that I may die from my vanity and sinne in the death of my Redeemer Jesus Christ. O thou breath of the great love of God quicken I beseech thee my weake breath in me that it may begin to hunger and thirst after thee O Lord Jesus thou sweete strength I beseech thee give my soule to drinke of thy fountaine of Grace thy sweete water of eternall life that it may awake from death and thrist after thee O how extreame fainting I am for want of thy strength O mercifull God doe thou turne me I beseech thee I can not turn my selfe O thou vanquisher of death helpe me I pray thee to wrestle How fast doth the Enemy hold me with his three chaines and will not suffer the desire of my soule to come before thee I beseech thee come and take the desire of my soule into thy selfe be thou my drawing to the Father and deliver me from the devills Bonds looke not upon my deformity in standing naked before thee having lost thy garment I pray thee doe but thou cloath my breath which yet liveth in me and desireth thy grace and let me yet once see thy salvation O thou deepe love I pray thee take the desire of my soule into thee bring it forth out of the bonds of Death through thy Death in thy Resurrection in thee O quicken me in thy strength that my desire and will may begin to spring up and flourish anew O thou vanquisher of death and of the wrath of God doe thou overcome in me selfe breake its will and bruise my soule that it may feare before thee and be ashamed of its owne will before thy judgement that it may be obedient to thee as an instrument of thine subdue it in the bonds of death take away its power that it may Will nothing without thee O God the Holy Ghost in Christ my Saviour teach me I pray thee what I shall doe that I may turne to thee O draw me in Christ to the Father and helpe me that now and from hence forward I may goe forth from sinne and vanity and never any more enter into it againe Stirre up in me a true sorrow for the sinnes I have committed O keepe me in thy Bonds and let me not loose from thee lest the Devill sift me in my wicked flesh and bloud bring me again into the death of dea h O enlighten thou my spirit that I may see the divine path and walke in it continually O take that away from me which alwayes turneth me away from thee O give me that which alwayes turneth me to thee take me wholy from my selfe and give me wholy to thy owne selfe O let me beginne nothing let me will thinke and doe nothing without thee O Lord how long Indeed I am not worthy of that which I desire of thee I pray thee let the desire of my soule dwell but in the gates of thy Courts make it but a servant of thy servauts O deliver it out of that horrible pit wherein there is no comfort nor refreshment O God in Christ Jesus I am blinde in my selfe and know not my selfe for vanity thou art hidden from me in my blindenesse and yet thou art neere unto me but thy wrath which my desire hath awakened in me hath made me darke O take but the desire of my soule to thee prove it O Lord and bruise it that my soule may attaine a Ray of thy sweete Grace I lie before thee as a dying man whose life is passing from his lipps as a smale sparke going out kindle it O Lord and raise up the breath of my soule before thee Lord I waite for thy Promise which thou hast made saying As I live I will not the death of a sinner but that he should turne and live I sincke downe my selfe into the Death of my Redeemer Jesus Christ and waite for thee thy Word is Truth and Life Amen In this or the like manner every one may confesse his sinnes as he himselfe findeth in his conscience what finnes he hath brought his soule into Yet if his purpose be truely earnest to use a forme is needlesse for the Spirit of God which at that instant is in the will of the minde will it selfe make the prayer for him in his conscience for it is it the Spirit of God which in a true earnest desire worketh repentance and intercedeth for the soule before God through the death of Christ. But I will not hide from the beloved Reader who hath a Christian purpose but shew how it commonly useth to goe with those who are in such a firme purpose and resolution though it goeth otherwise with one then with another according as his purpose is more or lesse earnest and great for the Spirit of God is not bound but useth diverse wayes as he knoweth fittest for every one Yet he that hath beene in the warres can tell how to fight and informe another that may happen to be in the like case Now if it so come to passe that such a heart with a strong resolution and purpose doth thus come before God and enter into repentance it hapneth to it as with the Canaanitish woman as if God would not heare the heart remaineth without comfort its sins and unworthynesse do also present themselves as if it were unworthy of comfort the mind is as it were speechlesse the soule groaneth in the deepe the heart receiveth nothing nor can it so much as poure forth its confession before God as if the heart and soule were shut up the Soule would faine but the flesh keepeth it captive the Devill shutteth it up strongly and representeth to it the way of vanity againe and tickleth it with the lust of the flesh and saith in the minde stay a while doe this or that first gather money or goods aforehand that thou maist not stand in neede of the world and then afterwards enter into an honest life into repentance it will be time enough then O how many hundreds doe perish in such a beginning if they goe backe againe into vanity and are as a young graft broken off with the winde or weithered by the heate Beloved soule marke if thou wilt be a champion in thy Saviour Christ against death and hell and would'st have thy yong graft grow become a tree in the Kingdome of Christ thou must go on and stand fast in thy first earnest purpose it costeth thy first paternall inheritance and thy body and soule too to become either an Angell in God or a Devill in Hell If thou wilt be crowned thou must fight thou must overcome in Christ and not yeeld to the Devill thy purpose must stand firme thou must not preferre temporall honour and goods before it when the spirit of the flesh saith stay a while it is not convenient yet then the soule must say now is my time for me to goe backe againe into my fathers my native Countrey out of which my father
and entereth with the desire into him and he will not cast out them that come unto him he hath given to the will an open gate in Christ saying Come unto me all yee that are heavie laden with sinnes I will refresh you take my yoak upon you that is the Crosse of the enmity in the flesh which was the yoak of Christ who must beare it for the sinnes of all men This crosse the resigned will must take upon it in the evill earthly sinfull flesh and beare it after Christ in patience in hope of deliverance and always brea kt he head of the Serpent with the resigned will of the soule in Christs will and Spirit and kill and destroy the earthly will in Gods anger and not let it rest on a soft bed when sinne is committed thinking I wil repent one time or other 26. No no the earthly will groweth strong fat and wanton upon this soft bed But so soon as the breath of God shineth in thee and sheweth sinne to thee the will of the soul must sink it selfe down into the passion and death of Christ wrap it selfe up close in it and take the passion of Christ into its possession and be a Lord over the death of sin by the death of Christ and kill it and destroy it in the death of Christ. 27. It must die though it be never so unwilling Be at enmity with the voluptuous earthly flesh give it not what it would have let it fast and suffer hunger till its tickling cease account the will of the flesh thy enemy and do not what the desire in the flesh will and then thou shalt bring a death into the death in the flesh 28. Regard not any scorne of the world think they doe but scorn thy enemy and that it is become a foole to them nay doe thou thy selfe account it thy foole which Adam caused thee to have in thee and suffered to be thy false heire Cast the sonne of the bond-woman out of the house that strange child which God did not give to be in the house of life in Adam at the beginning for the son of the bond-woman must not inherit with the son of the free-woman 29. The earthly will is but the son of the Bond-woman for the foure elements should have been mans servants but Adam hath brought them into filiation Therefore God said to Abraham when he had opened the covenant of the promise in him Cast out the son of the bond-woman for hee shall not inherit with the sonne of the free This sonne of the Free is Christ which God of his grace hath brought again into the flesh for us viz. a new mind wherein the will viz. the eternall will of the soul may draw and drink the water of life of which Christ speaketh saying Whosoever shall drink of this water that he will give us it shall spring up in him and be a Fountain of eternall life This Fountaine is the renovation of the mind of the soule viz. the eternall Astrum or Constellation of the eternall Nature viz. of the creaturely property of the soul. 30. Therefore I say that all fictions and devices to come to God by let them have what name soever they will which men contrive and invent for wayes to God are lost labour and unprofitable without a new mind There is no other way to God but a new mind which turneth from wickednes and entreth into repentance for the sinnes it hath committed and goeth forth from its iniquity and willeth it no more but wrappeth its will up in the death of Christ and with all earnestnesse dieth from the sinne of the soule in the death of Christ so that the mind of the soule willeth sinne no more 31. And although all the Devils did follow him hard and did go with their desire into the flesh yet the will of the soule should stand still and hide it selfe in the death of Christ willing and desiring nothing but the Mercie of God 32. No hypocriticall flattery or outward comforting ones self availeth at all as when men will cover sinne and iniquity in the flesh with the satisfaction of Christ and remain in Self still Christ saith Except ye turn and become as children yee shall not see the Kingdome of God the mind must become as wholly new as in a child that knoweth nothing of sinne Christ saith also Ye must be born anew or else yee shall not see the Kingdome of God There must arise a will wholly new in the death of Christ it must be brought forth out of Christs entring into the humanity and rise in Christs resurrection 33. Now before this can be done the will of the soule must dye in the death of Christ first for in Adam it received the son of the bond-woman viz. sinne into it This the will of the soul must first cast out and the poore captive soule must wrap it selfe up in the death of Christ earnestly with all the power it hath so that the sonne of the bond-woman viz. sin in it selfe may dye in the death of Christ. 34. Truly sin must dye in the will of the soule or else there can be no vision of God for the earthly will in sinne and the anger of God shall not see God but Christ that came into the flesh The soul must put on the Spirit and flesh of Christ it cannot inherit the Kingdome of God in this earthly Tabernacle for the kingdome of sin hangeth to it outwardly which must putrifie in the earth and rise again in new power 35. Hypocrifie flattery and verball forgivenesse availeth nothing we must be children not by outward imputation but born of God from within in the new man which is resigned in God 36. All such flattering of our selves in saying Christ hath paid the Ransome and made satisfaction for sinne he is dead for our sinnes if we also do not dye from sinne in him and put on his merit in new obedience and live therein all is false and a vain frivolous comfort 37. He that is a bitter enemy and hater of sinne he can and may comfort himselfe with the sufferings of Christ he that doth not willingly see hear nor tast sinne but is at enmity with it and would willingly always doe that which is well and right if he knew but what he ought to doe he that is such a one I say hath put on the Spirit and will of Christ. 38. The outward flattery of being accounted a child of God by imputation or externall application is false and vain the work done in the outward flesh onely doth not make the child of God but the working of Christ in the Spirit maketh and is the child of God which working is so powerfull in the outward work that it shineth forth as a new light and manifesteth it self to be the child of God in the outward work of the flesh 39. For if the eye of the soule be light then the whole body is
viz. That these who have once tasted the sweetuesse of the world to come if they fall away again they shall hardly see the kingdome of God 113. And though it cannot he denied but that the gates of grace do yet stand open yet the seeming light of the outward Reason of the soule so keepeth them back that they suppose they have the Pearle and yet live to the vanity of this world and dance with the Devill after his pipe CHAP. V. How a man may call himselfe a Christian and how not 114. HEre a Christian should consider wherefore he calleth himselfe a Christian and ponder well whether he be one or no For surely my learning to know and understand that I am a sinner and that Christ hath killed my sins on the Crosse and shed his bloud for me doth not make me a Christian. 115. The inheritance belongeth onely to the children A maid-servant in a house knoweth well enough what the Mistresse would have to be done and yet that maketh her not an heire of her Mistresses goods The very Devils know that there is a God yet that doth not change them into Angels again But if the Maid-servant in the house shall be married to the Sonne of her Mistresse then she may come to inherit her Mistresses goods And so it is to be understood also in our Christianity 116. The children of the History are not the heires of the goods of Christ but the legitimate children regenerated of the Spirit of Christ For God sayd to Abraham Cast out the son of the Bond woman he shall not inherit with the son of the Free For he was a scorner and but a Historicall sonne of the faith and spirit of Abraham and so long as he continued such a one he was not a true inheritor of the faith of Abraham and therefore God commanded he should be cast out from inheriting his goods which was a type of the Christendome which was to come 117. For the promise of Christendome was made to Abraham therefore the type was then also represented by two brethren viz. Isaac and Ishmael shewing how Christendome would behave it selfe and that two sorts of men would be in it viz. true Christians and lip Christians who under the Title of Christianity would be but mockers as Ishmael and Esau was who also was a type of the outward Adam as Jacob was a type of Christ and his true Christendome 118. Thus every one that will call himselfe a Christian must cast away and out from himselfe the sonne of the Bond-woman that is the earthly will and be evermore killing and destroying of it and not settle it in the inheritance 119. Nor give the Pearle to the Bestiall man for him to spoâ—â— himselfe withall continually in the outward light in the lust of the flesh but we must with our Father Abraham bring 〈◊〉 sonne of the right will to Mount vooria and be willing in obedience to God 〈◊〉 offeâ— in up alwayes willingly dying from sin in the death of Christ giâ—â—ng no place to the Beast of vanity in the Kingdome of Christ nor â—â—ffâ—ring it to grow wanton proud covetous envious and malicious all these are the properties of Ishmael the son of the Bond-woman whom Adam begat in his vanity of the wanton whore the false Bond-woman by the Devils imagination out of the earthly property in flesh and bloud 120. This Mocker and Titular-Christian is the sonne of a whore he must be cast out for he must not inherit the inheritance of Christ in the Kingdome of God he is not fit he is but Babel a confusion of that one language into many languages he is but a talker and a wrangler about the inheritance he meanes to get it to himselfe by talking and wrangling by the hypocrisie of his lips and seeming holinesse and yet he is but a blood-thirsty murtherer of his brother Abel who is a true heire 121. Therefore we say what we know that he that will call himselfe a true Christian must try himselfe and find what kind of properties drâ—â—e and rule him whether the Spirit oâ— Christ driveth him to truth and righteousnes and to the love of his neighbour so that he would willingly doe good if he knew but how to perform it 122. Now if he find that he hath such a hunger after such a vertue then he may surely think that he is drawne And then he must put it in practice and not have a will onely without doing The drawing of the Father to Christ consisteth in the will but the true life consisteth in the doing for the right Spirit doth that which is right 123. But if there be the will to do and yet the doing followeth not then the true man is shut up in vain lust which keepeth the doing captive and he is but an hypocrite and an Ishmaelite he speaketh one thing and doth another and witnesseth that his mouth is a lyer for he himselfe doth not that which he teacheth and so he onely serveth the Bestiall man in vanity 124. For he that will say I have a will and would willingly doe good but for the earthly flesh which I have which keepeth me back that I cannot yet I shall be saved by grace for the merits of Christ I comfort my selfe with his merit and sufferings he will receive me of meere grace without any merits of my owne and forgive me my sinnes such a one I say is like him that knew what food was good for his health yet did not eat of it but eat poyson in stead thereof from whence sicknesse and death would follow 125. What good doth it the soule to know the way to good if it will not walk therein but go a wrong way that leadeth not to God What good will it doe the soule to comfort it self with the filiation of Christ with his passion and death and so flatter it selfe if it will not enter into the filiall birth that it may be a true child born out of the Spirit of Christ c. out of his suffering death and resurrection Surely the tickling and flattering of it selfe with Christs mirits without the true innate childship is falshood and a lye whosoever he be that teacheth it 126. This comfort belongeth onely to the penitent sinner who striveth against sinne and the anger of God When temptations come and the Devill assaulteth the soule then the soule must wholly wrap it selfe up in the passion and death of Christ and in his Merits 127. Christ indeed hath merited redemption for us alone but he hath not merited it as such a merit for upon a Merit a Reward is given that for his own proper merits sake he would outwardly freely grant us his childshîp and so receive us for children when we are none No hee himselfe is the merit he is the open gate that leadeth through death through that gate we must enter But he receiveth no beast into his merit but those onely that turn and become as children
very fooles and laughing stockes to the world and must must be forced to starve 18 If a man should not give his children liberty to learn the fashions and dealings of the world they would be nothing but derided and despised also if a man should not be somwhat like in his carriage and take some state and bravery upon him he should not be regarded and except he use some device to get by he cannot maintaine that for with truth and love and righteousnesse saith hee I am sure to get nothing but shall dye a Beggar I must do as others do and then I may be able to live amongst them Why should I onely bee the foole of all the world If I do commit sin God is gracious and mercifull hath not Christ slain finne and death upon the crosse and taken away the power of the Devill I shall once repent well enough and be saved 19 This is the Rule that the world goeth by this is the course both of superiour and inferiour of the shepheard and of the sheep Christs passion and suffering must be the cloak for their knavery every one would bee accounted a Christian and weare the Mantle of Christ when the poore soule playeth the whore with the Devill if with the mouth they can but confesse themselves to be Christians and cover their knavery with the purple mantle of Christ then all is well and so we are brave Christians with our lips under the mantle of Christ and yet we lodge the whore of Antichrist in our hearts 20 O yee false Shepheards of Christ you that climb up into the sheep-fold by the doore of Robbers why doe you tickle or comfort the knave of wickednesse with the sufferings and death of Christ Doe you think that Christ was such a one For none should weare his mantle but such as are like him Search the center or ground of Nature and shew the people the Abysse that is in their hearts shew them the snares of the Devill which we lye intangled in that they may no more look after the cursed course of the world but that they may learn to fight against flesh and bloud and also against the Devill and an hypocriticall life that they may goe forth from the pride of the Devill and enter into righteousnesse love and humility 21 The passion of Christ will benefit none unlesse they turn from their evil false and wicked purposes and repent and enter into the Covenant of God to such a one the sufferings of Christ are very powerfull and profitable The hypocrites they seemingly carry themselves so that they may have the Name of Christ put upon them but they thereby abuse the Name of God and must give a strict account of that 22 O yee Antichristian Shepheards of the new Order you that with with false hypocrisie for the favour of men or for your own Idols sake the belly cast the garment of Christs sufferings over the hypocrites and deceivers who are but seeming Christians how will you answer it when Christ shall require an account of his sheep from you you having wittingly and wilfully for favour money riches honour and reputation covered Wolves in whom the Devill dwelleth with the purple mantle of Christ why doe you not breake the Nut shell and looke upon the kernell and heart that lieth within it and tell the superior as well as the inferior of his abominations and wickednesse If you be the Shepheards of Christ why doe you not as Christ did who told every one the truth to his face he did both bruise and heale not for favour or respect to the person of any but according to the will of his Father the shepheards of Christ ought to doe so too 23 O beloved Reason thou walkest very wisely in the way of this world as farre as concerneth the outward body but what becometh of the poore soule this outward body is not its home it is not its eternall native countrey What will it avail thee to take thy pleasure here a very little while and suffer eternall losse Or what profit will it be to suffer they children to follow their own will in bravery luxury and insolence or what ill they please for a little while in this world and for thee to take delight in their despising of the poore and needy when after this life thou shalt lose them for ever Thou supposest thou lovest them and doest them good when thou hast so brought them up that the word commendeth their cunning fetches deceit and gallantry and it likes thee well but the Devill taketh that to himselfe and thou art the murtherer of thy own children and art their greatest enemy for children look upon their parents at every turn and when they see their idle unhappy waggery and roguish trickes doe please them then the children play their trickes the more and grow stouter hardened bold and brazen-faced in their villany These will cry out at the last judgement day against their parents for not with-holding and restraining them from vanity and their wicked course by nurturing them correcting them and bringing them up in vertue and in the feare of God 24 If thou lovest thy life and thy children then lose thy life and thy children as to the iniquity of this world that they neither walk nor be therein and then thou shalt find them and thy life again in heaven as Christ saith Whosoever loveth his life shall lose it but whosoever loseth his life his goods his credit for my sake he shall find them again in the kingdome of heaven Also when the world despiseth persecuteth and hateth you for my sake then rejoyce your reward is great in the kingdom of heaven Also what wil it profit a man to enjoy temporall pleasure and honor here in this life that endureth but for a moment and lose his soule that endureth to eternity 25 Loving children in Christ let every one consider in what soyle he groweth here we must not stay a fitter season for the bettering of our life but to day to day when the voyce of God soundeth let every one enter into himself and search and try himself let none regard the broad way of the world if he doe he will goe into the Abysse to the Devils for the way to the kingdome of heaven is a very strait and narrow way whosoever will walk therein must not carry till the Devil quite grateth or stoppeth up the doore he must not regard the course of this world he must onely enter into himselfe and seek or search himselfe the time will come that he shal think that himselfe onely is left alone but God hath alwayes his seven thousand with Elias besides himselfe whom he knoweth not of 26 For a sincere earnest Christian doth not altogether know himselfe he seeth nothing but his vices and faults in which the Devill fighteth against him they are alwayes in his sight but he knoweth not his own holinesse in this world for Christ hideth it under
THE WAY TO CHRIST Discovered BY IACOB BEHMEN In these Treatises 1. Of true Repentance 2. Of true Resignation 3. Of Regeneration 4. Of the Super-rationall life ALSO The Discourse of illumination The Compendium of Repentance And the mixt world c. LONDON Printed by M. S. for H. Blunden at the Castle in Corn-hill 1648. THE FIRST BOOK Of true Repentance SHEWING How man should stir up himself in mind and will in himselfe and what his earnest purpose and consideration must be Written in the Germane Language Anno 1622. BY JACOB BEHMEN MARK 1. 15. The time is fulfilled and the Kingdome of God is come neer Repent and believe the Gospel Printed by M. S. 1648. The AUTHORS Preface to the Reader that loveth God REader who lovest God if thou wilt use this Booke aright and act in good earnest thou shalt certainely finde the benefit thereof but I desire thou mayest be warned that if thou art not in earnest not to meddle with the deare Names of God in which and by which the Most High Holinesse is named stirred and powerfully desired lest they kindle the Anger of God in thy soule For we must not abuse the Holy Names of God This little Booke is onely for those that would faine repent and are in a desire to beginne Both sorts will finde what manner of words are therein and whence they are born Be you herewith commended to the Eternall goodnesse and mercy of God OF TRUE REPENTANCE How Man must stirre up himself in will and minde and what his consideration and earnest purpose must be when he will performe powerfull and effectuall Repentance and with what mind he must appeare before God when he will aske and obtaine of him remission of sinnes WHen man will go about Repentance and with his prayers turne to God before he begin to pray he must consider his own minde that it is wholly and altogether turned away from God that it is become faithlesse to God that it is onely bent upon this temporall fraile and earthly life bearing no sincere love towards God and his neighbour and also that it wholy lusteth and walketh contrary to the commandements of God seeking it selfe onely in the temporall and transitory lusts of the flesh Secondly he must consider that all this is an enmity against God which Satan hath raised and stirred up in him by his deceit in our first Parents for which abominations sake we die the death and must undergo corruption with our bodies Thirdly he must consider the three horrible chaines wherewith our soule is fast bound during the time of this earthly life the first is the severe Anger of God the Abysse and darke world which is the Center and creaturly life of the soule The second is the desire of the devill against the soule whereby he continually fifteth and tempteth the soul and without intermission striveth to throw it from the truth of God into vanity viz. into pride covetousnesse envie and anger and with his desire bloweth up and kindleth those evill properties in the soule whereby the will of the soule turneth away from God and entreth into selfe The third and most hurtfull chaine wherewith the poore soule is tied is the corrupt altogether vaine earthly and mortall flesh and blood full of evill desires and inclinations Here he must consider that he lieth close prisoner with soule and body in the mire of sinnes in the anger of God in the jawes of the pit of Hell that the anger of God burneth in him in soule and body and that he is that stinking keeper of Swine that hath spent and consumed his fathers inheritance viz. the love and mercy of God with the fatted swine of the divill in earthly pleasures and hath not observed the deare Covenant and atonement of the innocent death and passion of Jesus Christ which Covenant God of meere Grace hath given into our humanity and reconciled us in him also he must consider that hee hath wholy forgotten the Covenant of holy Baptisme in which he hath promised to be faithfull and true to his Saviour and so wholy defiled and obscured his righteousnesse with sinne which righteousnesse God hath freely bestowed upon him in Christ that hee now standeth before the face of God with the faire garment of Christs innocency which he hath defiled as a dirty ragged and patched keeper of Swine that hath continually eaten the graines of vanity with the devills swine and is not worthy to be called a Sonne of the Father and member of Christ. Fourthly he must earnestly consider that wrathfull death waiteth upon him every houre and moment and will lay hold on him in his sinnes in his garment of a Swine keeper and throw him into the pit of hell as a for sworne person and breaker of faith who ought to be kept in the darke dungeon of death to the judgement of God Fifthly he must consider the earnest and severe judgement of God where he shall be presented living with his abominations before the judgement all those whom he hath here offended and injured with words and works and caused to doe evill so that by his instigation or compulsion they also have committed evill shall come in against him cursing him and all this before the eyes of Christ and also before the eyes of all holy Angels and men and that there he shall stand in great shame and ignominy and also in great terror and eternall desperation and that it shall for ever grieve him that he hath fool'd away so great and eternall happinesse and salvation for the pleasure of so short a time and not looked to himselfe better that he might also have beene in the communion of the Saints and have injoyed eternall light and divine power and vertue Sixtly he must consider that the ungodly loseth his noble image God having created him for his Image and getteth in stead thereof a deformed vizard like a hellish worme or ugly Beast wherein he is Gods enemy and against heaven and all holy Angels and men and that his communion is for ever with the devills and hellish wormes in the horrible darknesse Seventhly He must earnestly consider the eternall punishment and torment of the damned that in eternall horror they shall suffer torments in their abominations which they have committed here and may never see the land of the Saints in all eternity nor get any ease or refreshment as appeareth by Dives the rich man All this man must earnestly and seriously consider and remember that God hath created him in such a faire and glorious Image in his owne likenesse in which he himselfe will dwell that he hath created him in his praise for mans owne eternall joy and glory viz that he might dwell with the holy Angels and children of God in great joy power and glory in the eternall light in singing and melodious harmonie of the angelicall and divine Kingdome of joy to rejoyce eternally with the children of God without
feare of any end where no evill thoughts could touch him neither care nor trouble neither heate nor cold where no night is knowne where there is no day or time any more but an everlasting joy where soule and body tremble for joy and where he should rejoyce at the infinite wonders and vertues in brightnesse of colours and ornament of the infinite begetting in the wisedome of God upon the new christaline Earth which shall be as transparent glasse that he doth so wilfully lose all this for so short and poore a times-sake which yet in this vanity in the evill life of the voluptuous flesh is full of miserie feare and trouble in meere vexation and it goeth with the wicked as with the righteous as the one must die so must the other yet the death of the Saints is an entrance into the eternall rest but the death of the wicked an entrance into the eternall unquietnesse Eightly He must consider the course of the world that all things are but a play wherewith he spendeth his time in unquietnesse and that it goeth with the rich and mighty as with the poore and the begger that all of us equally live and move in the foure Elements and that the mouthfull or morsell of the poore is as relishing and savoury to him in his toyle and labour as that of the rich is to him in his cares also that all of us doe live in one breath and that the rich man hath nothing but the pleasure of the palate and the lust of the eye more then other men for else it goeth with the one as with the other for which lust of the eye man so foolishly forgoeth so great a happinesse and for the sake thereof bringeth himselfe into so great and eternall unquietnesse In this consideration man shall feele in his owne heart and minde especially if he represent and set before his eyes his owne end that he shall get a hearty sighing and longing after the mercie of God and will begin to bewaile his committed sinnes that hee hath spent his dayes so ill and not observed nor considered that he standeth in this world in a field in the growing to be a fruit either in the Love or in the Anger of God and then he will first begin to find in himselfe that he hath not yet laboured at all in the vineyard of Christ and that he is a drie branch in the vine of Christ. And then in many whom the Spirit of Christ toucheth in such a consideration there ariseth aboundant sorrow griefe of heart and inward lamentation over the dayes of his wickednesse which he hath spent so in vanity without any working in the Vineyard of Christ. Such a one now whom the Spirit of Christ bringeth into sorrow and Repentance so that his heart is opened that he can know and bewaile his sins is very easily to be helped he needeth but to draw to him the promise of Christ viz. That God willeth not the death of a sinner but that he wisheth them all to come unto him and hee will refresh them and that there is great joy in heaven for one sinner that repenteth let such a one but lay hold on the words of Christ and wrap himselfe up into the passion and death of Christ. But I will speake with those who feele indeede a desire in themselves to repent and yet cannot come to acknowledge and sorrow for their committed sins the flesh saying continually to the soule stay a while it is well enough or it is time enough to morrow and when to morrow is come yet the flesh saith again to morrow the soul in the meane while sighing and fainting conceiveth neither any true sorrow for the sinnes it hath committed nor any comfort Unto such a one I say I will write a processe or way which I my selfe have gone that hee may know what he must doe and how it went with me if peradventure any be minded to follow it and then he shall perceive what is hereafter written A processe of Repentance WHen any man findeth in himself by the former consideration a hunger that he would willingly repent and yet findeth no true sorrow in himselfe for his sinnes which hee hath committed and yet perceiveth an hunger or desire to sorrow being the poor captive soule continually sigheth feareth and must acknowledge it selfe guilty of sinnes before the Judgement of God such a one I say can take no better course then this viz. to wrap up his senses and minde and also his reason together and make to himselfe at the same time presently in the first consideration when he perceiveth in himselfe a desire to repent a mighty strong purpose and resolution that he will this very houre nay this minite immediatly enter into Repentance and go forth from his wicked way and not at all regard the power and honour of the world and if it should be required would forsake and disesteeme all things for true Repentance sake and take such an earnest firme and strong resolution that he will never goe forth from it againe though he should be made the foole scorne of all the world for it and that with his minde he will goe forth from the beauty and pleasure of the world and patiently enter into the Passion and Death of Christ in and under the Crosse and set all his hope and confidence upon the life to come and that now in righteousnesse and truth he will enter into the Vineyard of Christ and doe the will of God and in the Spirit and will of Christ begin and finish all his actions in this world and for Christs Word and Promise sake who hath promised us heavenly reward willingly suffer and beare every adversitie and crosse that he may but be numbred in the communion or fellowship of the children of Christ and in the bloud of the Lambe Jesus Christ be incorporated and united unto his Humanity He must firmely imagin to himself wholly wrap up his soule in this that in this his purpose he shall obtaine the love of God in Christ Jesus and that God will give unto him according to his faithfull promise that noble pledge the holy Ghost for a beginning that in the Humanity of Christ as to the heavenly divine substance he shall be borne a new againe in himselfe and that the Spirit of Christ will renew his minde with his Love and Power and strengthen his weake faith also that in his divine hunger he shall get the flesh and bloud of Christ for foode and drinke in the desire of his soule which continually hungreth and thristeth after it and with the thirst of the soule drinke the water of eternall life out of the sweete fountaine of Jesus Christ as Christs most true and stedfast Promise is He must also wholly and firmely imagine to himselfe the great love of God That God willeth not the death of a sinner but that he repent and live that
Christ calleth poore sinners so kindly and graciously to himselfe and will refresh them and that God hath sent his Sonne into the world to seeke and save that which is lost viz. the poore repentant and returning sinner and that for the poore sinners sake he hath given his Life into Death and died for him in our Humanity which he tooke upon him Furthermore he must firmely imagine to himselfe that God in Christ Jesus will much rather heare him and receive him to grace then he come and that God in the love of Christ in the most deare and precious Name JESUS cannot Will any evill that there is no angry countenance at all in this Name but that it is the highest and deepest love faithfulnesse the greatest sweetnesse of the Diety in the great Name JEHOVAH which he hath manifested in our Humanity corrupted and disappeared as to the heavenly part which in Paradise disappeared through sinne and therefore moved himselfe in his heart to flow into us with his sweet love that the anger of his Father which was kindled in us might be quenched and turned into love by it all which was done for the poor sinners sake that he might get an open gate of grace againe In this consideration he must firmely imagine to himselfe that this very houre and instant he standeth before the face of the holy Trinity and that God is really present within and without him as the holy Scripture witnesseth saying Am not I he that filleth all things and in another place it saith The word is neere thee in thy mouth and in thy heart also it saith We will come unto you and make our dwelling in you also Behold I am with you always even to the end of the world also The Kingdome of God is within you Thus he must firmely know and beleeve that with his soule he standeth really before the face of Jesus Christ even before the holy Deity and that his soule hath turned its backe to the face of God and must resolve that he will this very houre turne the eyes and desire of his soule towards God againe and with the poore lost and returning sonne come to the Father He must with the eyes of his soule and minde cast downe in feare and deepest humility beginne to confesse his sinnes and unworthinesse before the face of God as followeth A short forme of Confession before the eyes of God Every one as his case and necessitie requireth may order and enlarge this confession as the holy Ghost shall teach him I will but set downe a short direction O Thou great unsearchable God Lord of all things Thou who in Christ Jesus of great love towards us hast manifested thy selfe with thy holy substance in our Humanity I poore unworthy sinfull man come before thy Presence which thou hast manifested in the Humanity of Jesus Christ though I am not worthy to lift up mine eyes to thee acknowledging and confessing before thee that I am guilty of unfaithfulnesse and breaking off from thy great love and grace which thou hast freely bestowed upon us I have left the Covenant which of meere grace thou hast made with me in Baptisme in which thou hast received me to be a child and heire of eternall life and have brought my desire into the vanity of this world and defiled my soule therewith and made it altogether beastiall and earthly so that my soule knoweth not it selfe because of the mire of sinne but accounteth it selfe a strange child before thy face not worthy to desire thy grace I lie in the filth of sinne and the vanity of my corrupt flesh up to the very lipps of my soule and have but a small sparke of the living breath left in me which desireth thy grace I am so dead in vanity that in this vanity I dare not lift up mine eyes to thee O God in Christ Jesus Thou who for poore sinners sakes didst become Man to helpe them to thee I complaine to thee I have yet a sparke of refuge in my soule I have not regarded thy purchased inheritance which thou hast purchased for us poore men by thy bitter Death but made my self partaker of the heritage of vanity in the anger of thy Father in the curse of the earth and am ensnared in sinne and halfe dead as to thy Kingdome I lie in feeblenesse as to thy strength and the wrathfull death waiteth for mee the devill hath poisoned me so that I know not my Saviour I am become a wilde branch in thy tree and have consumed mine inheritance which is in thee with the devills Swine what shall I say before thee who am not worthy of thy grace I lie in the sleepe of death which hath captivated me and am fast bound with three strong chaines O thou breaker-through-death assist thou me I beseech thee I can not I am able to doe nothing I am dead in my selfe and have no strength before thee neither dare I for great shame lift up my eyes before thee for I am the defiled keeper of Swine and have spent my inheritance with the false adulterous whore of vanity in the lusts of the flesh I have sought my selfe in my owne lust and not thee Now in my selfe I am become a foole I am naked and bare my shame standeth before thy eyes I cannot hide it thy judgement waiteth for mee what shall I say before thee who art the Judge of all the world I have nothing else to bring before thee here I stand naked and bare before thee and I fall downe before thy face bewailing my misery and flie to thy great mercy though I am not worthy of it yet receive me but in thy Death and let me but die from my death in thy Death cast me down I pray thee to the groūd in my received self and kill this self of mine through thy death that I may live no more to my selfe seeing I in my self worke nothing but sin therefore I pray thee cast downe to the ground this wicked beast which is full of false deceit and selfe-desire and deliver this poore soule from itsheavie bonds O mercifull God it is thy love and longsuffering that I lie not already in hell I yeeld my selfe with my whole will sences and minde up into thy grace and flie to thy mercy I call upon thee through thy death from that small sparke of life in me encompassed with death and hell which open their throate against me and would wholly swallow me up in death upon thee I call who hast promised thou wilt not quench the smoaking flaxe I have no other way to thee but thy Death and Passion because thou hast made our death Life by thy Humanity and broken the chaines of Death and therefore I sinke the desire of my soule downe into thy Death into the gate of thy Death which thou hast broake open O thou great fountaine of the love of God I beseech thee helpe mee
weake to give me what thou hast promised me and freely bestow upon mee in my Saviour Jesus Christ viz. his flesh for food and his bloud for drinke to refresh my poore hungry soule that it may be quickened and strengthened in the Word which became man by which it may long and hunger after thee aright O thou deepest love in the most sweete Name JESUS give thy selfe into the desire of my soule for therefore thou hast moved thy selfe and according to thy great sweetnesse manifested thy selfe in the humane nature and called us to thee us that hunger and thirst after thee and hast promised us that thou wilt refâ—esh us I now open the lips of my soul to thee O thou sweet Truth and though I am not worthy to desire it of thy holines yet I come to thee through thy bitter passion death thou having sprinkled my uncleanesse with thy bloud and sanctified me in thy Humanity and made an open gatefor me through thy death to thy sweete love in thy bloud through thy five holy wounds from which thou did'st shed thy bloud I bring the desire of my soule into thy love O Jesus Christ thou Sonne of God and man I pray thee receive into thy selfe thy purchased inheritance which thy Father hath given thee I crie within me that I may enter thorough thy holy bloud and death into thee Open thy selfe in mee that the Spirit of my soule may reach thee and receive thee into it Lay hold on my thirst in me with thy thirst bring thy thirst after us men which thou haddest upon the Crosse into my thirst and give mee thy bloud to drinke in my thirst that my death in me which holdeth me captive may be drowned in the bloud of thy love and that my extinguished Image which as to the Kingdome of Heaven dis appeared in my father Adam through sinne may b made alive through thy powerfull bloud and cloath my soule with it âgaine as with the new body which dwelleth in heaven in which Image thy holy power and word which became man dwelleth which is the Temple of thy holy Spirit which dwelleth in us as thou hast promised us saying we will come to you and dwell in you O thou great Love of Jesus Christ I can doe no more but sinke my desire into thee thy word which became man is truth since thou hast bidden me come now I come Be it unto me according to thy Word and Will Amen A Warning to the Reader BEloved Reader of love to thee I will not conceale from thee what is here earnestly signified to me If thou lovest the vanity of the flesh still and arâ— not in an earnest purpose on the way to the new birth intending to become a new man then leave the above written words in these Prayers unnamed or else they will turne to a judgement of God in thee Thou must not take the holy names in vaine thou art faithfully warned they belong to the thristy soule if the soule be in earnest it shall finde by experience what words they are A Direction How the soule must meete its beloved when it s beloved knocketh in the Centre in the shut chamber of the soule BEloved soule thou must be earnest without intermission thou shalt certainely obtaine the love of a Kisse from the noble Sophia in the holy Name JESUS for shee standeth however before the doore of the soule knocking warning the sinner of his wicked way Now if he once thus desireth her love she is ready for him and kisseth him with the beames of her sweete love from whence the heart receiveth joy but she doth not presently lay her selfe into the Marriage bed with the soule that is shee doth not presently awaken the extinguished heavenly image in her selfe which disappeared in Adam there is danger to man in it for if Adam and Lucifer fell it may then easily so come to passe with man he being yet so strongly bound in vanity The bond of thy Promise must be faithfull before she will crowne thee thou must be tempted first and tried she taketh the beames of her love from thee againe to see whether thou wilt prove faithfull also she letteth thee stand and answereth thee not so much as with one looke of her love for before she will crowne thee thou must be judged that thou mightest tast the bitter potion which thou hast filled for thy selfe in thine abominations thou must come before the gates of hell first and there shew forth thy victory for her in her love in that strength wherewith she beheld thee in opposition to the devills aspect Christ was tempted in the wildernesse and if thou wilt put on him thou must go through his whole progresse from his Incarnation to his Assention and though thou art not able nor needest to doe that which he hath done yet thou must enter wholly into his processe and therein die continually from the vanity of the soule for the virgin Sophîa espouseth not her selfe to the soule except in this property which springeth up in the soule through the death of Christ as a new plant standing in heaven the earthly body cannot comprehend her in this life for it must first die from vanity but the heavenly Image which disappear'd in Adam viz. the true seede of the woman wherein God became man and into which he brought his living seede the heavenly substantiality is capable of the Pearle after the manner it came to passe in Mary in the limit of the Covenant Therefore take heede what thou dost when thou hast made thy promâ—se keepe it and then shee will crowne thee rather then thou wouldst be crowned but thou must be sure when the Tempter commeth to thee with the pleasure beauty and glory of the world that then thy minde reject it and say I must be a servant and not a master in the Vineyard of Christ I am but a servant of God in and over all that I have and I must doe with it as his Word teacheth me my heart must sit downe with the simple and lowly in the dust and be humble alwayes What state and condition soever thou art in humility must be in the front or else thou wilt not obtain her marriage the free will of thy soule must stand as a champion for it the devill cannot prevaile against the soule with vanity and if the soule will not bite at the baite then hee commeth with the soules nworthinesse and catalogue of sinnes and then thou must fight hard and here the merits of Christ must be set in the front or else the creature cannot prevaile against the devill for in this it goeth so terribly with many that the outward reason thinketh that person to be distracted and poâ—ened with the devill the devill defendeth himselfe so horribly in many especially if he have had a great Fort of prey in him that he must be stoutly assaulted before
he will depart and leave his fort of prey here heaven and hell are fighting one against the other Now if the soule continue constant and getteth the victory over the devill in all his aâ—â—aults disesteeming all temporall things for the love of its noble Sophia then the precious garland will be set upon it for a token of victory Here the virgine which manifesteth her selfe from the deare name JESUS with Christ the treader upon the Serpent Gods anointed commeth to the soule and kisseth it with her sweetest love in the essence most inwardly and impresseth her love into its desire for a token of victory and here Adam in his heavenly part riseth againe from death in Christ of which I cannot write for there is no pen in this world that can expresse it it is the wedding of the Lambe where the noble Pearle is sowne with very great triumph though in the beginning it be small like a graine of mustard-seed as Christ saith Now when the wedding is over the soule must take heed that this Tree oft spring and grow as it hath promised its Virgine For then the Devill will presently come with his tempestuous storme ungodly people who will scoffe at contemne and crie down this for madnesse and then a man must enter into the Processe of Christ under his crosse Here it will appeare indeed and in truth what Christians we are here he must suffe himselfe to be proclaimed a fooâ—e and ungodly wretch nay his greatest friends who favoured him or flattered him in the lusts of the flesh will now be his enemies and though they know not why yet they will hate him thus Christ hideth his Bride wholy under the crosse that she may not be knowne in this world The Devill also striveth that these children may be hidden from the world lest perhaps many such branches should grow in that Garden which he supposeth to be his This I have set downe for the Information of the Christian-minded Reader that he might know what to doe if the same should befall him A very earnest Prayer in Temptation Against Gods Anger in the Conscience and also against flesh and bloud when the Tempter cometh to the soule and wrestleth with it MOst deep Love of God in Christ Jesus leave me not in this distresse I confesse I am guilty of the sinnes which now rise up in my minde or conscience if thou forsake me I must sinke hast thou not promised me in thy word saying If a mother could forget her child which yet can hardly be yet thou wilt not forget me thou hast set me as a signe in thine hands which were pierced through with sharpe nailes and in thy open side whence bloud and water gushed out Poore man that I am I am caught in thy Anger and can in my ability doe nothing before thee I sink my selfe downe into thy wounds and death O Great Mercy of God I beseech thee deliver me from the Bonds of Satan I have no refuge in any thing but onely in thy holy wounds and death into thee I sinke downe in the anguish of my conscience doe with me what thou wilt In thee I will now live or die as pleaseth thee let me but die and perish in thy death do but bury me into thy death that the anguish of hell may not touch me How can I excuse my selfe before thee that knowest my heart and reines and settest my finnes before mine eyeâ— I am guilty of them and yeeld my self into thy Judgement accomplish thy Judgment upon me through the Death of my Redeemer Jesus Christ. I fly unto thee thou righteous Iudge through the Anguish of my Redeemer Iesus Christ when he did sweate the bloudy sweat on the Mount of olives for my sake and was scourged of Pontius Pilate for me and suffered a crown of thornes to be pressed on upon his head that his bloud came forth O Righteous God hast thou not set him in my stead he was innocent but I guilty for whom he suffered wherefore should I despaire under thy wrath O blot out thy anger in me through his anguish passion death I give my selfe wholly into his anguish passion death I will stand still in his anguish passion before thee do with me what thou pleasest onely let me not depart from his anguish thou hast freely given me his anguish and drowned thy Wrath in him and though I have not accepted it but am departed from him and am become faithlesse yet thou hast given me this precious pledge in my flesh and bloud for he hath taken my flesh and soule upon his heavenly flesh and bloud and hath satisfied the Anger in my flesh and soule in him with his heavenly bloud Therfore receive me now in his satisfaction and put his anguish passion and death in thy wrath which is kindled in me and breake thy Iudgement in me in the bloud of his love O Great Love in the Bloud and and Death of Iesus Christ I beseech thee breake the Fort of prey which the Devill hath made and built up in me where he resisteth me in the way of thy grace drive him out of me that he may not overcome me for no one living can stand in thy fight if thou withdraw thy hand from him O come thou breaker through the Anger of God destroy its power helpe my poore soule to fight and overcome it O bring me into thy victory and uphold me in thee breake in peeces its seate in my vanity that is kindled in my soule and flesh O mortifie the desire of my vanity in flesh and bloud which the Devill hath now kindled by his false desire by hellish anguish desperation O quench it with thy water of eternall life bring my anguish forth through thy death I wholy sink my selfe down into thee and though both soul and body should this houre faint and perish in thy wrath yet I will not let thee goe Though my heart saith utterly no no yet the desire of my soule shall hold fast on thy truth which neither death nor the devill shall take away from me For the Bloud of Iesus Christ the Sonne of God cleanseth us from all our sinnes this I lay hold on and let the Anger of God doe what it will with my sinne and let the Devill roare over my soule in his Fort of prey which he hath made as much as he will Neither the Devill Death nor Hell shall pull me out of my Saviours wounds Thou must at length be confounded in me thou noysome devill and thy fort of prey must be forsaken for I will drowne it in the love of Iesus Christ and then dwell in it if thou canst Amen An Information in Temptation BEloved Reader this is no jesting matter he that accounteth it so hath not tried it neither is he judged as yet and though it should be deferred till his last end which is dangerous yet he must passe through this Iudgement Happy
soule to come into thee my soule crieth to come into that Spirit from whence the soule was breathed into the body and which hath formed it in the likenesse of God my soule desireth in its thirst to get the sweete fountaine which springeth from IEHOVAH into it selfe to refresh Gods breath of Fire which it selfe is so that the sweete Love of IESVS may rise in its breath of Fire through the Fountaine IESVS springing out of IEHOVAH and that CHRIST the holy one may be manifested and become Man in my disappeared Image of heavenly spirituall corporality and that the poore soule may receive its beloved Bride againe in its Armes with whom it may rejoyce for ever O IMMANVEL thou Wedding Chamber God and Man I yeeld up my selfe into the Armes of thy Desire towards us in us it is thy selfe whom I desire O blot out the Anger of thy Father with thy love in me and strengthen my weake Image in mee that I may overcome and tame the vanity in flesh and bloud and serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse O thou great and most holy Name and power of God IEHOVAH which hast stirred thy selfe with thy most sweete power IESVS in the limit of the Covenanted promise to our Father Adam in the womans seede in the Virgine Mary in our disappeared heavenly Humanity and brought the living essentiality of thy holy power in the Virgin-wisedome of God into our humanity which was extinguished as to thee and hast given it to us to be our life victory and new Regeneration I entreate thee with all my strength beget a new holy life in me by thy sweete power IESVS that I may be in thee and thou in me and that thy Kingdome may be made manifest in me and that the will and conversation of my soule may be in heaven O great and incomprehensible God thou who fillest all things be thou my Heaven in which my new Birth in CHRIST IESVS may dwell let my spirit be the stringed Instrument harmony sound and joy of thy holy Spirit strike the strings in me in thy Regenerate Image and carry through my Harmony into thy Divine Kingdome of Joy in the great Love of God in the wonders of thy Glory and Majesty in the Communion of the holy Angelicall Harmony build up the holy City Zion in me in which as children of Christ we all live together in one City which is Christ in us into thee I wholly plunge my self do with me what thou pleasest Amen A Prayer In temptation under the Crosse of Christ at that time when all our enemies assault us and when we are persecuted and hated in the Spirit of Christ and slandered and reproached as evill doers POore man that I am I walke full of anguish and trouble in my Pilgrimage into my native Country again from whence I came in Adam and goe through the thistles and thornes of this world to thee againe O God my Father The thornes teare me on every side and I am afflicted and despised by my enemies they scorne my soule and despise it as an evill doer who hath broken the faith with them they despise my walking towards thee account it foolish they thinke I am senselesse because I walke in this thorny way and goe not along with them in their hypocriticall way O Lord Jesus Christ I flie to thee under the Crosse O deare Immanuel receive me and carry me into thy selfe through the Path of thy Pilgrimage in which thy selfe didst walke in this world viz. Through thy Incarnation Poverty Reproach and Scorne also through thy anguish Passion and Death Make me like unto thy Image send thy good Angel along with me to shew me the way through the horrible thorny wildernesse of this world assist me in my misery comfort me with that comfort wherewith the Angel comforted thee in the Garden when thou didst pray to thy Father and didst sweat drops of bloud sustaine me in my Anguish and Perfecution under the reproach of the devills and all wicked men that know not thee but refuse to walke in thy way O great love of God they know not thy way and doe this in blindnesse through the deceit of the devill have pitty on them and bring them out of blindnesse into the light that they may learne to know themselves and how they lie captive in the filth and mire of the devill in a darke dungeon fast bound with three chaines O great God have mercy upon Adam and his children redeeme them in Christ the new Adam I flie to thee O Christ God and Man in this Pilgrimage which I must passe in this darke valley every where dispised and troubled and accounted an ungodly wicked man O Lord it is thy judgement upon me that my sinnes and inbred vanity may be judged in this pilgrimage before thee and I as a curse be made an open spectacle on which thy Anger may satiate it selfe and thereby may take the eternall reproach away from mee It is the token of thy love and thereby thou bringest me into the reproach anguish suffering and death of my Saviour Jesus Christ that so I may die from vanity in my Saviour and spring up in his Spirit with my new life through his reproach and ignominie through his Death I beseech thee O Christ thou patient Lamb of God grant me patience in my way of the Crosse through all thy anguish reproach thy death and passion thy scorne and contempt upon the Crosse where thou wert despised in my stead and bring me therein as a patient Lamb to thee into thy victory Let me live with thee and in thee and convert my persecutors which unknowne to themselves by their reproaching sacrifice my vanity and inbred sinnes before thy Anger they know not what they doe they thinke they doe me harme but they doe me good they doe that for me which I should doe my selfe before thee I should daily lay open and acknowledge my shame before thee and thereby sinke my selfe downe into the death of thy beloved Sonne that my shame might die in his death but I being too too negligent weary faint and feeble therefore thou usest them in thy Anger to open and discover my vilenesse before thy Anger which thy wrath taketh hold of and sinketh it downe into the death of my Saviour O mercifull God my vaine flesh cannot know how well thou intendest towards me when thou sufferest my Enemies to take my vilenesse from me and sacrifice it before thee my earthly minde supposeth that thou afflictest me for my sinnes and I am extreamely perplexed at it but thy Spirit in my inward new man telleth me that it is of thy love towards me that thou intendest good to me by it when thou sufferest my enemies to persecute me it is best for me that they performe the worke in my stead and unfold my sins before thee in thy anger that it may swallow them up that
calleth thee now in love but thou wilt not heare for thy eares are stopt with covetousnesse and voluptuousnesse Therefore the found of the Trumpet shall once shiver thee with the hard thunder-clap of thy Turba and awaken thee if perhaps thou wilt yet seek and finde the sweet child Jesus 55. Beloved brethren this is a time of seeking of seeking and of finding It is a time of earnestnesse whom it toucheth it toucheth home he that watcheth shall hear and see it but he that sleepeth in sin and saith in the fat dayes of his belly All is peace and quiet we heare no sound from the Lord he shall be blind But the voyce of the Lord hath sounded in all the ends of the earth and a smoke riseth and in the midst of the smoke there is a great brightnesse and splendor Ha le lu-Jah Amen Shout unto the Lord in Zion For all Mountains and Hills are full of his Glory he flourisheth like a green Branch and who shall hinder it Ha le lu JAH The end of the 2d Book THE THIRD BOOK OF REGENERATION OR The New-Birth Shewing how he that earnestly seeketh salvation must suffer himself to be brought out of the confused and contentious Babel by the Spirit of Christ that he may be born anew in the Spirit of CHRIST and live to him onely Written in the German Language Anno 1622 By JACOB BEHMEN Alias Teutonicus Philosophus LONDON Printed by M. S. for H. Blunden at the Castle in Corn-hill 1648. REVEL 18. 4. Come out of Babylon my people that yee bee not partakers of her sinnes and that yee receive not of her plagues For her sins have reached unto Heaven and God hath remembred her iniquity THE AUTHORS Preface to the Reader THough I have in my other Writings set down a clear Description of Regeneration or the New Birth from the ground thereof yet because ery one hath them not neither hath every one the capacity to understand them I have therefore as a service to the simple children of Christ here set down a short-summe concerning the New Birth But if any desire to search the deep Ground from whence all floweth and have the gift to understand it let them read these Books following I. The there Principles of the Divine Essence II. The three-fold life of Man III. The 40 Questions of the Originall Essence Substance Nature and Property of the Soule IV. The Incarnation and Birth of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God also of his suffering death and resurrection V. The six points treating of the three words how they are in one another as one and yet make three Principles viz. three Births or Centers VI. The Mysterium Magnum which is an Interpretation upon Genesis And in them he shall find all that he can ask and that as deep as the mind of man is able to reach I have written this for the true Israelites that is for the hungry and thirsty Harts that long after the Fountain of Christ who are my fellow members in the Spirit of Christ But not for the Ishmaelites and Scorners For they have a Book within them wherewith they vex persecute and suppresse the children of Christ that are under the Crosse and yet though it be against their wills they must be servants to the children of Christ though indeed they doe not understand so much OF REGENERATION CHAP. I. Shewing how Man should consider himselfe 1 CHRIST said Except yee turn and become as children yee shal not see the Kingdome of God Again he said to Nicodemus Except a man be born a-new of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God for that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Joh. 3. 5 6. 2. Also the Scripture witnesseth plainly that the fleshly Naturall Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them or conceive them 3. Now seing that all of us have flesh and bloud and are mortall as we see by experience and yet the Scripture saith that we are the Temple of the holy Ghost who dwelleth in us and that the kingdome of God is within us and that CHRIST must be formed in us also that he will give us his flesh for food and his bloud for drink and saith further Whosoever shall not eat of the flesh of the Sonne of Man he hath no life in him Therefore we should seriously consider what kind of man in us it is that is capable of being thus like the Deity 4. For it cannot be said of the mortall flesh that turneth to earth again and liveth in the vanity of this world and contînually Iusteth against God that it is the Temple of the holy Ghost much lesse can it be said that the New-birth commeth to passe in this earthly flesh which dyeth and putrifieth and is a continuall House of sin 5. Yet seeing it remaineth true that a true Christian is born of CHRIST and that the New-birth is the Temple of the' holy Ghost which dwelleth in us and that the new Man onely that is born of Christ partaketh of the flesh and bloud of Christ it appeareth that it is not so easie a matter to be a Christian 6. And that Christianity doth not consist in the meere knowing of the History and applying the knowledge thereof to our selves onely in saying that Christ died for us and hath destroyed death and turned it into life in us and that he hath paid the ransome for us so that we need do nothing but comfort our selves with this and stedfastly beleeve that it is so 7. For we find in our selves that sin is living lusting strong and powerfully working in the flesh and therefore it must be somewhat else that doth not co-operate in the flesh of sin nor willeth sin that is the New-birth in Christ. 8. For St. Paul saith There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus And further should we that are Christians be yet sinners God forbid seeing wee are dead to sinne in Christ. 9. Besides the Man of sinne cannot be the Temple of the holy Ghost and yet there is no man that sinneth not For God hath shut up all under sinne For the Scripture saith No one living is righteous in thy sight if thou imputest his sinnes to him The righteous man falleth seven times a day and yet it cannot be meant that the righteous falleth and sinneth but his mortall and sinfull man 10. For the righteousnesse of a Christian in Christ cannot sinne For St. Paul saith Our conversation is in heaven from whence we expect our Saviour Jesus Christ. Now if our conversation be in heaven then heaven must be in us Christ dwelleth in heaven and then if we are his Temple that Temple Heaven must hee in us 11. But for all this seeing sinne tempteth us within us whereby the Devill hath within us an accesse to us therefore hell also
must bee in us too for the Devill dwelleth in hell wheresoever he is he is in hell and cannot come out of it Yes when he possesseth a Man hee dwelleth in hell viz. in the Anger of God in that man 12. Therefore we ought to consider well what Man is and how hee is a Man and then we may perceive that a true Christian is not a meere Historicall New Man as if it were enough for us outwardly to confesse Christ and beleeve that he is the Son of God and hath paid the ransome for ns for righteousnes availeth nothing if it be imputed from without that is by beleeving onely that it is imputed but an innate righteousnesse or the righteousnesse born in us in which we are the children of God that availeth 13. And as the flesh must dy so also the life and will must dye from sin and be as a child knowing nothing but longeth after the mother which brought it forth so must also the will of a Christian enter again into its mother viz. into the Spirit of Christ and become a child in it selfe in its own will and power having its will and desire inclined and directed onely towards its mother and a new will and obedience in righteousnesse which willeth sinne no more must rise from death out of the Spirit of Christ. 14. For that will is not born a-new which desireth and admitteth vanity into it selfe and yet there remaineth a will which longeth after vanity and sinneth in the New-born or Regenerate Man Therefore the Image of man must well be considered and how the New-birth commeth to passe seeing it is not wrought in the mortall flesh and yet truly and really in us in flesh and bloud in Water and Spirit as the Scripture saith 15. We should therefore rightly consider what kind of man it is in us that is the member of Christ and Temple of God who dwelleth in heaven And then also what kind of man it is that the Devill Ruleth and driveth for he cannot meddle with the Temple of Christ nor doth he care much for the mortall flesh and yet there are not three men in one another for all make but one man 16. Now if we will consider this rightly we must consider Time and Eternity and how they are in one another also light and darknesse good and evill but especially the originall of man This may thus be considered 17. The outward world with the Starres and foure Elements wherein Man and all creatures live neîther is nor is called God Indeed God dwelleth in it but the substance of the outward World comprehendeth him not 18. We see also that the light shineth in darknesse and the darknesse comprehendeth not the light and yet they both dwell in one another The foure Elements are also an example of this which in their originall are but one element which îs neither hot nor cold nor dry nor moist and yet by its stirring severeth it selfe into foure properties viz. into Fire Aire Water and Earth 19. Who would beleeve that fire produceth water and that the originall of fire could be in water if we did not see it with our eyes in tempests of thundring lightning and rain and did not find also that in living creatures the essentiall fire in the body dwelleth in the bloud and that the bloud is the mother of the fire and the fire the father of the bloud 20. And as God dwelleth in the world and filleth all things and yet possesseth nothing and as the fire dwelleth in water and yet possesseth it not also as the light dwelleth in darknesse and yet possesseth not the darknesse as the day is in the night and the night in the day time in eternity and eternity in time so is man created according to the outward humanity he is the time and in the time and the time is the outward world and it is also the outward man 21. The inward man is eternity and the spirituall time and world which also consisteth of light and darknesse viz. of the love of God as to the eternall light and of the anger of God as to the eternall darknesse whichsoever of these is manifest in him his spiirit dwelleth in that be it darknesse or light 22. For light and darknesse are both in him but each of them dwelleth in it selfe and neither of them possesseth the other but if one of them doe enter into the other and will possesse it then that other loseth its right and power 23. The passive loseth its power For if the light be made manifest in the darknesse then the darknesse loseth its darknesse and is not known or discerned Also on the contrary if the darknesse arise in the light and get the upper hand then the light and the power thereof is extinguished This is to be considered also in man 24. The eternall darknesse of the soule is hell viz. an aking source of anguish which is called the anger of God but the eternall light in the soul is the kingdome of heaven where the fiery anguish of darknesse is changed into joy 25. For the same nature of anguish which in the darknesse is a cause of sadnesse is in the light a cause of the outward and stirring joy For the source in light and the source in darknesse is but one eternall source and one nature and yet they have a mighty difference in the source the one dwelleth in the other and begetteth the other and yet is not the other The fire is painufll and consuming but the light is yeelding friendly powerfull and delightfull a sweet and amiable joy 26. This may be found also in man he is and liveth in three worlds One is the eternall dark-world viz. the center of the eternall nature which produceth the fire viz. the source of anguish 27. The other is the eternall light-world which begetteth the eternall joy which is the Divine Habitation wherein the Spirit of God dwelleth and wherein the Spirit of Christ receiveth the humane substance and subdueth the darknesse so that it must be a cause of joy in the Spirit of Christ in the light 28. The third is the outward visible world in the foure elements and the visible starres though indeed every element hath its peculiar constellation in it selfe whence the desire and property ariseth and is like a mind 29. Thus you may understand that the fire in the light is a fire of love a desire of meeknesse and delightfulnesse but the fire in the darknesse is a fire of anguish and it is painfull irk some enimicitious and full of contrariety in its essence The fire of the light hath a good relish or taste but the taste in the essence of darknesse is unpleasant loathsome and irksome For all the Forms till fire are in great anguish CHAP. II. How Man is created 30 HEre we are to consider the creation of Man Moses saith God created Man in his Image in the Image of God created
according to his awakened properties for the great power of the soule and of the body caused it 50. And then man must be tried whether he would stand and subsist in his own powers before the Tempter the Devill and before the wrath of the eternall Nature and whether the soule would continue in the equall agreement of the properties in true Resignation under Gods Spirit as an instrument of Gods Harmony a tuned instrument of divine joyfulnesse for the Spirit of God to strike upon This was tried by this Tree here and this severe commandement was added Thou shalt not eat thereof For at that day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death 51. But it being known to God that Man would not stand and that he had already imagined and lusted after good evill God said It is not good for man to be alone Wee will make him an Help meet for him 52. For God saw that Adam could not generate Magically having entred with his lust into vanity Now therefore Moses saith God caused a deep sleep to fall upon him and he slept that is seeing man would not continue in obedience of the divine harmony in the properties submitting himselfe to stand still as an instrument of the Spirit of God therefore God suffered him to fall from the Divine Harmony into an harmony of his own viz. into the awakened properties in evill and good the spirit of his soule went into these 53. And there in this sleep he dyed from the Angelicall world and fell to be the share of the outward Fiat and then bad farewell to the eternall Image which was of Gods begetting Here his Angelicall form power lay on the ground and fell into a swound 54. And then by the Fiat God made the woman out of him ex matrice Veneris of the matrix of Venus viz. out of that property wherin Adam had the begettresse in himselfe and so out of one body he made two and divided the properties of the Tinctures viz. the watery and fiery Constellations in the Element yet not wholly in substance but in the Spirit viz. the properties of the Watery and Fîery Soule 35. And yet it is but one thing but the property of the Tincture was divided the desire of Self-love was taken out of Adam and formed into a woman according to his likenesse and therefore man now so eagerly desireth the Matrix of the woman and the woman desireth the Limbus of the man viz. the Fire-element the originall of the true soule by which is meant the Tincture of fire For these two were one in Adam and therein consisted the Magicall begetting 56. And as soon as Eve was made out of Adam in his sleep both Adam and Eve were at that instant ordained and constituted in the outward naturall life having the members given thē for Bestiall and animall multiplication and also the earthly Carkasse into which they might put their vanity and live like beasts 57. Which the poore soule that is captivated in vanity is at this day ashamed of that its body hath gotten a bestiall monstrous shape as is manifest And from hence came mankind to be ashamed of their members and nakednesse and to borrow their clothîng from the earthly creatures having lost the Angelicall form and is changed into a Beast 58. This clothing sheweth man sufficiently that having this awakened vanity and heat and cold seizing upon him he is not at home with his soule therein For the vanity together with this false clothing must perish and bee severed from the Soule again 59. Now when Adam awaked from sleep he beheld his wife and knew that she came out of him For he had not yet eaten of vanity with his outward mouth but with the imagination desire and lust onely 60. And it was the first desire of Eve that she might eat of the Tree of vanity of Evill and Good to which the Devill in the form of a Serpent perswaded her saying That her eyes should bee opened and she bee as GOD himself which was both a lye and truth 61. But he told her not that she should lose the divine light and power thereby he only said her eyes should be opened that she might taste prove and know evill and good as he had done he did not tell her neither that heat and cold would awake in her and that the property of the outward constellations would mightily domineere in the flesh and in the mind 62. His onely aim was that the Angelicall Image viz. the Substance which came from the inward spirituall world might disappeare in them for then they would be constrained to live in subjection to the grosse earthlinesse the Constellations and then he knew well enough that when the outward world perished the soule should then be with him in darknesse for he saw that the body should dye which he perceived by that which God had intimated and so he supposed yet to be Lord to all eternity in the place of this world in his false shape which he had gotten and therefore he seduced Man 63. For when Adam and Eve were eating of the fruit evill and good into the body then the imagination of the body received vanity in the fruit then vanity awaked in the flesh and the Dark-world got the upper hand dominion in the vanity of the earthlinesse upon which the faire Image of heaven that proceeded out of the Heavenly divine world instantly disappeared 64. Here Adam and Eve dyed to the Kingdome of heaven and awaked to the outward world and then the faire soule in the love of GOD disappeared as to the holy power vertue and property and in stead thereof the wrathfull anger viz. the Darkfire-world awaked in it and so the soule became in one part viz. in the inward Nature a halfe Devill and in the outward part of the outward world a beast 65. Here are the bounds of Death and the gates of Hell for which cause God became man that he might destroy death and change Hell into great love again and destroy the vanity of the Devill 66. Let this be told you yee children of men it is told you in the sound of the Trumpet that you should instantly goe forth from the abominable vanity for the fire therof burneth CHAP III. Of the lamentable fall of Man and of the meanes of his Deliverance 67 NOw when Adam and Eve fell into this vanity then the wrath of Nature awaked in each property and in the desire impressed the vanity of the Earthlinesse and wrath of GOD into it selfe 68. And then the flesh became grosse and rough as the flesh of another beast and the noble soule was captivated in the essence therewith and saw that its body was become a beast and it saw also the bestiall members for multiplication and the stinking Carkasse into which the desire would stuffe the loathsomnesse which it was ashamed of in the presence of GOD and therefore they hid
thereby but it is thus When Christ ariseth then Adam dyeth in the the essence of the Serpent when the Sunne riseth the night is swallowed up in the day and the night is no more so sins are forgiven 147. The Spirit of Christ eateth of his holy substance the inward man is the receiver of the holy substance he receiveth what the Spirit of Christ bringeth into him viz. the Temple of God Christs flesh and blood But what doth this concern a Beast Or what doth it concern the Devils Or the soul that is in the anger of God these eat of the heavenly body that is in the heaven they dwell in which is the Abysse or bottomlesse pit 148. And thus it is in the Office of Preaching the ungodly heareth what the outward soul of the outward world preacheth that he receiveth viz. the History and if there be straw or stubble in that which is taught he sucketh the vanity out of that and the soule sucketh the venemous poyson and the murthering cruelty of the Devill from it wherewith that soule tickleth it selfe in hearing how to judge and condemne others 149. And if the Preacher be one that is dead and hath no true life in him but soweth venome and reproach proceeding out of his affections then it is the Devill that teacheth and the Devill that heareth such teaching is received into a wicked heart and bringeth forth wicked fruits by which the world is become a Murthering Den of Devils so that if you look among the Teachers and Hearers there is nothing to be found but revilings slanderings and reproachings also contention about words and wrangling about the Hâ—sk 150. But the holy Ghost teacheth in the holy Teacher and the Spirit of Christ heareth through the soule and the Divine house of the Divine sound in the holy Hearer the holy man hath his Church in himselfe wherein he heareth and teacheth 151. But Babel hath a heap of stone into that she goeth with her seeming holinesse and hypocrisie there she loveth to be seen in fine cloathes and there maketh a very devout and godly shew the church of stone is her God in which she putteth her confidence 152. But the holy man hath his church about him every where and in himselfe for he alwayes standeth and walketh and sitteth and lyeth down in his church he is in the true Christian church in the Temple of Christ the Holy Ghost preacheth to him out of every creature whatsoever he looketh upon hee seeth a Preacher of God therein 153. Here now the scoffer will say I despise the Church of stone where the congregation meeteth but I say I doe not for I doe but discover the hypocriticall Whore of Babylon which committeth whore ome with the church of stone and termeth herselfe a Christian but is indeed a Strumpet 154. A true Christian brings his Holy Church within him into the congregation His Heart is the true Church where a man must practice the service of God If I did goe a thousand times to Church and to the Sacrament every week and heard absolution declared to me every day and have not Christ in me then all is false an unprofitable fiction and graven Image in Babell and no forgiving of sinnes 155. A Holy Man doth Holy works from the Holy strength of his mind the work is not the expiation or reconciliation but it is the building which the true Spirit buildeth in his substance it is his habitation but the fiction and fancie is the habitation of the false Christian into which his soule entreth with dissimulation The outward hearing reacheth but to the outward and worketh in the outward onely but the inward hearing goeth into the inward and worketh in the inward 156. Dissemble roare cry sing preach and teach as much as thou wilt if thy inward Teacher and Hearer be not open then all is nothing but Babel a fiction and a graven Image whereby the Spirit of the outward world doth modell and make a graven Image in resemblance to the inward 157. And maketh a Holy shew therewîth as if hee did performe some Divine or Holy service to GOD whereas many times in such service and worship the Devil worketh mightily in the imagination and very much tickleth the heart with those things which the flesh delighteth in which indeed not seldome happeneth to the children of GOD as to their outward man if they doe not take great heed to themselves the Devill doth so â—ift them CHAP. VII Of unprofitable opinions and strife about the Letter 158. A True Christian who is born anew in the Spirit of Christ is in the simplicity of Christ and hath no strife or contention with any man about Religion he hath strife enough in himselfe with his own beastiall evill flesh and blood he continually thinketh that he is a great sinner he is afraid of God but the love of Christ pierceth through and expelleth that feare as the day swalloweth up the night 159. But the sinnes of the ungodly man rest in the sleep of death and bud forth in the pit and bring forth fruit in hell 160. The Christendome that is in Babel striveth about knowledge how men ought to serve God and glorifie him also how to know God and what he is in his essence and will and they preach peremptorily that whosoever is not one and the same in every particular with them for knowledge and Opinions is no Christian but a Heretick 161. Now I would faine see how any can bring all their Sects so to agree in that one which might be called a true Christian Church when all of them are scorners every party of them reviling the other and proclaiming it to be false 162. But a Christian is of no Sect he can dwel in the midst of Sects and also appeare in their services and yet adhere and be addicted to no Sect He hath but one knowledge only that is Christ is him He seeketh but one way which is the Desire alwayes willingly to doe and teach that which is right and he putteth all his knowing and willing into the life of Christ. 163. He sigheth and wisheth continually that the will of God might be done in him and that his Kingdome might be manifested in him He daily and hourely killeth sinne in the flesh For the seede of the woman viz. the inward man in Christ continually breaketh the Head of the Serpent viz. of the Devill which is in vanity 164. His Faith is a Desire to God and goodnesse which he wrappeth up into a sure hope and therefore ventureth it upon the words of the promise and liveth and dyeth therein though as to the true man hee never dyeth 165. For Christ telleth us saying whosoever believeth in me shall never dye but hath pierced through from death to life and Rivers of living waters shall flow from him viz. good Doctrine and works 166. Therefore I say that whatsoever fighteth and contendeth about the Letter is all Babell The
are One in Christ as a Tree and its Branches are one The Scholar 55. How then will those subsist in the day of that judgement who torment and vex the poore and distressed and deprive him of his very sweat necessitating and constraining him by force to be subiect to their wills and account them their foot-stool onely that they may domineere and spend his sweat labour and pains in volupâ—uousnesse pride and vainglory The Master Those doe it to Christ himselfe and that which they doe belongeth to his severe sentence and judgement for in so doing they lay violent hands on Christ and persecute him in his members And besides they help the Devill to augment his kingdome and by such pressing and constraining them they draw the poore off from Christ and make him seek a lewd and unlawfull way to fill his belly Nay they doe the very same which the Devill himselfe doth who without intermission resisteth the Kingdome of Chrîst which consisteth in love All these if they doe not turn with their whole heart to Christ and minister to him must goe into Hell fire where there is nothing but such meere selfe as that which hee hath exercised over the poore The Scholar 56. But how will it fare with those and how will they subsist that in this time doe so contend about the Kingdome of Christ and persecute reproach slander and revile one another for it viz. for their Religion The Master All those that have not yet known Christ and are also but as a type or figure of Heaven and Hell striving with each other for the victory All rising swelling pride which maketh striving about opinions is an Image of Selfe and whosoever hath not Faith and Humility nor is in the Spirit of Christ viz. love is onely armed with the Anger of God and helpeth forward the victory of the Imaginary Selfe viz. the Kingdome of Darknesse and the anger of God For at the day of judgement all Selfe shall be given to the Darknesse and all their * unprofitable contentions in which they seek not after love but meerly after their Imaginary selfe that they may boast themselves in their opinions stirre up Princes to wars for such Imaginary and conceited opinions sake and so by those Images they lay wast desolate whole Countries of people All such things belong to the judgement which will seperate the false from the true and then all Images or opinions shall cease and all the children of God shall walk in the love of Christ and He in Us. All whosoever in this time of strife are not zealous in the Spirit of Christ and desirous to further love only but seek their own profit in strife are of the Devill and belong to the pit of Darknesse and shall be separated from Christ for in heaven all serve God their Creator in humble love The Scholar 57. Wherefore then doth God suffer such strife and contention to be in this time The Master The life it selfe standeth in strife that it may be made manifest sensible and palpable and that the wisdome may be made separable and known and it maketh the eternall joy of the victory to be For there will arise great praise in the Saints from hence that Christ in them hath overcome Darknesse and all selfe of Nature and that they are delivered from the strife at which they shall rejoyce eternally when they shall know how the wicked are recompenced And therefore God suffereth all things to stand in a free-will that the eternall Dominion both of Love and Anger of Light and of Darknesse may be made manifest and known and that every life might cause and raise its own sentence in it selfe For that which is now a strife and pain to the Saints in their misery shall be turned into great joy to them and that which hath been a joy and pleasure to ungodly persons in this world shall be turned into eternall pain and shame to them Therefore the joy of the Saints must arise to them out of Death as the light ariseth out of a Candle by the dying and consuming of it in its fire that so the life may be freed from the painfullnesse of Nature and possesse another world And as the light hath quite another property then the fire hath for it giveth and yeeldeth forth it self but the fire taketh in and consumeth it selfe so the holy life of meeknesse springeth forth through death when selfe-will dyeth and then Gods will of love onely ruleth and doth all in al. For thus the eternall One hath attained feeling and separability and brought it selfe forth again with the feeling through Death in great joyfulnesse that there might he an eternall delight in the infinite Unity and an eternall cause of joyfulnesse and therefore painfulnesse must now be the ground and cause of this motion or stirring to the manifestation of all things And herein lieth the mystery of the hidden wisdome of God Every one that asketh receiveth every one that seeketh findeth and to every one that knocketh it shall be oned The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the holy Ghost be with us all Amen HEB. 12. 22 23 24. Thank yee the Lord for ye are now come to Mount Zion to the Citie of God to the heavenly Jerusalem to the innumerable company of Angels and to the generall assembly and Church of the first born who are written in heaven And to God the Judge of all and and to the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new Testament or Covenant And to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel Amen Praise and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power might be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne our GOD and the Lamb for ever and ever Amen The Contents of this Treatise in briefe divided into eight parts I. From the 1. to the 7. question How men may come to the super-sensuall life II. From the 8. to the 11. question How men must and may rule over all Creatures and can be like all things III. From the 12. to the 24. question How men may come to continual repentance and may subsist in temptation IV. From the 25. to the 35. question How love and sorrow stand together in one and what love is what its power and vertue height and greatnesse is and where it dwelleth in man Also the neerest way to attain it V. From the 36. to the 39 question Whither the blessed and the damned souls go when they depart and how heaven and hell is in man VI. From the 40. to the 43. question Where the Angels and Devils dwell in this worlds time How farre heaven and hell are asunder and what and whence the Angels and soules are VII The 44. question What the body of man is and why the soule is capable of receiving good and evill VIII From the 45. to
if it would wholly yeeld it selfe to death and cease to be a creature any more and so did yeeld it selfe to death and desired nothing else but to dye and perish in the death of its Redeemer Jesus Christ who had suffered such torments and death for its sāke and in this perishing it began to sigh and pray in it selfe very inwardly to the mercy of God and to sink down into the meerest mercy of God Upon this there appeared unto it the amiable countenance of the love of God and penetrated through it as a great light by which it grew exceeding joyfull and began to pray aright and to thank the most high for this grace and to rejoyce exceedingly that it was delivered from the death and anguish of Hell and there it tasted of the sweetnesse of God and of his promised truth And in that very instant all evill spirits which had afflicted it before and kept it back from the grace love and inward presence of God were forced to depart from it and the wedding of the Lamb was kept and solemnized with the espousing or contracting of the Noble Sophia with the Soule and the Seal-ring of Christs victory was impressed or printed or set upon its substance or into its essence and it was received to be a child and heire of God again When this was done the soule became very joyfull and began to work in this power and to celebrate with praise the wonders of God thought henceforth to walk continually in this power strength and joy but it was assaulted from without or outwardly by the shame and reproach of the world and within by great temptation so that it began to doubt whether its ground were from God or no and whether it had really and truly partaken of the grace of God or no for the Accuser or Satan went to it and would lead it out of this way and make it doubtfull of its way and sayd to it inwardly The Accuser or Satan spake to the Soule saying It is not of God it is but thy Imagination Also the Divine Light retired in the soule and shone but in the inward ground as light in Embers or fire raked up in ashes so that Reason was solly to it selfe and thought it selfe forsaken and the soule knew not what had happened to it selfe nor whether it were true that it had tasted the Divine Light of Grace or not and yet it could not leave off strugling for the burning fire of love was sowne in it by which there arose in it a great hunger and thirst after the Divine sweetnesse and now at length began to pray aright and to humble it self in the presence of God and to examine and trie its evill inclinations in its thoughts and to put them away by which the will of reason was broken and the evill inbred innate or native inclinations were killed and destroyed more and more And this was very wofull to the nature of the bodie for it made it faint feeble and weake as if it had been very sick and yet it was no naturall sicknesse that it had but it was the Melancholy of the eatthly Nature of the bodie because its evill lusts were destroyed And when the earthly Reason found it self thus forsaken the poore soule saw that it was derided outwardly and despised by the world because it would now walke no more in the way of the wicked and ungodly and that it was inwardly assaulted by the Accuser Satan who also mocked it and continually set before it the beautie Riches and glorie of the world and esteemed the soule foolish that embraced them not which made the soule thinke thus with it selfe O Eternall God! what shall I now doe to come to Rest The Enlightned soule met it again While it was in this consideration the enlightned soule met with it againe and said What ailest thou my brother that thou art so heavie and sad The distressed soule said I have followed thy counsell and thereby attained a ray looke or glimps of the Divine sweetnesse but it is gone from me againe and I am now forsaken and outwardly have very great tryalls and afflictions in the world for all my good friends forsake me and scorne me and also inwardly I am assaulted with Anguish and doubt and I know not what to doe The enlightned soul sayd Now I like thee very well for now our beloved Lord Jesus Christ walketh in his pilgrimage on earth with thee and in thee as he did himselfe when he was in this world being alwayes reviled slandered and evill spoken of and had nothing of his own and now thou bearest his mark or Ensigne but doe not wonder at it nor think it strange for it must be so that thou must be tried refined and purified In this anguish and distresse thou shalt have often cause to pray and hunger after deliverance and in thy hunger and thirst thou attractest grace to thee from within and from without For thou must grow from above and from beneath to be the image of God again And as a young plant is stirred by the wind and must stand in heat and cold drawing strength and vertue to it from above and from beneath by that stirring and must endure many a tempest and undergoe much danger before it can come to be a tree and bring forth fruit for in that stirring the vertue of the Sunne commeth to move in it whereby the wild properties of that plant come to be penetrated and tinctured or qualified with the vertue of the Sun and grow thereby And now is the time wherein thou must behave thy selfe as a valiant Souldier in the Spirit of Christ and cooperate with it thy selfe For now the eternall Father by his fiery power begetteth his Sonne in thee who changeth the fire of the Father or the wrath into the flame of love so that out of fire and light viz. wrath and love there commeth to be one Essence Being or Substance which is the true Temple of God and now thou shalt bud forth out of the vine Christ in the vineyard of Jesus Christ and bring forth fruit in thy life and teaching of others and shew forth thy love in abundance as a good Tree For paradise must thus spring up again in thee through the wrath of God and Hell be changed into Heaven in thee Therefore be not troubled at the temptations of the Devill for he striveth for the kingdome which he had in thee and having lost it once he must be confounded and depart from thee therfore he coveres◠thee outwardly with the shame and disgrace of the world that his own shame may not be known and that thou mayst be hidden to the world for with thy New-birth or regeneration thou art in the divine harmony in heaven therefore be patient and wait upon the Lord and whatsoever shall befall thee take it from the hands of the Lord as intended by him for thy best good And so the enlightned