figures into meer estence he that thus ascendeth in images must now also dye even to himself because by this his asent and going forwards in images he is prepared so as he can be how touched with this death by which he dyeth and is corrupted and then he suffers a death of all his ornaments and gifts yea of his own self And therefore he can never be restored more nor be made glad by any means because the joy is reserved for him that abides after death as the Prophet faith These shall be written for the generation to come and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. And again Thy labour shall be rewarded and thy posterity shall rejoyce therein This is that glorious resurrection and fruit which springeth out of that death and corruption And hence springeth glory to the Lord This is that bottle that can hold new wine which a natural man cannot contain though he should have a state very pure and noble This was the seed whence conception arose Wherefore it is not in vain nor is it in vain that by the good help of God 〈◊〉 hath separated himself and disposed himself unto divine things for then is he compelled to follow order and so he acted rightly and had not done rightly unless he had done so because he would have been disobedient to God who is a God of order and leadeth a man in order whence eternal death that severe judgment of God would follow A man must be led in order even unto his death for unless he should follow order he would certainly remain unprepared nor would ever come thereto And therefore we must first endeavour to yield ready obedience and always to attend to that which is next and also from the very first beginning the cross will not be wanting and by the way thereof we shall go By what a man departeth from earthly things in obedience to his conscience by that is he atlength rightly prepared to come into the earth that is into the corruption of himself and that which grows out of this standeth before God This corrupttion of the natural man ought to last even to the corporal death of a man and after that the tender twig at last springeth forth But the mind here even yet before the corporal death cometh into the resurrection and is made a son of grace and of the covenant which consisteth in the blood of Christ now poured forth for the remission of sins Christ washeth us from sin by his blood which speaketh better things then the blood of Abel without the effusion of the blood of Christ there is accomplished no remission of sins or purification It is a Most excellent thing to be freed and purged from sins but to feel how that redemption is performed and to experience that misery is no pleasant matter but exceeding sharp and difficult Nor is it possible for a man so much as to behold the thing much less to execute and perform it But it is God alone who both beginneth and finisheth it to whom nothing is deficient because his works are all perfect Now here a man does nothing else but give himself up into tranquility and suffer◠the operation of God The work of redemption God hath reserved to himself alone and the glory thereof is his And because God handleth the matter no man needs to say that the thing is impossible because the work and purpose of God goeth forwards Here also do faith and patience take place which also are the work of God and not ours When one serveth the Law of God in the mind then in the flesh he serveth the Law of sin By how much the more of the sins of concupiscence and appetite remaineth in the flesh by so much the more misery affliction and death the man hath for he walketh not according to the flesh as being that which condemned under the Law and being hurried away violently by sin is crucified by the Law of sin Now where these things are not there a man still walketh according to the flesh and by how much the more there is at that time of the sins of concupiscence and of appetites in the flesh so much the more of life and joy a man hath but alas it is a miserable life which is followed by eternal death CHAP. VI. BY what way or means the Resurection and the judgment of God are to be accomplished after this time no man living can comprehend or understand for whosoever would know or understand that he belongeth unto death and becometh subject unto death We have indeed a representation of the thing but what the very thing will be in the future is not lawful for us to know When the thing it self is present then at length it is known All things to come are locked up from the natural man in darkness and ignorance yet he arriveth so far as to know that he knoweth nothing c. By how much the greater is the streight so much the more durable is the judgment by how much the greater is the desertion so much the nearer is any one to God For the most part inward affliction gets entrance by outward affliction and outward affliction is as it were the gate by which the inward entreth into a man For without outward affliction nature searches out many escapes that inward affliction cannot touch her As if one kept in a dungeon should still see light by one only cranny and upon that account the evils of being in a dungeon would become much easier to him So also as Nature can catch its propriety this internal affliction is hindered nor can gain a room or place For there is no place for inward sufferings where Nature hath got escaping holes Great is the misery where nature is thus kept in death that she can hope for nothing but acquiescence can bear all things He who is founded in death destruction and misery and is quiet in them admits not comfort either of life or of joy and is unmoved as to all things which are grateful and acceptable and no man can either comfort him or terrify him For if one should threaten spoiling death misery and affliction to him he already forseeth all these and yieldeth himself up unto them and is conversant in them And therefore he is immoveable both in respect of things grateful or of ungrateful No man can either make him merry or fright him Death and the withdrawing of all things are indeed a terrour to him but not such a one as now at length beginneth but now afflicteth him Nor do grateful things exhilerate him because he hath renounced all things and he can re-asume nothing and therefore he is unmoved Here Nature is as it were ground between two Mill stones because he acknowledges the judgment of God upon him to be just and suffereth such misery that he must thus behold the thing and the thing must then be done But he is not like other malefactors who
is it to be avoided because by the help of it occult defects are discovered and the Man confesseth them to the Lord with Contrition who also is able to purge him from them As long as a Man lives he is under the Law and when by his own Endeavours he is come so far that he cannot ascend higher yet he shall get higher and be advanced But it is necessary he should put forth his hand that another may closely take hold of him and lead him into the way which else he will not find that is he must give himself up to God so as that he suffers him only to operate he himself only sitting still and Submitting himself unto God Whatever then is performed that is no longer done by Man but God himself worketh above all actions of Man or his knowledge or Power God acts and Man suffers if this be done God by such sufferings and dyings leadeth and exerciseth the Man which are matters far surpassing his strength and knowledge even as before also the thing was utterly unknown to him nor was it possible for him to undertake such a thing or exercise himself in it And in this death it is that a Man is purged and all things are taken from him all Whatever were able to hinder in him the undertaking of the true essence Then is all propriety and Nature renounced for in God is no propriety but all things ought to be of a Divine Nature nor can any other Nature be brought into God In that death the Soul is lost and when ever this is done then a Man cometh to the true essential Life of God and there Christ revealeth himself most Evidently in Man and then there is no need to search many things concerning the Place wherein Christ is to be worshipped or any other such Particulars because all these will be very perspicuous or known to our eyes The Law is fulfiled by the new Man without all dispute or Imagination Jesus hath strength enough to be able to save and Purify a Man from sin but Christ doth also anoint the Man thus purified with his Holy Spirit CHAP. XII MOre does not belong to a Man then that by God's help he may abstain from sin and that he may have the Law for a School-master for to enter into Death Darkness the Pit and destruction and to be brought from hence again and to rise again into a new Life and a new Heaven and Light belongeth only to the Lord who himself worketh that in Man without all action of the man and that out of meer grace which a man at the time of his Resurrection when that New Day-break Shineth first upon him most clearly acknowledgeth For he acknowledgeth it was the alone Mercy of God which so exerciseth him and brought him back from Death to Life which Mercy he could not acknowledge when he was still under the Law for there his Propriety and his selfness was yet present but the Commiseration of the Lord was hitherto unknown to him because he had not as yet been thus exercised by God above all Operation and Power of his own that he might come to the Denial of himself but he stood as yet under the Law being touched by no Death when he thought that a reward ought to be Given him out of Desert but not out of Grace and then it was that he sought to Establish his own Righteousness but such a Righteousness was unknown to him which above and beyond all his own Operation and Power was setled only by Faith in Christ which Faith is acquired only in Death Darkness and Hell or the Grave A Man in whom the Law hath exercised all its Power and hath slain him remains not in Death but by the Resurrection of Christ is raised up again into a New Life but is not raised up again into the Old Life for when he should hang with Christ upon the Cross and beg to be Freed that he might return again into that Life he is not Heard but he must dye then not can he ever be thus made alive again but by the Resurrection of Christ riseth into a New Life Here the matter is so carried as if the Thief on the right Hand and the other on the Left and Christ also did Hang Naked on the Cross in one Man and as if he was reviled by both of them for faith the Evengelist Which very thing also did the Thieves who were crucified with Him reproach him withal The same is here also as if the Left hand Thief was not willing to Dye yet he must Dye but the Right-hand Thieâ— yielded himself up unto Death Also aâ— if the legs of the Thieves were broken but not of Christ and here it should be considered how Christ received the Thief on his Right-hand but the left which denoteth Nature also Perisht unwillingly and shall abide Eternally in Death also how the Right-hand Thief willingly gave up himself to Death and how he shall be Raised together with Christ unto Eternal Life Christ said upon his Cross to the Thief on his Right-hand To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He did not say Thou art with me in Paradise for this could not be so long as he had not yet dyed but he said thus Thou shalt he with me in Paradise viz. When thou hast suffered Death for it is as equally Impossible that a Man who is not yet dead can be exalted in God as it is Impossible that a Hundred Pound Weight of Lead should Fly upwards unto the Sky The Thieves did not Nail themselves to the Cross but they were Nailed the Trees upon which the Thieves Hung were cut Trees and do signify the Old Man or Nature in us for we must dy in this cut Nature and afterwards be revived again in Christ All the promises of God do respect Christ but Christ denoteth all Christians of all whom there is one only Head which is Christ who is all in all CHAP. XIII GOd cometh and openeth to a Man the sence of Scripture as it were in one Moment like lightning which comes as it were in one moment and goes away again in another and then a Man acknowledgeth the sence of Scripture to be far otherwise then before when he had considered it in his own strength And thus God can effect more in one only Moment for the truer understanding of the sence of Scripture then all the Epistles which some can write to others When the Light cometh in process of time it becomes clearer and clearer and again also it is wont to return again yet more clear so that more is still discovered and Manifested to a man which before now lay hid from him If this first Claritude cometh into a man as if it were Angelical but then forward it rusheth in much clearer and so a Man gets from one degree of Angelical Claritude to another Higher degree of the same and then presently he ascendeth yet Higher until he arriveth at the
those who â—â—ve not a true light although they have 〈◊〉 understanding very Subtil as also â—â—ose who are tired out from Continuing 〈◊〉 the way of the true light And these â—â—en stand in a false liberty nor are wilâ—â—g to pay Tythes to the Lord but only â—â—e Thousand parts and yet make no â—â—l payment of either by Tythes is meant the outward Conversation in the same manner they lay down one load and are willing to take up another and yet carry neither But he that walketh the true Path doth not thus urge one thing that he may neglect another but be bringeth forth both into use and studieth how to render both to the Lord. But they who are described above are those false Men who admit of a false Liberty not can any one gain any Victory over them or resist them except he be one that is come to Regeneration for such have the true essence of the thing and in the true Light the errours of these Libertine are heheld and they seen wherein they err and how they go beyond alâ— due bounds nor do Rightly persevere Otherwise they are above every ones understanding and make nothing of thoâ—â— who would resist them because they havâ— a sort of Supernatural understandinâ— which they derived from that Clarituâ—â— which formerly had shined in them 〈◊〉 therefore that is still a Natural Man 〈◊〉 not reach nor understand them anâ— much less oppose himself against them yâ—â— though he be a Famous Learned Man But he that would reach them and oppose himself to them and get the Victory over them it behooveth him to be not an Animal Man but a Spiritual born of God of whom Paul saith The Spiritual Man judgeth all things c. else â—et him let all disputings alone unless he will be made a Laughing-stock Because â—hey are made yet more Angry and Provoked by his weak Argumentations We must know that Righteousness â—nd Unrighteousness are so alike one to â—he other as are two Hairs of the same Head but God can divide those Hairs â—nd expose their insides to be beheld of Men. The way of happiness and the â—ay of Unrighteousness are gone in by â—he same steps and the one leadeth to â—ighteousness but the other to Unrighâ—eousness We have a Similitude in a â—reat heap of Mony that makes up one â—ertain Sum. Now if an honest just man 〈◊〉 to count it and to give the total Sum â—â—though he may not rightly know some â—â—eces thereof yet if he counts them hoâ—â—estly and keeps back none of them for his own use but compleateth the full Sum God doth not therefore reprove him for his ingenious mind but he who takes any piece from them is a Thief and must expect the Judgment Now he is the man who takes some from them who would excuse his Carnality by the help of the Scriptures In every Illumination Revelation and understanding the essence only 〈◊〉 a thing is to be expected A man had need to have diligent care about all that he meets with lest he admit that which is a fault CHAP. XV. A Man must Endeavour to lead 〈◊〉 innocent and unblamable Life 〈◊〉 which if he shall arrive God wâ— call him into Judgment and will purgâ— his floor from Sin at the bottom thâ— budding forth of which did formerly 〈◊〉 much hurt to the works and thoughâ— of a man thorough the Law of sin 〈◊〉 the mind But when sin is perished 〈◊〉 Judgment and is Condemned and wholly cast out Then indeed the mind is no longer Subject unto the Law of sin but is free both from it and its slavery and is now become subject to the Law of God Concerning which Paul saith Rom. 8.2 The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the Law of sin and of death To this belongeth also that saying in Rom. 7. A man therefore is no longer a Servant of sin in his mind but is set free from that Law of sin in his mind unto the Law of God although he still serveth in his members the Law of sin Sin is cast out of the house nor is it any more moved from the internal root but it comes extrinsecally into the house Wherefore it behoveth to place the Law of sin near to the gate that the man inwardly may have converse with God without impediment CHAP. XVI NO man ought to utter forth his words in vain All men cannot be called by the same terms but it must be governed according to the quality of every one To them who are rude as yet nothing of the more Sublime Mysteries may be talked of but they are first to be admonished to put off their thicker outside barks and if they accept that counsel they may be admitted to discourses of Higher matters and so by degrees may be yet farther proceeded with until no Root of sin any more appeareth But he who is not Faithful in lower matters the more Sublime may not be proposed to him or else the discourse would be holden to no purpose Now no wise man does prodigally throw away his rich Merchandise or his Mony He who has purchased his words at an easy Rate that is who hath by no experience apprehended the Truth in himself he easily bolteth them Forth which another can never do to whom what he saith cost him more dear upon which account it is that he utters them in such a manner as if they were cut out of his very Heart and this he does indeed when he certainly sees that they are not spoken in Vain nor does beat the Air for words are extorted from him with difficulty and pain also And this is the difference betwixt those who speak out of Illumination or Revelation and those who speak out of the Essence Substance or Truth of the Thing they speak with Joy and Delight but these with Grief and Sorrow They are defiled with Pride but these speak out of Humility to the Glory of God alone and the amendment of their Neighbour Great also is the difference betwixt those who have their knowledge and understanding only from Reading or Hearing and those to whom it is revealed whose understanding is endowed by Illumination Moreover there is another and great difference as is abovesaid betwixt those who have Revelation and internal Illumination and those who are come to the essence or Substance it self of the thing and do apprehend the Truth thereof for they have their knowledge acquired only by Illumination and therefore understand not what God the Truth and Essence is by it self untiâ— they arrive thereat themselves They know by Illumination that the thing is but not what the thing is until God by his grace leadeth them so far by and thorough Death CHAP. XVII IF any ones Heart is on the sudden pierced quite thorough that man indeed perceives nothing of the true order of Death but if first his Hands were cut off next his Arms and his Feet and then his Thighs and so
they are not We must eat as necessity requireth but we must eat drink and sleep with fear all propriety must expect its judgment God suffers no appropriation That which is commonly said we can do nothing without God is easily said but what that is in the very thing it self or what it is to be conversant in that very thing no man knows but he who is come thereunto Where God teacheth and governeth there is no place for reason but it is set aside The teaching leading and rule of God doth far surpass it and the matter seems to it to be impossible Divinity is learnt with joy but experienced with sorrow They which study divinity are for the most part enemies to those who experience it If grief invadeth us it is not to be oppresed lest its fruits perish but we are to abide in it and yet not to despair CHAP. V. TO have a nature wholly self-denied both as to God and to the creatures is a deadly thing Unless Nature should be equally denied as to God as also to the creatures it would not go into death When the root is extripated death is present When that is accomplished the renounciation is eternal When God hath once renounced nature then is the end come for it can never return back again to its former state but it remains in self-denial even as to God also for flesh and blood possess not the Kingdom of God But the young sprig grown out of death that shall be the heir When any one still stands in labouring under the Law in continency then to morrow may that be committed which is to day omitted Because the root and foundation of sin hath not yet been condemned even to the very death He that abides in a choice of things is always in affliction He who alwayes seeks after better things and is not contented with the present must necessarily be alwayes very thoughtful and restless He is one who saith When I thus stood in the appetite of things my appetite did enlarge it self so vastly and towards so many varieties of things that I could never be at quiet till I had wholly renounced all desire and denying my own self I came to be contented with a few small things and when I saw I could be sustained by the meaner sort of things I did not choose the better nor was I afflictedly sollicitous about other things Then at length when I had found rest I was contented which way soever things fell That which agreeth with Nature is chiefly to be omitted and that which is most disagreeing thereunto that is to be done with how great a difficulty these things are done may be perceived God in the wilderness overthrew and wore out those Israelites that still savoured Aegypt and brought up and new generation which knew not Aegypt Debility consists in the lowermost faculties not in life but in death when the mind is taken up to God If the Gentiles did constitute any thing they did it firmly together with security and knowledge knowing the matter to be thus and no otherwise But the Christians do not so but they stand in faith founded on no security or firmness being also ignorant of all things but are in the obedience of faith whence Paul saith After the resurrection of Christ was established the obedience of faith The new creature hath nothing for it self neither knowledge nor security nor firmness as have the Gentiles but walks in faith The faithful are led into faith beyond security knowledge and science for all things are taken away from before their eyes and from out of their hands and they stand in the sight of Goâ— and in the hand of God Our birth is accompanied with appropriation yet must appropriation be separated from Nature if the Law of Goâ— must be set up in us which cannot be doâ—â— but by the death and destruction of thâ— natural man for it is impossible for Nâ—ture to do the will of God and to fâ—â—â—â— the Law and if that must be done the must it dye and perish against its wilâ— for no death is voluntary nor actinâ— but passive and happens against the will When therefore God himself accomplish his own will man's will being dead and fulfils the requirings of the Laâ— then he draws glory from men The natural man can no more leaâ—â— his propriety then a tree planted at rooted can desist from growing 〈◊〉 bearing its fruits No more also can 〈◊〉 natural man fulfil the Law of God deâ—â— his own will or perform the will of Goâ— If therefore to keep a tree from growinâ— and bearing fruit it must be cut down aâ— quite rooted up So thus must the naturâ— man dye and God must be in his steaâ— Christ saith He that eateth my flesh c. the flesh of Christ is meat not that which we consume but that which consumeth us Of Abraham it is written that the earth was to be possessed by his seed and not by himself therefore he must go out of it if room was to be made for his seed In this going out a man goes into strange countries and he knoweth not the way nor can he ask thereof Yet he alwayes seeth one step before him In this dying there is great affliction but that it may not seem such and that a man may carry himself also couragiously acquiescence only can effect that for him CHAP. VI. WHen a man hath any thing in his proper possession rightly he thinks it is due unto him and judgeth it unjust if it be taken from him till he is convinced But then at length he acknowledgeth that he cannot stand before the severe judgment of God and pronounceth God to be just in threatning to him in judgment death and destruction Then he knows that he is not worthy to live and cleerly seeth that none of them are due to him which he had appropriated to himself either as to God or as to the creature and therefore he can desire no more but suffereth his death with the deepest misery and coaction He is convinced concerning his appropriation according to which he possessed all and endeavoured to possess all unjustly just as when one is convinced by sealed deeds and writings that this or the other inheritance is not due to him though he long kept them in his possession for his own but now is deservedly commanded to give them up The natural man is never made perfect but is only translated Perfection is the man Christ Jesus and as much as is received from him that in him is perfect holy new and just yet it is not so in self for he must renounce self whose natural part is evil and sinfull and must be made his from whom it may become just good and holy and that is brought to pass in Christ who is all these nor is there any other name given in which these things can happen unto us If any song writing or words are accepted of a Christian and are grateful
are outwardly in affliction and captivity For these if they could kill their keeper they would readily do it that they might get loose yea if they could break the windows gates and walls But this other sort do not thus behave themselves but are subjected unto the will of God and in it do quietly rest and although they could do as other do yet that they cannot desire there is therefore a great difference betwxt the coaction of those and of these CHAP. VII GOd himself is the uncreated Salvation which spreads it self forth round about just as the Sun is every where dispersed abroad where it can be received But where it cannot be received the fault is not in it self If therefore this universal uncreated Salvation which is God himself ought to take place in man then must the proper included and created salvation of man perish for this is not God himself and therefore it cannot stand in the sight of God and a man must on that score be cast into death and destruction and be deprived of his Soul which he had with much labour saved and when by his labour he was come so far that he could not get further then was it time for God not be at rest but to cast him into death that so he might by grace establish that in the man which the man by the Law could not gain thorough much labour For whatsoever Christ represented in life and doctrine is impossible to be actively fulfilled yet it must be fulfilled in death It behooveth a Man to dye that God himself may effect the matter and that the glory thereof may not be Man's It is not labour but Regeneration Christ bringeth grace and that which is grace is not the labour of man and afterwards a man having passed his own proper created Salvation comes unto the universal increated Salvation which is God himself and this Salvation knoweth God and with this a man can stand before God for God can stand before himself And this man no more judgeth any one For this Sun hath nothing strange in it with this salvation a man hath communion without appropriation And here it is that the communion of Saints taketh place Life repulsed by one flees to another in which it lives till it self also dyeth When the life dyeth as to the creature it is nothing esteemed off in respect of that life which dyes as to it self for there life yet remains alive and receiveth other and greater objects then it had before and in them it then liveth and hath only changed one for another and instead of a worser hath received a better nor is it dead in it self but is still the very same life but when a life dyeth to its own self there is affliction unspeakable when it can have nothing whereby it can be sustained and which can refresh or comfort it for the destruction thereof is without hope for when it falleth can rise up again no more because it falls a natural thing and it riseth again a spiritual thing and therefore like seeketh like the old bottle cannot contain new wine a new patch agreeth not with an old garment therefore we must dye to deformity when conformity is to be performed It is very necessary to have discretion but no man can have it but he that hath the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit of which the Prophet speaketh and the last of them is The fear of the Lord for when one receiveth the former gifts then at last he is round about filled with the fear of the Lord and the Lord is feared in all CHAP. VIII ABout the prophetical promises of God we must always observe whom they respect for they belong not to the natural man and he participateth nothing of them but only his destruction Whatever is extent in the Prophets and the Apostles have wrot is praised as that which is beautiful yea and it is beautiful but to the Natural man it is death and he participateth nothing thereof Although therefore he shall praise it as that which is beautiful yet it is his death yea and therefore he must come into death if it must be applied unto him But Christ is constituted by his father to be the Saviour that he may apply all that and fulfil it by the cross No man that is not dead cometh under grace and the Gospel therefore they falsly boast who glory that they are under grace without death A man not dead is first to be subdued by the Law and therefore is to be prepared for death by means of which he is freed from the Law and comes under grace as long as he is alive he belongs to the subjection of the Law but when he is after that dead he is under grace for Christ is not the servant of sin that he might leave our sins in their own state but he came that he might free us from sin which is done by the means of death Sin is punished with death And Christ is no defender of the natural man that he should remain alive For if he should do that we should come without death into God which is impossible Let every one therefore abstain from false boastings and defend no unrighteousness for that thing will never find success The whole world is full of false boastings concerning Christ but we must not be conformed to the word as Paul saith A man is secretly besieged by many things of which he is ignorant and he then at last comes to apprehend it when they are withdrawn from him Also a man sometimes apprehendeth a defect in himself and is ignorant what it should be which oftentimes is so great that it must be qualified by the Lord. The misery defect and death of nature is rather to be born with then to fly to complaints anger and murmurings Suffer and hold thy tongue and thou shalst be advanced with help and assistance Break not out into words but repress their motion Flee not from the affliction of thy Nature for come it from whence it will it will bring with it great gain unto thee and will be a benefactour to thy heart If thou shalst not do this thou shalst have a disturbed mind and shalst hot be advanced forward by any exercise There are many things in which a man followeth concupiscence where yet he pretends to another fair outside show Whatever is beyond necessity is contrary to God and to all righteousness yea and to a man 's own self No man ought to boast of his exercise before others but to walk in the fight of God and to rest quiet in him For it s enough if God seeth it All high-mindedness is to be avoided least we be esteemed for some body before others Exercise thy self before God To be able to tolerate ignorance is wisdom It is the part of grave old men to wink at the folly of youth When any one lies in death and is filled therewith and both inwardly and outwardly is without rest
evil affections and the depraved root of inbred lusts more then it is possible ever to be effected by letters written For this is the work of God alone and is effectual in them who study and endeavour to submit themselves unto his will For it is impossible that they who are disobedient and never strive to quiet the accusations of their consciences by conversion can be so accepted of God as to attain to the grace of Christ Jesus to dwell in them for he that is not faithful in the least matters can never be made Ruler over greater things if therefore any one is not faithful to his own Soul with which yet he is one and firmly united how can he love God from whom as yet he is far away removed In this manner it is necessary that every one should strive with all his might and power for the testimony of his own conscience to renounce his own proper Soul as far as it is possible for him in the sight of God according to the highest degree of his knowledge now if any one shall do thus in that highest degree with the greatest diligence the Lord will in part enlighten the darkness of his understanding as to perceive more profoundly in himself what is the true power of the Law viz. what sort it is of in him viz. spiritual and not only is concerned about an external abstinence from evil concupiscences but much more rather about the most deeply fastened root of sin in us in which we all were conceived out from Adam For so long as the Root remaineth in â—s the action or power of the Law is always against us viz. the bottom being still polluted not being yet purged by a true amendment but by some certain â—â—â—d of likeness thereof And therefore the Godliness promised unto us doth not only and properly require of us that we should desist from external vices but that the very inwards of our hearts should be purified so as that a man should be cleansed and perfected most exactly in his understanding appetite and in his will that he may no longer serve the Lord and obey him unwillingly inasmuch as at first a most troublesome task is to be undergone in turning away his heart from temporal and spiritual captivity but when he is united to Christ he must perfectly be freed from all the earthly concerns of his lusts For seeing that in man there is nothing nearer to God then the Spirit or mind of man therefore it behooveth in the first place to cleanse that from the darkness and grossness of reason in which we are involved by the fall of Adam so that we may be lead into a fuller and more pure degree of divine knowledge unto which no man yet abiding in his corrupted nature can ever come Wherefore whoever desires to attain the true knowledge of God and of himself it behooveth him before all things to strive with all his might to with-hold himself from every vice that is become familiar to him and to which he inclineth and which sometimes he committeth even in this very work For man even while yet he is in his corrupted nature in which he was conceived is not so far removed from the presence of God but that yet he still retains in the supreme part of himself an occult and a most inward spark of some knowledge of God as it is notoriously seen that all men possess some kind of power in knowledge by help of which they discern good from evil insomuch as whilst they remain in the state of evil they are accused in themselves by that same knowledg but when once they are introduced to the state of good then they are at rest If therefore a man follows the dictates of that knowledge inherent in him from his first nature and abhorreth the evil that he knows but sticks close to thâ— good then at length he arrives there where he comes to understand that it'â— utterly impossible for him to give thâ— highest and fullest satisfaction to that knowledge which he hath by nature whereupon he is brought into great troubles of heart especially if he be diligent about the study of Good Moreover because man is wont to fall so back again into himself as that he doeth that which is good rather from the force of his conscience backed with some threatnings of the judgments of God then from Love and an earnest desire of the good then he searcheth out means by which he may be freed from that accusation of conscience Now when he can find no means thus to bind down the appetites thoughts and motions of his flesh but they always still get loose again then indeed it is that he apprehendeth that tho all outward vices and transgressions were laid aside yet there still remains in the flesh the root of them and that he cannot be freed by all his endeavours grievings and mournings from that appetite of the flesh which stirreth up in him Anger Wrath impure lusts and vain thoughts and such like but some time or other it will again seise upon his Soul and thus he comes to see that he is not so set free from the dominion of the Law but that he always must yet endure that accusation concerning the root of sin yet lurking in the most inward parts of his heart Now although the more vulgar and common external knowledge of Christ is willing to palliate and cover over this inward stain by the blessed death of Christ saying these things cannot hurt a Christian Christ dyed for them nor indeed shall I contradict them nevertheless because Christ therefore came and appeared that he might destroy the works of the Devil and that he might free the captive Soul from the burthen of its sins it is indeed necessary that the same Christ should destroy the very foundation also of this satanical building and by his own seed again sown therein should thereby get the possession of the heart and mind as it ought to be done and as it is agreeable to the Lord alone Even as these things were figured out by the type of the promised Land which was promised to the seed of Abraham upon on this account that every evil seed might be eradicated from thence But before things could be brought to that pass the Israelites must suffer many mischieâ—s from their enemies by changing the lives of many for a most cruel death as it came to pass in the wilderness where every thing that was still infected with the knowledge of old Aegypt was punished with death that no impure thing might enter into the promised Land In like manner also no impure thing is taken up by Christ conforming in us the promised likeness of his most holy humanity but all these must first be laid aside by the death of sin that we being thus purified by him should be fitted unto his body together with the most perfect and common conjunction of Christ as of the head of this body from which all
thing can be attained to but by Christ These are those things whereof the Scripture maketh so often mention viz. our own proper righteousness our own proper works our own proper holiness and all such like viz. if we trust too much to any of these means which were granted unto us from the Lord and stick rather unto them then to the only loâ—e God For to love God is no other thing then most accurately to do that which he willeth not for the hope of any salvation or of any good things whatever for the Love of God it self thus puts a man on that he cannot do otherwise And here it is that we are able to search into the most inward corners of our hearts whether or no we seek ourselves else where either in Soul or body and whether we serve God and love him for this end that our souls may gain salvation But here for the most part it will be answered that whatever things are done are done only for love yet nevertheless men do perform these things out of the terrour and the impulse of their own conscience as the scripture witnesseth I say not all this because I would detract in the least from good works set light by them but rather that we should go on further not to rest here nor am I willing we should sit down in a private kind of peace of having gained some steps only before we be come unto the end nor till the scope for whose sake all this is done be duly attained And though there be others behind us who follow up after us being yet a great way off yet it is incumbent on us because of our greater knowledge received to put out this our talent to the highest interest we can possibly that in us may be found constant perseverance if so be at length we can arrive perhaps to a true dying having no need more to reiterate so often our renewing of death so that all may together and at once remain buried also in Christ's death eternally a more certain essential sort of death as I may so say following us into that better state or condition Most beloved Lady receive I pray thee these my letters kindly if perhaps they may prove to be of any use to thee in thy holy endeavors and that we may come at length to the total renouncing our flesh that then we may be judged according to the rule of righteousness which the Law requires by Christ For in Christ sin is utterly condemned to death and as much as we are planted together with him in the likeness of his death so much also shall we thorough his resurrection be received into the newness or the Spirit who then performs in Man the office of a Governour and is to him in the stead of his life whose place before this our flesh supplied all that is beyond this the Lord himself will manifest to us when we come thither If therefore we have our inward senses rightly exercised by the Lord and do firmly adhere to him with continued prayers then will he kindle in thy heart some living light which my dead writings can never effect by means of which being inflamed with a greater zeal to renounce all flesh we shall be able to offer to the Lord our hearts emptied and set free by a meer and pure submission unto and a firm purpose of remaining and persevering in his will so will the thing prosper and our work will more happily succeed But why this work will succeed with so much difficulty and with such a length of time this is the reason because somewhat still will stick close to the heart which we cannot wholly renounce for when but one half of the heart is yielded up the offering remains impure nor is it accepted whence it is that the Scripture commands us to have a great care of or to watch such a heart which seeks double ways and carrieth upon either shoulder and halts on either leg c. For we cannot at the same time satisfy the flesh conscience hindering us and conscience too the flesh hindering us therefore it is necessary that we yield our selves up wholly as a pure offering and grateful to the Lord for such a one is received by the Lord and blessed of him that thenceforth he may bring forth fruit and at length that thence may arise the righteousness that is available before God Unto which may the Lord promote us and keep us by his infinite mercy in Christ our Lord and Saviour The Lord preserve us that we may persevere in his grace according to the tenour of his most holy Will EPIST. VI. Being a Christian exhortation which containeth many points very useful and profitable to all Christians To the same Lady MOst beloved Lady seeing that there remaineth no more time to me in this life as far as by my uttmost capacity of sense and reason I am able to judge or is to me known I am constrained of my self freely to open and more and more to unfold my mind to you Yet the true fruits of proficiency in the Lord are not attained to by my leters nor by our mutual converse appointed in the Lord of purpose but only and alone by the grace and mercy of God For that the same dependeth only on the meet divine commiseration he best knoweth yet only in Soul and conscience who himself is exercised in the very work oâ— the Lord. In the first place therefore it behooâ—â— is diligently to beware that we be not 〈◊〉 our lusts driven to that pass as to think that God is the cause of sin whereas the night can sooner be made the day then he be any such thing Because in God there is no darkness at all but meer light and whosoever would come to know this work of God thorough his mercy they must begin this knowledge with sincerity of mind which seeks nothing else but God alone whosoever proceedeth with a double heart is an abomination to the Lord. Now doubleness of heart consists in this when we are not with out whole heart Soul and thoughts given up and wholly left to the Lord also when we pour out our prayers before him with a heart divided in two whence â—lso it is that we are not heard according â—o our desires For the Lord loveth us â—ore then we our selves do love our â—elves inasmuch as he is averse to our estruction and always freely bestoweth 〈◊〉 us that which is most useful and â—ost profitable for our happiness which â—â—deed is that which at first is unâ—â—own 〈◊〉 us but is at length made known 〈◊〉 us though by and thorough great afflictions because that we were so far falen into our desires and into that evil which we call our Propriety that we must first be subjected to great anguishes and griefs before we can become submitted to the will and obedience of God which is that which can be never done without a spiritual death and the
which lieth hid in man and convinceth him doth yet partake of reason and humane power although the Lord doth afterwards offer to the heart the light of the Gospel and the understanding of a man submitteth it self to that But for all that he is not yet one with the light for no man receiveth this light but he in whom the reason and strength of man are on the Cross become dead with Christ now such a one thence-forward because of the communion he hath received with the death of Christ is also again raised up by the same Spirit of Christ so as the Spirit of Christ thence-forward becometh his life his own reason and all his own powers abiding in death nor is there a Soul living in him but by the vertue of God and thus the man comes to renounce all his own strength and all his own righteousness in the sight of God and becomes conformed to the righteousness of God in himself which the natural man never knoweth nor can arrive thereat Therefore because the Judgment of Calvin reaches not so far and he himself is not yet dead to his own reason strength he indeed bore witness against his own self because that which in the Epistle to the Romans is demonstrated to be death by the Gospel Rom. 8.10 11. and 6.5 6. keeps him in life the light of the Gospel serving him for that purpose even to his own proper commodity For the Gospel was not divulged till after the Resurrection of Christ And then at length Christ the Son of God was acknowledged to be in us otherwise our acknowledgement was not concerned but only about the person of Christ according to the flesh from whence it is apparent that we our selves are still carnal and though we be not plainly like to the ruder part of the World and do account our selves for imitators of Christ who have left all yet still we are to be made liker unto Christ and to be planted into his death Furthermore I here further acknowledge that no man by the strength of Nature derived from Adam can ever attain unto the eternal mercy of God That study indeed and that labour by which such a man in his solicitous endeavours is tired our before he can arrive at the grace of Christ I acknowledge for humane and that it is subject to the Law but that righteousness which one acquireth by this study is not as yet that righteousness which is prevalent in Gods sight for this is at last after the Law constituted in us by Christ First therefore a man must labour under the rigour of the Law even to the highest perfection of himself and to the greatest innocency he possibly can yet when all this is done the Soul is to feel at length the judgment of God and seeing it cannot possibly abide therein it falls manifestly down into death and then at length is it by Christ raised again into the life of the Spirit But now the acknowledgment of the righteousness of God in common is by the Church which is nearer to us proposed in such a manner as this That God thorough and by Christ crecteth salvation meerly without any addition of works which I grant But because these under the law obtained no righteousness by the benefit of Works there being put no study or rigour therefore they also cannot for Christ sake renounce nor forsake their goods seeing as yet they had gained none For they would have them renounce what they have not but in the interim they suffer loss also in that which they have not yet arrived at That therefore which they say is true but it is not rightly apply'd by them as all the Scripture doth demonstrate that it is by their own faults that they come not to the truth Nevertheless I am unwilling to deny unto them all grace for their portion and according to the measure of their gifts seeing that they study with all their might for Christ and by the help of the Scripture do hear somewhat of him provided they be faithful in what they acknowledge and that to the utmost He that neglects this is condemned by his own proper judgment EPIST. XXI The difference between Repentance and Regeneration in relation to a little book of Diederick Phillips which was printed concerning the New Creature To. J. W. DEarest John that acknowledgment of Diederick Phillips concerning the New Creature I do partly own for truth if it be not stretched further then it reacheth viz. that it can according to the testimony of Scripture lead to Repentance and to lead a pious life But if that Repentance and life so corrected thereby he would have to be put for the New Creature whilst yet the Conscience is still under the burden of sins then is it erroneous for whilst that no death hath as yet happened and still sin lieth so powerfully in the whole man that by means of an accusation it often driveth the soul into sadness the Soul is yet under the Law for by the Law in our consciences we are convinced of sin And though a man may force into silence that accusation and that burden of sin that tormenteth our conscience and that by Scripture-promises and so comfort himself yet it must be confessed that then he still abides in the state of the old Man and is not yet arrived at the death of it For the New Creature is not subject to sin therefore also no accusation of the Law in the Conscience can touch it for then a man liveth wholly under grace and his mind stands in no need to be sustained by the external comforts of the Scriptures or also by the absolution from sins according to the testimony of Scripture it should bring forth to him a greater confidence for his life is in the Spirit and consisteth under the Law of the grace of God wherefore also the conscience in its purity enjoyeth the highest peace remaining sealed by the Holy-Ghost but in them who are still under conscience the Law of sin still exerciseth its power and conscience doth still accuse perpetually for some sins so that it hence appears openly that such are not yet dead to the Law because the accusation of the Law doth still remain in its power so long as by the transgression of the Law somewhat is committed against conscience and though we will not confess that we are under the Law or under the accusation thereof notwithstanding that there can be no accusation but by virtue of the Law still reigning here or there yet is the thing manifest by conscience its self which thorough an accusation for sin rendreth us guilty If therefore we could stand in purity by the blood of Christ according to the inward man then indeed the Law by its virtue which it hath in the Conscience thorough sin durst not so assault the Soul of a man as that he must seek comfort out of the Scriptures and to be reconciled with God and to be confirmed by
is no longer desired when viz. any one desires to arrive at the true Substance or essence There is a Claritude given which foretelleth to a man that essence of the thing in which he is not yet got and to which he at last cometh Just as a flower is a certain demonstration of the Fruit that is to come in the future CHAP. XIX WHen the Lord said to the younger Son My Son go and Work in the Vineyard to day and he answered I go Lord but coming unto the Elder he also said Go Work in the Vineyard and he answered I will not Those two Sons are but one Man For when a man begins he will do all he will Suppress sin purifie himself he will Worship Love and adore God and adhere unto him c. He thinks that he is able to perform all this But when the Business comes to Trial then a man at last apprehendeth that he can scarcely observe the outward show of Virtue or Righteousness and that also with much indignation and reluctancy because he hath not that true essential Righteousness and Virtue whence true desire springeth For it is essential virtue only that makes a man pleasant and willing to do whatsoever he is to do and to omit whatsoever he is to omit and if this Virtue be essentially in him then is he more backward and full of loathing against Vice then he was before against Virtue when Vice was yet in the Throne Therefore unless the very root of Vices and of Unrighteousness whence external wickednesses do Spring as the Fruits of a corrupt Tree be purged out no true Virtue or real and Substantial Righteousness can grow forth in a man And therefore all men are Liars and have only the outside-shew of Righteousness without the true essence of the thing for the thing comes not forth out of the mind because the mind hath not received it For the Heart of that man that is full of any thing the man himself is the most Subjected servant to that thing Also sin is not heartily or from the mind omitted as being yet in the mind though as to shew it may be omitted I say not all this for this Purpose that a man ought to wait so long to omit the shew of the Vices and perform a shew of vertue till Vice inwardly also be extirpated and essential virtue Implanted but that none should remain contented if as to the shew only he omitteth Vice and have the Possession of Virtue nor that then he account of himself for a Just man or should think that he hath then so fulfilled Righteousness and to have departed from sin For we must Earnestly Pray both by Night and by Day that it be omitted Heartily or out of the Mind which externally is omitted as to the shew thereof But the truth is that is not the work of man but of God only for it is not Possible for any man to extirpate sin from the Root it self but a man can suffer only that God may do that according to his faithful Promises If a man could perform that thing it would not be a constant or an abiding thing because whatsoever a man doth is inconstant and is annihilated again by man If therefore a man should suppress sin it would again Bud forth for the work of a man is not Permanent or lasting but may be broke off by others But that which God worketh is Subject to no Destruction When he Suppresseth sin and extirpates it it must remain Supprest for Evermore and Righteousness implanted in its stead must abide the same to all Eternity CHAP. XX. THis is the meaning of the Parable of the two Sons who should go and labour in the Vineyard he that would not do it he did it that is he came so far as to confess that it was impossible for him to extirpate sin and to implant Righteousness And when he thus became deficient in himself and despaired thereof he waited for the Gracious promises of God viz. that God himself would do that when it proved Impossible for man to do it And that same will to perform of the first Son and all his other Actions and Omissions exercised as to shew are prefigured by Abraham's begetting Ishmael for he brought him forth by working he himself doing it but he was according to the flesh But he could not produce Isaac by working for as to him he was to wait on the Promise of God viz. That God himself should work it and he be born after the Spirit And when these things are fulfilled whatever is to be omitted is omitted without labour and whatever is done is done without labour for the Lord hath willing Servants who do all willingly and omit also because that which at first made a man backward and loath is extirpated and in its room righteousness is implanted To resist the breaking out of sins by the law of sin and to have a show of vertue cannot be done with man's working but the extirpation of sins and the implantation of righteousness is done without mans working according to the word of promise which is to be expected with desire if this shall once come upon us it cannot be again suppressed but must remain eternally Before Christ comes the Law and makes a man contrite and and sorrowful so as if a Man will submit unto it he will desire Christ That which the Law shews it does not take away and that which it commands it doth not give But at length Christ cometh and taketh away what the Law had discovered viz. Sin and he implaneth what the Law had commanded viz. Righteousness therefore Christ comes at last and he doth all this and then begins in man the time of the New Testament that in him all things may be fulfilled and confirmed which had been promised of Christ but before this he lived under the Law viz. in the time of the Old Testament and wanted Christ The Friends of God live in the continual death of the flesh but in mind they live and are free To rejoyce in sorrow and to live in death is to take safety from ones enemies For what enemy is greater than Death and yet out of it how much Health springeth for by Death we are separated from that which came into us by the Fall of Adam Before Death a man hath a Kingdom in God but in death God hath or giveth a Kingdom in man Man is led against his will into this death as Christ said unto Peter When thou wert young thou didst Gird thy self and went whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thoâ— shalt stretch out thy hands and another shalâ— bind thee and lead thee whither thou wouldâ—â— not A man ought not to depart from men that are his Adversaries for being with them he is prepared and his foundation is uncovered to him but let him depart from those who esteem highly of him lest perhaps he fall into Pride to gross works there is need
in the death and not in the life of the flesh it much more behooveth him to possess use know and behold the creature in the same death of the flesh for if this is to be done inwardly as to God much more ought it to be done outwardly as to the creature for all things must be beheld and applied in death and not in life if it be to the rightly done Whilst therefore we are not yet dead but are yet alive we ought to be lifted up on the cross and lay down such a life under a just judgment For else we cannot be conversant in or with the sight of God unless when we lye down in death and our conversation which is without death is no conversation in the sight of God and though in the sight of Men it may have a semblance yet it cannot stand before God But when life is as was said so laid down we are by the resurrection of Christ raised up again into a new life for unless the resurrection of Christ should be we should remain eternally in death When the thief on the right hand leaving all did turn himself unto Christ he begged to be heard of him in his Kingdom Therefore he yielded up himself into conformity of the death of Christ wherefore also he was conformed also in the resurrection He was crucified by Law which like a just Magistrate did not desist from him till it had thrown him into death and then he had finishâ—d his office and so became justified from â—in he also revived not any more into â—hat life to which he dyed by the Law â—therwise the Law would have had power over him again But Christ vivified him another way and in his resurrection raised him up again into eternal life which is God himself Then the Law had no more power over him for that life for which Satan by means of the Law accuseth a Man is judged by and thorough death and is taken out oâ— the way All that came out of Aegypt must dye in the Wilderness but their Children came into the Promised Land by these particulars that fruit is denoted which follows upon a going out When a man comes into the Land of Promise and there grows fat and gross if then he doth not behave himself rightly he is again expelled into the Land of the North where much misery grief and pain 〈◊〉 sustained till the Lord doth bring him from thence again then he enters into again by another way viz. with a greâ—ter glory and riches then before anâ— then he shall never be cast out again Fâ—â— though they which Returned from Babylon did not find that in the temple which they had before yet the Glory of thâ— last temple was greater then that of the first CHAP. XXVIII WHen a Man loseth himself he nevers finds himself the same again as he was when he lost himself and he knows not the fruit as yet of that losing of himself when he as yet hath not seen it or experienced it When corruption is present Fruit doth not presently appear for that does grow by degrees even to its full ripeness He that is free from all persons hath need that he be free also in his own person and that not only notionally but also essentially When a man hath lost is body he never findeth it the same again but in his Soul he finds a supernatural understanding Light and Claritude and whâ—â—â—â—ver then he understands of Gods is 〈◊〉 â—et God but rather the contrary 〈◊〉 A â—herefore he hath found his Soul so 〈◊〉 also â—ust he again lose it as before he 〈◊〉 did is body so as he shall never firâ—â—â—'d it such a Soul again But the calamity of this destruction and death is vast but out of these a man comes into the true essence viz. God and then that is much more essential then it was at first when he was to lose himself with so great an anguish and Death CHAP. XXIX WHen a man loseth himself as to the body he afterwards findeth himself as to his Soul in the supernatural understanding knowledge vision and use then when he again loseth himself as to his Soul he is stripped of all these again and then ariseth great calamity Hell and Misery yet if he goeth forth out of them then he findeth himself in the vision of God and in such wisdom understanding and claritude as the former understanding vision and use of his Soul when he first â—ost his body could not comprehend Christ therefore so assumed humanity 〈◊〉 that he was united therewith But 〈◊〉 after that the inferiour Powers also aâ— to be assumed by him there is yet need of another death Then a Man stands in a full purpose of persevering in Christ and never to go back again from him just like him who sitting at a Table spread and filled with various and delicate sorts of Food desires not to depart from thence or like him who living well and sound desires not to kill himself How much misery and difficulty of death is required before a man is purified â—s known to them who have experienced the thing and when a man is purged and prepared for the seed of God that â—t may be sown yet he does not hitherto apprehend nor perceive that seed and knows not that he is sown therewith until it cometh up nor yet doth it come up until it be corrupted in the Earth How great miseries and anguishes in dvâ—ng are required to that corruption of the â—eed is also known to them who have â—elt it This death of the Soul happeneth â—fter the death of the Body is past for a â—eath also belongeth to the Soul both which deaths must be fulfilled in a man When the body is lost the Soul also must be lost And this is that same Talent which the Lord required of the man besides those Ten for both sums are due unto him and he will have both paid unto himself That which was said before concerning the seed sown in a purified mind which is not perceived until it be corrupted and growth forth the very same thing doth more clearly appear from the similtude of the Field sown with Corn. CHAP. XXX IN a man from whom sin is taken away and who is purged again from sin no more motions thereof are found in the bottom of the mind for from a root cleansed from all sins how can any evil spring forth For that would be â—â—sign that somewhat was still deficient there and that the bottom was not wholly purified If Plato had had his foundâ—tion thoroughly purged he had not indulged his anger over his servant Whâ—â— motions soever happen in them that aâ—â—urified proceed not from the bottom of their minds but from without only and such do presently drive them out again whether it be anger or honour or ambition or such like To a man once purified there is yet need of a closer purification â—nd after that of another yet more close Death and
to his heart it is necessary that it should be expressed from out of the cross and from anguish If it springs from joy or from speculation it is vain and wanteth spirit or life Experience teacheth all things and that which is void of experience is in vain We pass thorough time into eternity and time is mutable so also is Man produced with mutability till he comes thither where there is no corruption nor mutation No man is to be rejected with how gross or how low a zeal his spirit boyleth with because they may be changed and therefore we are to be quiet with a man that standeth in his own zeal We are first in time before we come into eternity We first begin with low things and by degrees are we transferred unto higher till we come there where perfection is Paul saith Not as if I had apprehended c by how much the more sublime are the Saints by so much the more sublime is their desire by how much the higher is the perfection by so much the more sublime are the defects A man made conformable by letters rules ceremonies or as to outward appearance is like a body which hath indeed a nose a mouth c. but yet it wanteth life Every thing by its contrary is made of greater esteem accounted for holy and is not rightly known its contrary not being known then it is not so For if cold were not heat would not be cared for Heaven is more clearly understood by hell and the grace of God by his wrath or anger He that rightly knows the fall of Adam and understands his restauration cannot rejoyce because a man must perish for its sake and as to all these things he must be annihilated as to what he is made for Gladness is assigned over to posterity and to that fruit which shall grow out of corruption where a man becometh to be that which he attaineth to out of corruption And then he appeareth in the glory of God and acknowledges God from God and loves God from God and is sanctified and justified and â—enewed in God And he is made that â—y grace which God is by nature Before death all things were vain and â—nconstant and meer phansies but now â—re become essence or substance which â—bideth The truth is incorruptible the â—â—uth hath made all things free and hath â—nited a man to himself and all things â—re therefore done that we might get up hither All things are disposed to a cerâ—ain end Autumn Winter Snow c. â—or the fruits of Summer to this end and â—cope therefore are all things to be directed and for its sake are all things to be exercised and applied and not for its own sake The flower is the cause of the fruit and not of its self the flower perishes but the fruit remains whatsoever goeth before hath respect hitherto but â—abideth not but the fruit remaineth â—nd this is the truth in which a man is â—onfirmed and founded that he might be 〈◊〉 it eternally by a true union The small treatise of the Imitation of Christ is very useful to them that are labouring and striving for it giveth us the best instruction unto life and I am much delighted therewith but the German Divinity excelleth in which is the representation of God The book of the imitation is more profitable for the publick but the other small treatise of the German Divinity is for private use CHAP. VII BEcause God exerciseth his judgment so severely in his Children and yet his judgment is just it must be well considered what becometh us and that though we suffer in a wonderful manner yet is it done unto us with grace and mercy and that indeed the thousandth part of afflictions according to our sins is not inflicted upon us But God spareth us and unless it were so where should we abide Whence we ought not to be proud but fearful rather yea frighted and to hold our peace By how much the more a man recedeth from himself so much the nearer he approaches unto God and by so much the more heavily is he punished also in respect of nature which is therefore subjected unto death If a man should at first know this misery and calamity he would dye for very grief but now he cannot be sensible of it till he falls into it and then also doth God notwithstanding lead him thorough it He falls into the Gulph Scylla who indeavours to avoid the rock Charybdis For when a man desires to be freed from the legal accusation of his conscience he comes and is condemned into death so that endeavouring to avoid the difficulty on that part on the other he falls into it that is into a state where the natural man is condemned When the Law doth no longer accuse a man is condemned like a malefactor who is first accused and at length is punished then the accusation ceasing he suffers death by the means of which alone he is freed from the accusation of the Law He that trieth this shall find it no liar which hath promised to him no sweetness If it be said but yet it is well that the conscience â—s free though nature may suffer it is answered How good the state of thaâ— man is God knoweth the truth is iâ— is a miserable condition but it is accepted of God and he that is in it is made nearer to God But by how much the nearer he is to God by so much the heavier is his suffering as to Nature Here the restraining or bridling in of Nature sufficeth not we must go beyonâ— that viz. we must dye and we muâ—â— perish That a man can acknowledge his sinâ— is a great gift but then the affliction alsâ— is great He that acknowledgeth his sins God delivers him from them Thâ— vulgar acknowledgment of sins is not 〈◊〉 He that rightly acknowledgeth himseâ—â—â—o err desires to walk in a right way and to decline from that which is erroneous but he to whom the erroneous waâ— is not unpleasant he abideth in it aâ— defendeth it nor acknowledges that 〈◊〉 erred though with his mouth he mâ—â— profess otherwise In death that gloâ—â— is given to God which could not be doâ—â— in life for in life a man retains tâ—â— glory to himself but in death he laâ— down the glory Nature hath a way so proper to it self that it will acknowledge or accept no sort of death till it be willing or nilling cast thereinto and then the will reason memory and understanding of a man are so bound and tied down that the man thinks that he alone is smitten and that no man suffers but himself and from thence forward he can neither take joy in any thing nor can he draw comfort from the evils of other men And that usual saying that common mischiefs do bring comfort with them yet is not true in him He that is yielded up to the will of God is without choice yea his very words which inferr election do terrifiy him
for where the virtue of divine will is felt there such words do excite consternation Therefore it is not for him to say I hope it will be so or so or so it shall be or so it shall not be and the like but he saith thus 〈◊〉 hope the Lord will do it Christ saith I am the truth We think that Christ is with us and that he is such a one as we are by Nature but thus he is contrary to us and is our death CHAP. VIII ALl ceremonies conform themselves according to God and are a representation of the hidden truth but they do not conform themselves unto our weakness as some say yea and that God gave them because of our weakness when as other wise they had not been necessary to which opinion we must assent Yea furthermore they say that the very incarnation of Christ is to be thus adorned which opinion be it far from us He that is upon a right foundation and hath an understanding heart will be wholly opposite to these opinions For such a one feels and knows that without the incarnation of Christ no salvation can be found on the earth and that ceremonies together with all creatures are only a representation of the heavenly truth and that they are all conformeâ— according to God but not according to us and so also they ought to be And therefore they judge too dryly concerning them who say they are toys and trifles as also they do attribute too much to them who are glued fast unto them and from them do make Gods to themselves and set them in the place of the true substance They err on both hands Wherefore we are to wait for a right judgment in all things from the Lord and and to fear least any thing is rashly added from our opinion for opinion deceiveth us Where the powers of sin are felt and are conquered and broken a man is cast into great affliction But when a man puts that affliction from him and puts it upon Christ as if he had satisfied for it and that that satisfaction ought to be impâ—ted to a man and to be fulfilled in him so as that sin is to be taken away and righteousness to be fulfilled there a man hath not a true sense of sin but neglectâ—th it with a light mind this opinion also is contrary to the writings of the Prophets and the doctrine of the Apostles who testify that Christ must snatch a man out of sin and let up righteousness and break the Serpents Head and overcome all things and that this victory ought to be done in a man and not to remain without him Rom. 8. 4. for they ought to be a people in whom all things are done and fulfilled which the Prophets and the Apostles and all ceremonies testify Let no man therefore deceive himself by imposing upon Christ any thing without himself Where God doth possess a man there God reigneth and keepeth him but man is not at all touched with any care for what belongeth to God But a man is not to eye any thing but his littleness and emptyness that is his selfishness this is due unto him and upon that account he boweth under all and judgeth himself to be worser more foolish and more unworthy then all men All the rest that is any things is God and is due to God nor doth it concern man But if any one departing from his nothingness will arrogate to himself the things which beâ—ong unto God that will prove the highest pride and the most heavy fall CHAP. IX WHen any one is given up to the will of God there is nothing so heavy nor so painful which he cannot bear in the will of God without election But as God willeth so is a thing commended to him who will do all things And where that is there is peace and no where else A certain person said such as the judgment is so I suffer under a heavy judgment heavily under a light judgment lightly When one also is ashamed befote his neighbour because of that for whose sake he was ashamed before God conscience is more at quiet but when one for a secret hidden baseness blusheth not before man conscience is burdened and therefore here we must be bound and no man ought to be ashamed when he is obliged to confess himself guilty before his neighbour God keepeth his promises but we understand them perversly until their own â—ime comes when we see what they are and to whom they belong He whose will is resigned he wanteth appropriation and its the same to him whither the thing be or be not He who hath a will yielded up to God he esteemâ—â—â— for heavenly whatsoevr happeneth to him For all that is God to him and God is Heavenly Whatsoever falleth out to him be 〈◊〉 advantage disadvantage peace disquiet riches poverty bitter sweet heat cold hunger thirst honor dishonor yet aâ—â— all these God to him and consequently Heaven he is also without appropriation and nothing else pleaseth him as if 〈◊〉 were Heaven unless that God wills it But before any one comes thither many thing are required especially Time He who wants this resigned will esteemeth all that are against his own will for torments and Hell yea even those things which of themselves are pleasant Out proper will therefore is to be discarded and to this purpose serve our exercises O how bitter is death to him who is yielded up to life All things perish but God and what is united to him The voice of the Spirit is such a terror to the flesh that when any thing is spokâ—en to it of the spirit it is frighted and â—rembles because the Spirit is its destruction They who aim at a mark shut one eye and always level at the mark and when one hitteth the mark then he turns himself and looks upon all the rest which none of the rest do because they have not yet struck it but do still level their aim By the cross God casteth on man chains and a bridle And except this should be so he would wander into errour in time and though a man sometimes may think that he shall serve God better unless this or that happens yet God adjudgeth it otherwise and knows this to be best contrary to a man 's own opinion CHAP. X. A Man always requires time and space and thinks that he shall satisfie the Law and yet it cannot be done and he must dye and God must fulfil the Law in his stead That which a man thinks he shall do in his life that is at last performed in his death When the passion and death of Christ are really in a man also his resurrection is really in him if one is real such also is the other if the one be only notional so also is the other for there are divers resurrections A man given up to God belongs to God and he hath no propriety but is a stranger to himself whatever therefore God or
they who are in death do utterly want CHAP. XVII THey who are not yet dead ought with great diligence and severity to abstain from lusts whereas they who are dead have no such matter For those means in which lusts do make their abode are by the good help of judgment so shattered and broken that delectation wholly ceaseth in them because these men are dead as to these matters and whatsoever they do whether they eat or drink or speak c. they do all in death and with affliction also this death is a sensible death nor is it like that in a post that wanteth sense neither also is it such a death which being once accomplished then ceaseth but it is an incessant death every day for they sensibly dye every particular day But for the others who still abide only in continency they as I said have not this death but are still alive For those means in which lusts do abide are not in these men as yet condemned to death and therefore they ought to abstain under the labour of the Law and sedulously to beware because they can scarce do any thing which is not done by the use or help of life But they who are dead do the same thing in death with misery and affliction And therefore as was said above he who liveth must not regard him that is dead to imitate him until he himself also is arrived at this state of death then are those things granted unto him and are become pure unto him which whilst he was alive were impure Yet is it not here so to be understood that one may therefore think that unjust things are lawful for him or are pure as at this day some erroneous spirits David George and Henry Nicholas do profess who think such things are lawful for them which are not of themselves lawful but are wicked and unjust before God and the Elect by which they demonstrate that they salsly boast themselves of their dying and death Let all those who desire to find out God beware of these kind of men In the book of Psalms it is said Thou shalt change them but thou thy self art still the same and thy years shall not fail c. He who feeleth this mutation for his part and a permanency on the part of God that man feels some-what Let no man so much esteem of the sufferings of the Soul as to contemne the afflictions of Nature for the matter upon examination is otherwise found When a man standeth in the trial between God and Nature and is equally on both sides grievously afflicted so as that he must deny one or the other Let I pray that man bear up and let him deny nature and not God Let him I pray bear up vigorously and not shrink for God helpeth him CHAP. XVIII WHen a man's props fall from under him by which he was born up it is a sign that he himself will quickly fall into ruin and then it is said Alas how long will this endeavour of appropriation last shall this my Meity or mineness always endure and then misery and affliction rush in when that net of propriety is to be unloosned because that is to done by the means of many sufferings He who knoweth grace rightly is in great affliction for he is wholly made sin and hath nothing in wch he can be at rest By how much the less one hath of grace glory Illumination devotion and of strength when he suffers the mortification of Nature by so much the more excellent and worthy is that esteemed in the sight of God But when one suffers with the glory of an exceeding high grace with devotion and with virtue c. the thing is easy nor is it so highly esteemed as when one labours under want of all those excellencies and yet is afflicted yet is not one better then another for he that lies in the sun how I pray is he better then another who doth not lie in the sun except it be because he hath need of greater humiliation which must be done for him by and thorough so much mercy so that he must bow himself down under the feet of all men and submit himself unto them Conscience is our next neighbour with whom we are to be reconciled before God will accept our offerings therefore we ought rather to suffer the loss of our own selves then to keep an evil conscience yea all adversities are rather to be accepted then that Conscience should torment us He that hath an evil conscience cannot be advanced forward An evil conscience is a great burden We must therefore use all diligence that our conscience be brought into an innocâ—ncy but that can never be effected without affliction and without the want of all things pleasant He who is full of lusts is often afflicted when those things are not done which he desired It is not wisdom to reveal the folly of another unless one hath a very lawful cause else the business of another is not to be discovered The art of God is God himself and it is taught by God and infused without any means although some certain things should preceed which have been useful so to dispose a man that God can immediately touch him It 's no art to have no care in great abundance but by care to abstain in want comes to this at length not to be sollicitous If the eye be shut to lust and appetite we may endure much Affliction can bring it so to pass as any one can deny himself in great things which without affliction he could never have renounced He that is free from many hath need also to be set free from himself not that he be a captive to himself but be freed from himself Many think that they have discretion which notwithstanding they have not yet He in whom discretion is to be found both bitter and sweet things must have been tasted by him To be free in Conscience from those accusations which are wont to be made dayly is a great gift of God and that liberty can advance a man unto a notable growth if he can use it rightly No man knows what he hath but when he hath lost the thing then at length a man acknowledgeth what he once had A man is full of the study of appropriation so that he always thinks that this or that is due unto him and to be his and that he hath a right unto that He that standeth in God walks speaks thinks and operates as in the sight of God nor is he sollicitous how men do receive it Men are willing to hide under an evil and false worship those defects in which they are therefore involved because they have not satisfied their consciences And that false worship is therefore accounted for the true and remaineth unknown but when one satisfieth his conscience then it is detected to be a false worship for when one satisfieth conscience there conscience is cleared and illuminated and there a man is
a new promise of grace because grace in the regenerated hath taken most deep root according to its own true nature so that such have certainly no need to seek out some remedy out of their own selves Which whilst others do they do in this very point testify that they have not attained to that of which they boasted and which they by the testimonies of the Scriptures attributed to themselves in the very truth and according to the proper essence of the thing For the old man who always by force usurpeth the empire in man with transgression which indeed is termed a tripping and is made light of yet nevertheless in the sight of God it can never be tollerated in the new man without real mortification alledgeth a contrary testimony viz. that we yet live the life of the old man nor as yet are disposed unto death because that no sin can be committed against our wills and without pleasure or delight Hence therefore is it manifest that we still are kept in the life of the old man and are not yet arrived at the new life for a man comes not to the death of natural strength in his carnal life and with the complacency of proper will or by the study of proper righteousness and austerity but against its own will viz. it is to be subjected on the cross to the obedience of God by the means of pouring forth of the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord into whose communion we are taken by a like death according to the inward man so that on the cross we wholly put off our natural life which we had in the flesh being buried with Christ and afterwards raised up again into another supernatural life so as the power of the Law which being as yet not perfectly killed lurketh in the members of our natural body is wholly enervated in the mind and Soul and in the whole humanity having utterly lost all right in and upon the life of man For a man is not excited into such a life ove◠which the jurisdsction of the Law can domineer with a deadly accusation but when it hath fully finished this judgment in man by this death the man also by the benefit of the same death is altogether freed from that Law EPIST. XXII Being a fundamental Relation in what properly consisteth the Oeconomical Government of the Family of Love To the same person MY John I received thy letters together with the books and having somewhat perused them I gain'd the understanding of the greater part of the opinion yet I shall keep the Books till thou comest But the opinion of the Writer is contrary to my mind because it consisteth in the knowledge only of a seeming divine truth and not in an essentia◠truth of God And this is my opinion seeing no man can be more instructed according to this way than the Writer himself of these Books If I may understand his fundamentals from his Books it cannot possibly be that any of those who are inferiour to him can more happily explain the thing to me Yet I am willing that thou shouldest enquire how they carry themselves in their conversation that thou wouldest as exactly as possibly thou canst find out also the rest of their state or condition for when thou shalt come hither I shall more fully discover to thee my opinion concerning those Writings Now I only ask pardon seeing that matters are thus the cause whereof if it shall please the Lord I shall tell thee at thy coming May the merciful and faithful God have mercy on them and us that in an acknowledgement of their darkness they may be led by the Lord in the straight way unto his essential truth before which the natural Reason which inordinately appropriateth God to it self may utterly perish whereby I fear they are still too much bound though they think themselves clearly set free therefrom For all that for which they labour and contend and which they account their utmost aim as far as I can imagine must yet be judged of God for that which reason endeavoureth to effect with them by knowing all that must be God himself so that nothing but God can acknowledge himself in us we in the mean time being by a real death of body and soul as to our creaturely part wholly laid aside and then that life which ought to be in us can be nothing else but Christ as Paul saith likewise so that after we are buried by death we are no more raised up again into Nature but into the Spirit For nature remaineth condemned upon the Cross and being once dead is not again revived Now I judge that nature in these people is still egregiously and in very deed and especially alive although they may think that they are already purified because that they perswade themselves through their ignorance and blindness that they have already plainly conquered that combat of an accusing conscience I write all this to thee with the greatest brevity because thou didst demand my opinion but when God permitting thou shalt come thy self we will talk more concerning them My Opinion therefore as I said is contrary to these Writings and my mind can no waies assent unto them For that aim which the Writer himself calleth the Intellect of God in my sense is indeed nothing else than that they would have Nature as yet not deadned to become a propriety to themselves when indeed Nature before it be dead cannot be otherwise in it self for in it the highest death consisteth True indeed that by reading I find somewhat concerning Death and of the abnegation of the reason and the discretion of Nature so as that the Author would have all humane wisdom and knowledge overturned before we can come to the truth of God yet nevertheless the Soul of a Man doth remain proper to him yea though he renounceeth his intellect so that in this very point the Writer erreth in which he taxeth others and in truth far more vilely seeing that he thereby would come to a greater knowledge but especially that he by the means of his temerity would arrive at that which others seek by means of worship and ceremonies For these from a vow do love their body goods wife and children that they may possess the inheritance of heaven but they do forsake their natural and humane wisdome and reason that they may obtain something that is better viz. the understanding of God and yet both of them are still captivated in that that their Ipseity or Iness still remaineth proper to them although to some more miserably then to others Now it is impossible that they should this way arrive at the truth of God and can possibly be planted into liberty as in the sight God because that they are not lead in tha◠true and as it were that essential death to be found in both Soul and Body bu◠are only instructed by knowing though for this very reason they reject others 〈◊〉 of a certain
the Resurrection To the same person DEarest brother we will beg of the Lord that he may have mercy on us and that he will lead us into the power of the Resurrection every one according to the measure of his illumination by the quickning power of his spirit by the benefit of whom all seeds do put forth their faculties in growing For the natural life faculty understanding wisdom and sense do all tend to death in time and though a man deluded by some fair shew may imagine to himself an eternal permanency of these things yet when the sun is risen to a burning strength all these will dry up or wither nor is it possible for them to consist or abide the just judgment of God as being that which melteth all down yea furthermore the very discretion it self of the soul must dye likewise as far as the natural man studyeth to preserve it if that that man according to the testimony of his conscience is willing to satisfy the Law least that soul do tumble down into utter destruction Now because it is not the proper disposition of the natural man to lose any thing but rather with the top of the life of the Soul to preserve all things therefore it is subjected to the divine judgment that is to death and because he is willing to conserve life in himself and in his Soul now there is life no where but in God the soul cannot come at the true nourishment of life but is to be deliveral up to death inasmuch as the natural man properly is death it self and belongeth to death For they are bound up together into one body and both viz. the body from the soul and on the other part the soul from the body are moved together whether it be to grief or to joy yea though it be in the state of the highest knowledge unto which the soul according to the natural rule of life could possibly ascend For she cannot be elevated higher in understanding unless first as to her knowledge by which the natural man is informed by her she shall dye so as that it behooveth both soul and body as one man to dye after that the spiritual conception is now out of that deadned seed is wont to spring forth a new plant enriched with divine fruitfulness which no death can touch any more neither according to soul nor according to body because this generation not of man but without man nor out of his will but without his will not with hope but without all hope arriveth at the state of eternity out of the eternal grace of God so as that it is of God and of life always abiding nor is it corruptible even as also God is in his own nature Every thing therefore returneth to that out of which it first sprung viz. the natural man with its perfect body and in its sphere to death without any resurrection at all according to its own proper nature and the supernatural man in its perfect sphere to eternal life abiding eternally in God and yet as a Creature but glorified in God He who comes to this state cannot deny the truth of the thing but he who partaketh nothing thereof also as a natural man uttereth with truth that he believeth that there is no resurrection and although he should confess it yet even that confession of the resurrection must dye because unto the natural man as such there never even eternally belonged any resurrection even as it is impossible for a seed sown to come to a perfect death unless it be wholly corrupted in its self If therefore it can be brought to pass that a man can give up himself to death with a hope of receiving forthwith another life and as to that state and according to that rule of his knowledge wherein he is dead a better for no man can whilst his present understanding is in being attain to another understanding or life unless the former be first dead then indeed there would be no need to proceed to a further death because it can only follow that which had been in being before Now therefore there is here place for death when by the benefit of corruption through the operation of God a new plant ariseth according to the nature of the corruption done every thing according to its own kind as there is example in all creatures and in the corruptible propagation of them So that by how much the more the natural man affirmeth that there is no more Resurrection by so much the more he confirmeth it because he truly is preparing himself for death and uttereth publickly his Testimony concerning his corruption and his eternal death for there is to be no Resurrection of him and thus also to his may together with the Keepers whom the Pharisees set a Testimony concerning the Resurrection of Christ be given which also by this means is mightily confirmed for them who stand in the very door to such a state and do believe it For when the Pharisees having sealed up the Sepulcher had concluded that they had shut up a kind of dead Corpse and to have kept it in that pit of Death the keepers of the Sepulcher who yet were sent to do mischief became witnesses of his Resurrection although it is not believed to this very day but by his Disciples by the Keepers is meant the natural man My Brother this my own true Epistle will clearly open to thee my mind and will be to thee as it were the hand of a Dial which thou must well eye and consider that thou maist likewise write back thy opinion to me whereby it may appear wherein we agree and wherein we differ if we are careful concerning this opinion The Lord look upon us all in his mercy and bring us into his own clearness EPIST. XXVII A faithful Admonition concerning the Resurrection of the Flesh To his Brother A. W. MY Brother Let us go to that man and let us set before him Death and Life Resurrection and incorruptibility all unfolded in their own degree and nature and it shall be at his pleasure to make choice of any one of these For if he shall choose nature in his life then in good earnest he must perish in an eternal death nor shall he ever arrive at such a life as he seeks but if he will approach unto the truth even as also the thing is he shall live while he dieth and he shall acknowledge the true Resurrection which else is denied to him My Brother May God exhibit to him and to us his mercy according to the variety of his compassions nor may he ever leave us in our miseries but remember us in this life subject to so many sufferings in which we cry out laboriously unto the Lord with many sighs that by his hand we may be promoted to incorruptibility which can by no means be effected but by our death which comprehends in it self the relinquishing of all those things which we know by
shall fail me The Lord prepare us all that we may be made fit for his work in those things which he himself seeth and judgeth II. My brother the condition of my body is tolerable as it always was but I remain unshaken in my heart and the trust or confidence of my life is so small by reason of want of strength in my limbs that I can only walk up and down the house with trembling under the hand of my God True indeed I remain like others as to outward appearance but at heart and over my orignal and root of life there impends a judgment and by my unconsidered steps thorough the terrours of death it threatneth an end and my departure out of this time such is the constitution of my whole life way and conversation May the merciful Father open the bowels of his paternal inclination to me a most wretched creature that he may keep me safe from the evil one and preserve us all by his eternal grace Be mindful of forsaken and for lorn me as my compassionate brother if perhaps the Lord may be willing to exhibit his mercy to us III. My brother mine accustomed infirmity still remaineth as long as the Lord will The Lord be my promoter in his commiserating grace and may he preserve me and continue to hold me in his discipline under a suffering obedience of his holy will The cause why I have wrote no mere is the weakness of my hand According to the Lord my writing is not necessary to thee seeing that he himself will operate by his own grace in thy heart thorough the influence of his Spirit from whom all words and all writings may be separated by reason of his immense and glorious clatitude The Lord keep and promote you all in his ways under his fear and likewise us thorough all the time of our earthly combat And so I heartily salute you IV. My brother as to what belongs to my condition it still conflicts with its usual and difficult disease so long as it shall so please God He according to the order of his Justice put me down into this death of corruption and with his own hand plucketh me up again that I may wait for eternity which springeth up from out of the seed of this corruptible mortality May the Lord freely bestow on us all his mercy as with a long-suffering constancy we hope from the Lord it will be that with a heart prepared and submitted we may receive all from his hand and may be lead thorough even unto the end Herewith I recommend thee to the Lord who will lead us all with all our strength and essence unto the true death in Christ that he out of this 〈◊〉 may build up an eternal life whiâ—◠〈◊〉 never more be subjected unto any 〈◊〉 V My brother my condition is the 〈◊〉 that it was when you departed bâ—◠〈◊〉 consideration thereof doth shake al◠〈◊〉 powers into a trembling and a terâ—â—â—â— because of that evident death by the 〈◊〉 of the Lord which as it were an obâ—â—â—re cloud of death I have always before my eyes even from that very time whâ—â— thou wert with me the reason bâ—◠〈◊〉 its beginning and of its end is whâ—â— hid from me the truth it self will bâ—â—â—â— it self forth in its own meaning and oâ—der As to my outward body which respecteth my disease I am not at all chanâ—â—â— but anguishes have taken full possession on all my faculties Be thou recommended to the mercy of God VI. My brother The Lord help us poor wâ—â—â—ches in this dangerous condition of this natural and mutable life whom it behooveth to be kept with believing under all uncertainties in the fear of God according to the faith whereby we believe that all the certainty and firmness of our purposes are to be wholly destroyed corrupted and annihilated that another 〈◊〉 fruit may spring up to eternal life 〈◊〉 â—â—ising out of the foregoing corruptible seed The Lord grant to us his salvation and grace that we may adore or worship 〈◊〉 in Spirit and in Truth even as he himself desireth VII The Lord in his mercy help us all and free us from our errours in his own time For I poor wretch do suffer the justice of the Lord and do bear his judgment upon me as long as this carnal spirit in this my dying nature still breatheth May the eternal and merciful God appear to me by his grace yea and to us all and lead us into his own will VIII My brother The Lord is my deliverer in my necessity and will confirm me in his grace even unto the end My brother I am willing thou shouldest know that my body cannot possibly endure any longer this immense misery without dying God assist me in my sufferings to the last and receive me into his eternal rest My Weakness is great all things are known to the Lord. Thy brother in the highest streights the most wretched in the Lord. M. W. To his Sister the ninth day before his death DEarest Sister whilst I am writing this I am so ordered that I can write no more My dearest sister be mindful of thy younger brother and of his wife and small children that they may be the most advanced and helped as the time may need My most beloved Sister I am in the highest content in the Lord my God and by his grace do bid the farewel with this my dying hand being according to the will God bound in so short a chain as he proposed to himself The Lord our God grant peace to our beloved brothers and sisters And now I turn me to my present call viz. to that eternal peace thorough the death of my flesh which now hasteneth it self to its end And now my most beloved Sister behold my dying salutation and my last farewel to thee from the bottom of my heart wherewith saluteth thee as departing out of this life thy brother M. W. 16 April 1560. He died in the Lord 25 April in the year of our Lord 1560. and of his own age the 39. THE END