And then all are taken from â—im thorough the Fire which made him â—efore unfit or uncapable of the Eternal â—ight of Christ But the Man is thus led â—horough the Fire that he may be purified so as all the Wood the Straw and â—he Chaff in him are burned in the Fire and he himself being purged by this Fire shall be saved He himself perisheth not in the Fire but sin only perisheth and is rooted out so as it can never grow out again but the Man is brought out and made alive again in God He indeed also perisheth by the Fire as to his own former Life so as that he is no more revived to the world and to sin for he is brought out thorough a Back-gate and is vivified that is he riseth again in God and is revived in Righteousness As we spoke of an Angelick Claritude that it shews to a Man his Prison together with his Impurities which then are to be purified by Fire that he himself may by this means be made Capable of the Eternal Light which is Christ so some there be who do not rightly understand that Matter for when that Angelick Claritude first shew to them their Prison with the. Impurity presently they think that this lesser Light is God himself nor do they take care that they should first be freed from their Impurities but with an impure Nature they presently apprehend that Claritude and arrogate to themselves great knowledge of Spiritual Matters which also they do divers ways abuse by Speaking Writing or Teaching for their own Advantage Pleasure Glory and Ambition but their impurity and their sin they account not off for sin but for a thing Lawful wherefore neither do their Consciences accuse them until God himself smites them for they ought not to abuse Claritude but it should have served them for that end for which it was given to them viz. For the acknowledgment of their sins from which they are afterwards to be Purified by Hell or the Grave and then at length they should have been made Capable and fit that that Eternal Light viz. God himself might have been received of them nor ought â—â—ey to have broke out into acts of speacke â—â—g writing or teaching nor to supâ—â—se themselves to be made perfect CHAP. XIIII ALl the understanding of those who abused the first Claritude is alone derived from that Claritude which by us termed Angelical and indeed it above Nature but is by them applied Nature so as that they utter things range which cannot be Comprehendâ—â— by Natural Men nor can any Man by â—â—s own reason arrive at this understandâ—â—g But such are very prone to do harm â—â—cause they can move all
those who â—â—ve not a true light although they have 〈◊〉 understanding very Subtil as also â—â—ose who are tired out from Continuing 〈◊〉 the way of the true light And these â—â—en stand in a false liberty nor are wilâ—â—g to pay Tythes to the Lord but only â—â—e Thousand parts and yet make no â—â—l payment of either by Tythes is meant the outward Conversation in the same manner they lay down one load and are willing to take up another and yet carry neither But he that walketh the true Path doth not thus urge one thing that he may neglect another but be bringeth forth both into use and studieth how to render both to the Lord. But they who are described above are those false Men who admit of a false Liberty not can any one gain any Victory over them or resist them except he be one that is come to Regeneration for such have the true essence of the thing and in the true Light the errours of these Libertine are heheld and they seen wherein they err and how they go beyond alâ— due bounds nor do Rightly persevere Otherwise they are above every ones understanding and make nothing of thoâ—â— who would resist them because they havâ— a sort of Supernatural understandinâ— which they derived from that Clarituâ—â— which formerly had shined in them 〈◊〉 therefore that is still a Natural Man 〈◊〉 not reach nor understand them anâ— much less oppose himself against them yâ—â— though he be a Famous Learned Man But he that would reach them and oppose himself to them and get the Victory over them it behooveth him to be not an Animal Man but a Spiritual born of God of whom Paul saith The Spiritual Man judgeth all things c. else â—et him let all disputings alone unless he will be made a Laughing-stock Because â—hey are made yet more Angry and Provoked by his weak Argumentations We must know that Righteousness â—nd Unrighteousness are so alike one to â—he other as are two Hairs of the same Head but God can divide those Hairs â—nd expose their insides to be beheld of Men. The way of happiness and the â—ay of Unrighteousness are gone in by â—he same steps and the one leadeth to â—ighteousness but the other to Unrighâ—eousness We have a Similitude in a â—reat heap of Mony that makes up one â—ertain Sum. Now if an honest just man 〈◊〉 to count it and to give the total Sum â—â—though he may not rightly know some â—â—eces thereof yet if he counts them hoâ—â—estly and keeps back none of them for his own use but compleateth the full Sum God doth not therefore reprove him for his ingenious mind but he who takes any piece from them is a Thief and must expect the Judgment Now he is the man who takes some from them who would excuse his Carnality by the help of the Scriptures In every Illumination Revelation and understanding the essence only 〈◊〉 a thing is to be expected A man had need to have diligent care about all that he meets with lest he admit that which is a fault CHAP. XV. A Man must Endeavour to lead 〈◊〉 innocent and unblamable Life 〈◊〉 which if he shall arrive God wâ— call him into Judgment and will purgâ— his floor from Sin at the bottom thâ— budding forth of which did formerly 〈◊〉 much hurt to the works and thoughâ— of a man thorough the Law of sin 〈◊〉 the mind But when sin is perished 〈◊〉 Judgment and is Condemned and wholly cast out Then indeed the mind is no longer Subject unto the Law of sin but is free both from it and its slavery and is now become subject to the Law of God Concerning which Paul saith Rom. 8.2 The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the Law of sin and of death To this belongeth also that saying in Rom. 7. A man therefore is no longer a Servant of sin in his mind but is set free from that Law of sin in his mind unto the Law of God although he still serveth in his members the Law of sin Sin is cast out of the house nor is it any more moved from the internal root but it comes extrinsecally into the house Wherefore it behoveth to place the Law of sin near to the gate that the man inwardly may have converse with God without impediment CHAP. XVI NO man ought to utter forth his words in vain All men cannot be called by the same terms but it must be governed according to the quality of every one To them who are rude as yet nothing of the more Sublime Mysteries may be talked of but they are first to be admonished to put off their thicker outside barks and if they accept that counsel they may be admitted to discourses of Higher matters and so by degrees may be yet farther proceeded with until no Root of sin any more appeareth But he who is not Faithful in lower matters the more Sublime may not be proposed to him or else the discourse would be holden to no purpose Now no wise man does prodigally throw away his rich Merchandise or his Mony He who has purchased his words at an easy Rate that is who hath by no experience apprehended the Truth in himself he easily bolteth them Forth which another can never do to whom what he saith cost him more dear upon which account it is that he utters them in such a manner as if they were cut out of his very Heart and this he does indeed when he certainly sees that they are not spoken in Vain nor does beat the Air for words are extorted from him with difficulty and pain also And this is the difference betwixt those who speak out of Illumination or Revelation and those who speak out of the Essence Substance or Truth of the Thing they speak with Joy and Delight but these with Grief and Sorrow They are defiled with Pride but these speak out of Humility to the Glory of God alone and the amendment of their Neighbour Great also is the difference betwixt those who have their knowledge and understanding only from Reading or Hearing and those to whom it is revealed whose understanding is endowed by Illumination Moreover there is another and great difference as is abovesaid betwixt those who have Revelation and internal Illumination and those who are come to the essence or Substance it self of the thing and do apprehend the Truth thereof for they have their knowledge acquired only by Illumination and therefore understand not what God the Truth and Essence is by it self untiâ— they arrive thereat themselves They know by Illumination that the thing is but not what the thing is until God by his grace leadeth them so far by and thorough Death CHAP. XVII IF any ones Heart is on the sudden pierced quite thorough that man indeed perceives nothing of the true order of Death but if first his Hands were cut off next his Arms and his Feet and then his Thighs and so
in the death and not in the life of the flesh it much more behooveth him to possess use know and behold the creature in the same death of the flesh for if this is to be done inwardly as to God much more ought it to be done outwardly as to the creature for all things must be beheld and applied in death and not in life if it be to the rightly done Whilst therefore we are not yet dead but are yet alive we ought to be lifted up on the cross and lay down such a life under a just judgment For else we cannot be conversant in or with the sight of God unless when we lye down in death and our conversation which is without death is no conversation in the sight of God and though in the sight of Men it may have a semblance yet it cannot stand before God But when life is as was said so laid down we are by the resurrection of Christ raised up again into a new life for unless the resurrection of Christ should be we should remain eternally in death When the thief on the right hand leaving all did turn himself unto Christ he begged to be heard of him in his Kingdom Therefore he yielded up himself into conformity of the death of Christ wherefore also he was conformed also in the resurrection He was crucified by Law which like a just Magistrate did not desist from him till it had thrown him into death and then he had finishâ—d his office and so became justified from â—in he also revived not any more into â—hat life to which he dyed by the Law â—therwise the Law would have had power over him again But Christ vivified him another way and in his resurrection raised him up again into eternal life which is God himself Then the Law had no more power over him for that life for which Satan by means of the Law accuseth a Man is judged by and thorough death and is taken out oâ— the way All that came out of Aegypt must dye in the Wilderness but their Children came into the Promised Land by these particulars that fruit is denoted which follows upon a going out When a man comes into the Land of Promise and there grows fat and gross if then he doth not behave himself rightly he is again expelled into the Land of the North where much misery grief and pain 〈◊〉 sustained till the Lord doth bring him from thence again then he enters into again by another way viz. with a greâ—ter glory and riches then before anâ— then he shall never be cast out again Fâ—â— though they which Returned from Babylon did not find that in the temple which they had before yet the Glory of thâ— last temple was greater then that of the first CHAP. XXVIII WHen a Man loseth himself he nevers finds himself the same again as he was when he lost himself and he knows not the fruit as yet of that losing of himself when he as yet hath not seen it or experienced it When corruption is present Fruit doth not presently appear for that does grow by degrees even to its full ripeness He that is free from all persons hath need that he be free also in his own person and that not only notionally but also essentially When a man hath lost is body he never findeth it the same again but in his Soul he finds a supernatural understanding Light and Claritude and whâ—â—â—â—ver then he understands of Gods is 〈◊〉 â—et God but rather the contrary 〈◊〉 A â—herefore he hath found his Soul so 〈◊〉 also â—ust he again lose it as before he 〈◊〉 did is body so as he shall never firâ—â—â—'d it such a Soul again But the calamity of this destruction and death is vast but out of these a man comes into the true essence viz. God and then that is much more essential then it was at first when he was to lose himself with so great an anguish and Death CHAP. XXIX WHen a man loseth himself as to the body he afterwards findeth himself as to his Soul in the supernatural understanding knowledge vision and use then when he again loseth himself as to his Soul he is stripped of all these again and then ariseth great calamity Hell and Misery yet if he goeth forth out of them then he findeth himself in the vision of God and in such wisdom understanding and claritude as the former understanding vision and use of his Soul when he first â—ost his body could not comprehend Christ therefore so assumed humanity 〈◊〉 that he was united therewith But 〈◊〉 after that the inferiour Powers also aâ— to be assumed by him there is yet need of another death Then a Man stands in a full purpose of persevering in Christ and never to go back again from him just like him who sitting at a Table spread and filled with various and delicate sorts of Food desires not to depart from thence or like him who living well and sound desires not to kill himself How much misery and difficulty of death is required before a man is purified â—s known to them who have experienced the thing and when a man is purged and prepared for the seed of God that â—t may be sown yet he does not hitherto apprehend nor perceive that seed and knows not that he is sown therewith until it cometh up nor yet doth it come up until it be corrupted in the Earth How great miseries and anguishes in dvâ—ng are required to that corruption of the â—eed is also known to them who have â—elt it This death of the Soul happeneth â—fter the death of the Body is past for a â—eath also belongeth to the Soul both which deaths must be fulfilled in a man When the body is lost the Soul also must be lost And this is that same Talent which the Lord required of the man besides those Ten for both sums are due unto him and he will have both paid unto himself That which was said before concerning the seed sown in a purified mind which is not perceived until it be corrupted and growth forth the very same thing doth more clearly appear from the similtude of the Field sown with Corn. CHAP. XXX IN a man from whom sin is taken away and who is purged again from sin no more motions thereof are found in the bottom of the mind for from a root cleansed from all sins how can any evil spring forth For that would be â—â—sign that somewhat was still deficient there and that the bottom was not wholly purified If Plato had had his foundâ—tion thoroughly purged he had not indulged his anger over his servant Whâ—â— motions soever happen in them that aâ—â—urified proceed not from the bottom of their minds but from without only and such do presently drive them out again whether it be anger or honour or ambition or such like To a man once purified there is yet need of a closer purification â—nd after that of another yet more close Death and
they are not We must eat as necessity requireth but we must eat drink and sleep with fear all propriety must expect its judgment God suffers no appropriation That which is commonly said we can do nothing without God is easily said but what that is in the very thing it self or what it is to be conversant in that very thing no man knows but he who is come thereunto Where God teacheth and governeth there is no place for reason but it is set aside The teaching leading and rule of God doth far surpass it and the matter seems to it to be impossible Divinity is learnt with joy but experienced with sorrow They which study divinity are for the most part enemies to those who experience it If grief invadeth us it is not to be oppresed lest its fruits perish but we are to abide in it and yet not to despair CHAP. V. TO have a nature wholly self-denied both as to God and to the creatures is a deadly thing Unless Nature should be equally denied as to God as also to the creatures it would not go into death When the root is extripated death is present When that is accomplished the renounciation is eternal When God hath once renounced nature then is the end come for it can never return back again to its former state but it remains in self-denial even as to God also for flesh and blood possess not the Kingdom of God But the young sprig grown out of death that shall be the heir When any one still stands in labouring under the Law in continency then to morrow may that be committed which is to day omitted Because the root and foundation of sin hath not yet been condemned even to the very death He that abides in a choice of things is always in affliction He who alwayes seeks after better things and is not contented with the present must necessarily be alwayes very thoughtful and restless He is one who saith When I thus stood in the appetite of things my appetite did enlarge it self so vastly and towards so many varieties of things that I could never be at quiet till I had wholly renounced all desire and denying my own self I came to be contented with a few small things and when I saw I could be sustained by the meaner sort of things I did not choose the better nor was I afflictedly sollicitous about other things Then at length when I had found rest I was contented which way soever things fell That which agreeth with Nature is chiefly to be omitted and that which is most disagreeing thereunto that is to be done with how great a difficulty these things are done may be perceived God in the wilderness overthrew and wore out those Israelites that still savoured Aegypt and brought up and new generation which knew not Aegypt Debility consists in the lowermost faculties not in life but in death when the mind is taken up to God If the Gentiles did constitute any thing they did it firmly together with security and knowledge knowing the matter to be thus and no otherwise But the Christians do not so but they stand in faith founded on no security or firmness being also ignorant of all things but are in the obedience of faith whence Paul saith After the resurrection of Christ was established the obedience of faith The new creature hath nothing for it self neither knowledge nor security nor firmness as have the Gentiles but walks in faith The faithful are led into faith beyond security knowledge and science for all things are taken away from before their eyes and from out of their hands and they stand in the sight of Goâ— and in the hand of God Our birth is accompanied with appropriation yet must appropriation be separated from Nature if the Law of Goâ— must be set up in us which cannot be doâ—â— but by the death and destruction of thâ— natural man for it is impossible for Nâ—ture to do the will of God and to fâ—â—â—â— the Law and if that must be done the must it dye and perish against its wilâ— for no death is voluntary nor actinâ— but passive and happens against the will When therefore God himself accomplish his own will man's will being dead and fulfils the requirings of the Laâ— then he draws glory from men The natural man can no more leaâ—â— his propriety then a tree planted at rooted can desist from growing 〈◊〉 bearing its fruits No more also can 〈◊〉 natural man fulfil the Law of God deâ—â— his own will or perform the will of Goâ— If therefore to keep a tree from growinâ— and bearing fruit it must be cut down aâ— quite rooted up So thus must the naturâ— man dye and God must be in his steaâ— Christ saith He that eateth my flesh c. the flesh of Christ is meat not that which we consume but that which consumeth us Of Abraham it is written that the earth was to be possessed by his seed and not by himself therefore he must go out of it if room was to be made for his seed In this going out a man goes into strange countries and he knoweth not the way nor can he ask thereof Yet he alwayes seeth one step before him In this dying there is great affliction but that it may not seem such and that a man may carry himself also couragiously acquiescence only can effect that for him CHAP. VI. WHen a man hath any thing in his proper possession rightly he thinks it is due unto him and judgeth it unjust if it be taken from him till he is convinced But then at length he acknowledgeth that he cannot stand before the severe judgment of God and pronounceth God to be just in threatning to him in judgment death and destruction Then he knows that he is not worthy to live and cleerly seeth that none of them are due to him which he had appropriated to himself either as to God or as to the creature and therefore he can desire no more but suffereth his death with the deepest misery and coaction He is convinced concerning his appropriation according to which he possessed all and endeavoured to possess all unjustly just as when one is convinced by sealed deeds and writings that this or the other inheritance is not due to him though he long kept them in his possession for his own but now is deservedly commanded to give them up The natural man is never made perfect but is only translated Perfection is the man Christ Jesus and as much as is received from him that in him is perfect holy new and just yet it is not so in self for he must renounce self whose natural part is evil and sinfull and must be made his from whom it may become just good and holy and that is brought to pass in Christ who is all these nor is there any other name given in which these things can happen unto us If any song writing or words are accepted of a Christian and are grateful
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
figures into meer estence he that thus ascendeth in images must now also dye even to himself because by this his asent and going forwards in images he is prepared so as he can be how touched with this death by which he dyeth and is corrupted and then he suffers a death of all his ornaments and gifts yea of his own self And therefore he can never be restored more nor be made glad by any means because the joy is reserved for him that abides after death as the Prophet faith These shall be written for the generation to come and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. And again Thy labour shall be rewarded and thy posterity shall rejoyce therein This is that glorious resurrection and fruit which springeth out of that death and corruption And hence springeth glory to the Lord This is that bottle that can hold new wine which a natural man cannot contain though he should have a state very pure and noble This was the seed whence conception arose Wherefore it is not in vain nor is it in vain that by the good help of God 〈◊〉 hath separated himself and disposed himself unto divine things for then is he compelled to follow order and so he acted rightly and had not done rightly unless he had done so because he would have been disobedient to God who is a God of order and leadeth a man in order whence eternal death that severe judgment of God would follow A man must be led in order even unto his death for unless he should follow order he would certainly remain unprepared nor would ever come thereto And therefore we must first endeavour to yield ready obedience and always to attend to that which is next and also from the very first beginning the cross will not be wanting and by the way thereof we shall go By what a man departeth from earthly things in obedience to his conscience by that is he atlength rightly prepared to come into the earth that is into the corruption of himself and that which grows out of this standeth before God This corrupttion of the natural man ought to last even to the corporal death of a man and after that the tender twig at last springeth forth But the mind here even yet before the corporal death cometh into the resurrection and is made a son of grace and of the covenant which consisteth in the blood of Christ now poured forth for the remission of sins Christ washeth us from sin by his blood which speaketh better things then the blood of Abel without the effusion of the blood of Christ there is accomplished no remission of sins or purification It is a Most excellent thing to be freed and purged from sins but to feel how that redemption is performed and to experience that misery is no pleasant matter but exceeding sharp and difficult Nor is it possible for a man so much as to behold the thing much less to execute and perform it But it is God alone who both beginneth and finisheth it to whom nothing is deficient because his works are all perfect Now here a man does nothing else but give himself up into tranquility and suffer◠the operation of God The work of redemption God hath reserved to himself alone and the glory thereof is his And because God handleth the matter no man needs to say that the thing is impossible because the work and purpose of God goeth forwards Here also do faith and patience take place which also are the work of God and not ours When one serveth the Law of God in the mind then in the flesh he serveth the Law of sin By how much the more of the sins of concupiscence and appetite remaineth in the flesh by so much the more misery affliction and death the man hath for he walketh not according to the flesh as being that which condemned under the Law and being hurried away violently by sin is crucified by the Law of sin Now where these things are not there a man still walketh according to the flesh and by how much the more there is at that time of the sins of concupiscence and of appetites in the flesh so much the more of life and joy a man hath but alas it is a miserable life which is followed by eternal death CHAP. VI. BY what way or means the Resurection and the judgment of God are to be accomplished after this time no man living can comprehend or understand for whosoever would know or understand that he belongeth unto death and becometh subject unto death We have indeed a representation of the thing but what the very thing will be in the future is not lawful for us to know When the thing it self is present then at length it is known All things to come are locked up from the natural man in darkness and ignorance yet he arriveth so far as to know that he knoweth nothing c. By how much the greater is the streight so much the more durable is the judgment by how much the greater is the desertion so much the nearer is any one to God For the most part inward affliction gets entrance by outward affliction and outward affliction is as it were the gate by which the inward entreth into a man For without outward affliction nature searches out many escapes that inward affliction cannot touch her As if one kept in a dungeon should still see light by one only cranny and upon that account the evils of being in a dungeon would become much easier to him So also as Nature can catch its propriety this internal affliction is hindered nor can gain a room or place For there is no place for inward sufferings where Nature hath got escaping holes Great is the misery where nature is thus kept in death that she can hope for nothing but acquiescence can bear all things He who is founded in death destruction and misery and is quiet in them admits not comfort either of life or of joy and is unmoved as to all things which are grateful and acceptable and no man can either comfort him or terrify him For if one should threaten spoiling death misery and affliction to him he already forseeth all these and yieldeth himself up unto them and is conversant in them And therefore he is immoveable both in respect of things grateful or of ungrateful No man can either make him merry or fright him Death and the withdrawing of all things are indeed a terrour to him but not such a one as now at length beginneth but now afflicteth him Nor do grateful things exhilerate him because he hath renounced all things and he can re-asume nothing and therefore he is unmoved Here Nature is as it were ground between two Mill stones because he acknowledges the judgment of God upon him to be just and suffereth such misery that he must thus behold the thing and the thing must then be done But he is not like other malefactors who
but in a just measure and order and that to his own glory and for the promotion and growth of the man All which would a man hinder if being impatient under the cross he should not wait upon God Great is the fruit of affliction and therefore in it is the Lord to be expected I expected the Lord from the morning watch even until the evening saith the Psalmist and Isaiah saith Blessed are all they that wait upon the Lord for they that wait upon him shall never be confounded the Psalmist saith In waiting I waited upon the Lord and he regarded me Now if there were neither faithfulness nor good will in the Lord of visiting and helping his the Scripture would never have represented these things to us in asmuch as it speaketh nothing but what is true The Lord grant us Faith Paul saith I believe all the things which are written in the Law and the Prophets The eye of our opinion Love and favour is to be turned upon God and in all things we ought to set him for our mark and end and not things created if we would conâ—inue pure and unburthened The natural state by the fall of Adam is this that we should turn our eyes upon those things from whence springs up to us nothing but blindness and ignorance which things also are again changed in a true change which tends to their original but that then happeneth with grief and with anguish Now he that casts himself into that original he arrives at the port of grace and that is revealed to him which he before knew not for the imitation of Christ openeth and revealeth but the imitation of the flesh hideth and shutteth In all things we are perverse until we come unto judgment and death Unless the Lord should exhibit himself unto us and should sustain us by his power we should all utterly perish whence we ought deservedly to beware of all rashness There is no need that a man should be more sollicitous about the getting of knowledge then he should be of attaining of death for in death things do open and give out themselves and true knowledge is unfolded whereas if life should remain that could not be effected though a man should strive with never so much study and labour Yea though he might get knowledge according to the letter yet for all that all things are still shut up and hidden from him before he can yield himself up into death and admit in himself the dying of the guilty body such studyings and endeavours after knowledge are rather an hinderance because thereby a man neglecteth his own self and becomes forgetful of his own concerns Of this also saith our Lord What shall it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul That any one in this world should not be solicitous nor feed carking care many things are requisit for there are some who take no care at all because they labour not by reason of want or penury And many are such by nature Yet this is not that which our Lord saith For the words of our Lord always point at some other thing then what we derive from Adam yea they are spoken quite contrary to that which we are in Adam Therefore our Lord is very odious to the flesh yea the very death and destruction thereof is Christ who proceeds quite contrary to our Nature CHAP. XXVIII NEcessary affairs are done and performed by the chosen of God without the cleaving or sticking of their hearts unto them And if it be not thus but that the heart is rather burdened with them and is involved in imaginations this is not thorough any fault in the things but because of that defect that still abideth in man And thus a man goes away blinded not knowing himself until he falleth into temptation or tryal But when he comes to a feeling knowledge of himself then he may be advanced which could never be done afore because he had to do with sin secretly That which a man sometimes thought was hurtful to him and his hinderance that afterwards serves to advance and put him forwards Therefore should a man remain without any choice of his own but wait what God will do with him and thus yield himself up as being bowed under the divine will Here is the communion of Saints and that in the highest degree Let therefore the lowest degree blush that even it also doth not earnestly long after this communion for if the Sun gives himself forth in common certainly then the Moon ought to do the like who else ought to be ashamed if she should claim to her self too great a propriety and arrogate all to be hers He who is swallowed up by created things feeles from them either a pleasure or a pain even to joy or grief so as he can have no peace But he who is free from them is free also from both those evils so that neither what is pleasant neither what is ungrateful neither gladness nor sorrow reacheth him And because joy hath no place in him neither also doth sorrow touch him if things do happen other ways then joy and desire do expect and ask To stand between comfort and discomfort between joy and grief and to remain untouched and unmoved by either is a great liberty and the gift of God for no man hath that of or from himself Yea let no man unduely think that he hath gotten that for many things are required before we can arrive at this state or condition and when we are come thither yet is not glory thereof belonging to man but to God alone And thus man is to abide in humility without judging or contemning of others CHAP. XXIX SIn is hated in a double sense and that by divers sorts of persons For some do hate sin because of affliction they thereby being afflicted and terrified in their consciences as also because of the loss they sustain by it as the loss of their souls of heaven and of eternal salvation and if these two were not viz. the torment of conscience and the loss of heaven they could love sin and be friends with it yea become to be united and to be in league therewith And it is thus proved because that same hatred of sin proceeds not from the nature of the mind nor from regeneration in as much as there is in this state still left the old life to which belongeth judgment and condemnation and is that that must dye the death Whereas others viz. such as are transplanted into God do hate sin out of the Nature of their mindes and out of regeneration For the new life which is in them will not bear sin nor suffer it to be and that not because of that torment of conscience or loss of salvation but out of its own nature by reason of its tenderness and its holy temper For this nature can endure nothing that is strange for it is the Newman Christ Jesus who is God himself Hence
make themselves more assured or may expect or receive it from any creature whatsoever but feelingly livingly and internally being convinced in their own hearts do truly become sensible of the highest love in the deepest enmity of the greatest riches in the extreamest poverty of the profoundest joy in the most pressing streights and misery and in the fiercest combat the sweetest peace and in a word in the lowest despondencies and weakness yea desperation and inconstancy the highest faithfulness and constancy ought to be found in God Here Faith comes to be tryed whether it be of man or whether it be of God for if it be of man it refuseth to choose for it self true poverty of Spirit together with the abnegation of proper happiness which it elected for it self for it denieth to assume for its conservation and happiness any thing but what is before its own eyes and is promised in words grosly understood from the Scriptures and acquiesces in the doing of them only that the Soul may be saved but if some things seem to it to be impossible to be performed it layes all that upon the shoulders of Christ as without and beyond it self and so quiets its own conscience in the best manner it can be possibly performed When as if from the most inward secrets of its own Soul it would confess the truth it would indeed tell you of a conscience not soundly pacified but rather of one that gnaweth and tormenteth unless it strives of set purpose to hide the true state of the matter But if such a one be about to object and say This is the Devil that thus accuseth and blameth a man in his conscience from which notwithstanding any one may be freed by and thorough Christ Well then it this is the Devil that thus accuseth him without any Lie and yet by this accusation keepeth him still captive in his chaines for he hath not as yet forsaken him then Christ dwelling in him also hath not as yet set him thus at liberty from the Devil Hell and Sin that his freedom and reconciliation might be truly found to be in Christ himself Because for him for whom Christ dyed in him also he ought to rise again so as Death Sin the Devil and Hell may have no just right over him yea not so much as to touch him with the least finger because that he being plainly freed from all these by Christ dwelling in him he is become a member of his body against which can no accusation or condemnation be brought for even as the head is found blameless in innocency so also is the whole body with all its members Let every one narrowly prove himself before he boasteth himself to be a member of this body for Christ is not so vile in us as we may think him to be nor is the imitation of him so small a thing that it can be comprehended and known by our gross natural reason Because as he was supernaturally conceived and born so in like manner did he operate and speak yea whatever is manifested concerning Christ ought to be most exactly expressed in us in Spirit and Life and in divine truth therefore he that will glory that he understands and knows Christ and is a partaker of him it behooveth him in the same manner with Christ to be regenerated in Spirit so 〈◊〉 that it is no longer he but Christ who liveth in him And then indeed no Devil nor any accusation can touch him moreover he also will himself judge of all far otherwise then by the light judgmenâ— of a natural man seeing all the mysteryes of the Scripture are to all that iâ— of Nature left in him occult and hidden until the man be transplanted into thâ— likeness of Christ where not the leasâ— room is left for nature inasmuch as she is condemned already as being at enmity even with God himself Thus I have briefly and succinctly laid before thee those things which are ordinarily met with in them who conceive a zeal for God that thou mayest learn cautiously to proceed in thesâ— matters and that thou be not driven hither and thither by every wind of doctrine but that thou mayest finish thy combat with a serious and most arden zeal until the Lord shall guide thee aâ— last unto the regeneration which is doâ—â— in spirit being frequently invoked bâ— prayers and sighs after many adversities and both inward and outward sorrows by which a man is wonderfully put forward towards that which he aims at The Lord grant to thee his grace in his own time that thou mayest at last become joyfully sensible in the secret of thy heart of those most excellent helps and victories which are attained to thorough the cross sufferings and pains EPIST. II. Concerning the most subtil craftiness of Humane Nature To the same Lady THe Lord multiply unto thee the benediction of internal grace and the right understanding of his will inasmuch as his will cannot be acknowledged by nature left to herself seeing she is plainly contrary thereunto although sometimes she may seem to be thoroughly united unto it for all men do with open mouths boast of the knowledge of God and no man will be wanting in that every body cries that he is arrived thereat and that he hath fully obtained it I speak oâ— those who study their own righteousness and give up themselves to God and trusâ— confidently before God that they arâ— made free thorough Jesus Christ wherâ— notwithstanding such a man never yeâ— arrived in the least to truly know himself and hath never as yet observed the most crafty temptations and the seducements of his own nature because he esteemed that for good which on the quite contrary did draw him farthest away from God and his motions and comes quite opposit to all those things which God willeth and desireth Here thou must diligently have a care rightly to understand the nature and desires of that propriety which give me leave to call Tuity or Thiness which dwells in the flesh and yet bears before it a certain appearance of some spiritual quality For all men are lead captive by this enemy none excepted though he be the most devout yea though he may seem to live the life of an Angel and may bring to light wonderful secrets yet will he be no less then the rest catcht and bound in these most subtle fetters And although some begin to be aware of these snares yet for all that some other such like trap is laid more fineâ—y and secretly which the fall into â—ometimes which afterwards doth afresh â—â—â—rify them when as before they seemâ—â— to themselves to have obtained illumination salvation Yea even God himself Now this a man cannot know unless 〈◊〉 be lead thorough them and tries all 〈◊〉 God for in such a man these matâ—ers cannot be more plainly or deeply â—â—planted so as to abide in that presence of God true indeed they may partly be â—omprehended by Nature but when Nature is withdrawn
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