which signifies the Mount of Regeneration where the Soul is retired and shut up in GOD from all the hurrings and busiles of the World and the deeper its gets into this innermost Center the more dead it is not only to the World and the Concerns thereof but to it self in all things whether External or Internal it serves the very necessity of Nature with Grief thinking all time to much that is spent in any thing but in waiting upon GOD alone and this is its continual Exercise to enter into it self there to abide with GOD in perfect Unity and Resignation and being so disinterested and taken off from self that though it should fulfill all the Commands of CHRIST that concerns GOD and its Neighbour and should leave nothing undone of the Duty of a true Christian yet it makes no account of all this before His Divine Majesty nay tho' they being in such an Estate as to receive many wonderful Gifts and supernatural Graces yet they are not lifted up with vain conceit nor prides themselves in these rich Robes but are just as if they had received nothing being always humbled in the depth of their own unworthiness and ever kept in a holy Fear and inflaimed Love to GOD which shews that the Creature exhalted in Gifts is Lucifer But the Soul thus adorned with Heavenly Graces in the Humility is CHRIST JESUS come again in the Flesh therefore this is the Spirit that is to be uppermost whether in Prosperity or Adversity if you would have GOD to be your Teacher for the humble GOD will teach I mean the Humility of CHRIST who emptied Himself of all His Glory both Heavenly and Earthly and humbled himself to the death both in Body and Mind John 30. Luke 22. and 44. both in Soul and Body were his sufferings And if we are his Disciples we must tread in His steps we must first die to self before we can live to God the true Figure is a Corn of Wheat saith CHRIST John 12.24 and the more dead the Creature is in it self and to it self the more it shall know and please GOD but if it doth not mind this continual denying of self and internal Mortification it will never arrive at this state of perfection but through this Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost this inward Hearts-breaking Soul-suffering these Faithful Ones comes to wash there long-suffering Robes and makes them white in the Blood of the Lamb for these are redeemed from the Earth and all perishing and transitory Things and therefore have the Harps of GOD in their hands to sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb for from these internal Soul-sufferings comes the Eternal Heavenly Triumphant Joys therefore lift up your Heads ye tribulated Ones that are surrounded with Sorrows both within and without look up to the Rock whence ye are hewn but look not to Man for help whose Breath is in his Nostrils for then it will be just with the Highest to say to you as he did to them of Old Jer. 2.28 call upon your Gods let them deliver you but look unto me saith the Everlasting all ye ends of the Earth and be saved but look not at the Creature howsoever they may be suffered to try and prove you but keep your Eye to your Saviour's Beauty which is Patience Meekness and Long-suffering let these be ever in your Eye but cast not your Eye upon the Instrument who or whatsoever they may be for that will beget anger and wrath in your minds and then you will loose the end of your Sufferings for all these things are suffered to be to wean you off the Creatures to let you see the emptiness and nothingness of all things that hath a begining even to your selves and this is the way to make GOD all and the poor empty Creature nothing But whatsoever your Tryal is or with whomsoever be shure you keep in the Love that thinks no Evil no not to the greatest of all your Enemies and then you will be ready upon all Occasions to do them any Office of Love as the Power is in your hands and their Necessity requires and thus you will fulfill the Royal Law of CHRIST your Lord who said love your Enemies do Good for Evil overcome Evil with Good that you may be the Children of your Heavenly Father who causes His Glorious Sun to shine upon the Just and the Unjust and so your Prayer shall be heard when you say Lord forgive us our trespasses against thee as we forgive them there trespasses against us and thus will the Righteous Judge of the whole Earth take the Cause of the Innocent in His Hands and plead it with their Enemies for vengeance is mine saith the Lord and I will repay for it is as Dindimus said to Alexander the Great He is a Judge of all injuries and the Sighs of those that are injuriously treated become the pain of those that injure them But as was said before to you Servants of the LORD whom he hath counted worthy to be partakers with Him of His Internal and External Sufferings to be rejected of all denied condemned and tempted within and without in Fears and Dreads in Weakness in Watchings and Fastings with Tears of sorrow Night and Day led into the Wilderness and there tempted tried in the Night with great Temptations led in a Way you know not nor see no way out but as it were passing by the Gates of Hell and none pitty nor take your part Hear your Love to GOD will be prov'd to the uttermost whether you will follow your beloved LORD and holy JESUS in His suffering Life who trod the Wine-press alone and of the People there was none with him who was compassed with Sorrows on every side He that was in such a Labyrinth of sorrows as never Man was he saw no comfort neither in Life nor Death above him nor below him from God or Men were our Condition as bad as his if it were possible that we were in the very midst of the heat and fire of Affliction when the flood of Temptation arises an hundred fold above your strongest hold yet here you may be at rest in your beloved LORD in an assured confidence that all things shall work together for your good that loves the LORD although you may cry out and say as I know a Soul that did Was ever any Sorrows like unto mine Did ever any go this Way before me The immediate Answer was Yes Moses and all the Prophets and JESUS the author and finisher thereof Therefore thou art compassed about with a cloud of Witnesses when upon an invisible sight I said O my God Must there be yet more fire then He said unto me In the Fire and in the Water I will be with thee and make thy way thorow all I believed the LORD and was strengthened and his powerful Word was my Salvation Therefore you that are brought into these fiery Trials have a care you murmur not neither
Faâ—her of Power to give you his Heavenly Strength so to make War with â—he Enemy of your Souls as to overcome all his temptations to fight manfully and couragiously with your selves with your own desires affections self-love any corrupted Reason and your own Wills These are the potent Enemies of Christ that keeps him from his Right to Reign in your Souls here you are to help the LORD against the mighâ—y which is Sin Flesh and the Devil which you are to engage War withal old Adam the Dragon and Lucifer which you are to adventure your Lives Liberties and Estates to overcome and they that looses their lives here shall find them and they that holds out to the End here shall be Saved and they that forsakes these shall receive a thousand fold â—oth in this Life and that which is to come These are the sufferings you are to join with Christ in here you must be equal workers together with him mark that not without him for without him we can do nothing poor miserable nothings from the Greatest to the Least but â—f we wait upon him in the contempt of our selves in self-abhorrence â—oor Impotent Creatures waiting at the Pool of Bethesda John 5.45 6 7 8. for the Angels moving the Waters here 's the place where Jeâ—us comes with his Mercy and healing Power and Vertue which makes â—he Lame leap as an Hart the Blind to see the Deaf to hear the Dumb â—o speak the Dead to live and heals all your putrified Sores but have 〈◊〉 care your Eve is not to Man for help you must not seek to the Creaâ—ures for that was Asa King of Juda's Sin who rested on the King of Aram and not on the LORD therefore said the Prophet Hanani to King Asa The Host of Aram is escaped out of thy Hand and when he was afflicted with an extream Disease in his Feet he sought to the Physicians and not to the LORD and so died 2 Chron. 16. and not to the LORD to take away the Sin which was the cause of God's afflicting hand upon him yet a King that did many noble acts to pull down Idolatry and made a Covenant to seek the LORD with his whole Heart and Soul and made a Law that whosoever would not seek the LORD GOD of Israel should be Slain whether small or great Man or Woman yet in this thing he greatly transgressed himself See what a dangerous thing it is to rely upon Man for help either for Soul or Body either in spiritual or temporal Affairs 't is no less than a dis regarding the LORD and believing his Omnipotency to be insufficient and how this can be answered let the wise in Heart judge but the remedy for this raging pestilential Disease is the foregoing Instructions to be emptied of our selves to be made nothing to forsake our own Wills these are Sufferings indeed all other outward Sufferings of what sort soever are but shadows to these though you give up your Bodies to be burnt that doth but reach the Flesh but these reach the Soul those takes away the Life but these the Sin for example How many hundreds or thousands suffers outwardly variety of ways as Poverty Sickness and Death c. and as wicked as ever but the internal Sufferings reaches the Heart and changes it from evil to good Therefore these are the Sufferings that brings Christ to reign in the Soul here whilst it is in the Body in the Life and then hereafter for ever wherefore here we are to imitate Christ our Pattern in his Suffering Life Phil. 2.6 7 8. Let this Mind be in you said the Apostle which was in Christ Jesus who being in the form of GOD thought it no Robbery to be equal with GOD yet made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross Here 's our Pattern he that was LORD of all became least of all although he was GOD equal with the Father yet he emptied himself of all his Glory and humbled himself to an Ignominious Death which signifies a death to all your Honours and Glories you must empty your selves not only of all Sin and Iniquity as Pride Arrogancy Deceit Malice Hatred Covetousness and the like but of all your best Endowments excellencies of Graces Parts and Wisdom your good Works that are really good in themselves works of Mercy to your Neighbours and fellow-Creatures or whatsoever Excellency doth atttend a Heavenly Life that thou thinkest thou oughtest to think well of it or thy self for doing it away with those Thoughts hate and abhor such Thoughts thou oughtest to run away from them Thoughts as Christ did from the Jews when they would have made Him King For what hast thou done that was not commanded thee therefore the good that thou dost is none of thine thou hast nothing thou art nothing nothing is thine but Sin thou never didst a good action nor never thought a good thought shall I therefore ascribe to my self the glory of doing any good to rob GOD of his Honour GOD forbid all good is GOD's but Sin Evil and Wickedness is thine therefore down proud Worm down Dust and Ashes down with your Crowns before the Lamb and Him that sits upon the Throne and confess and ascribe in the deepest humility and profoundest adoration from the bottom of your Souls all Praise Power Might and Dominion Honour and Glory to the LORD GOD Omnipotent from Everlasting to Everlasting Amen Wherefore if you will find GOD it must be by lesning your selves making self of no Reputation by emptying your selves of all your Glories and Excellencies whether external or internal and take nothing to your selves but shame and confusion of Face Dan. 9. and that in a broken and contrite Heart judging and condemning your selves to be unworthy of the least of all his Goodness and this is the Breast-plate of Judgment that must be upon Aaron's Heart continually before the LORD then you learn of Christ who emptied and humbled himself in all things to be tempted as we are yet without Sin and thus Man comes to be restored to GOD out of the Fall for as in Adam all died so in Christ all are made alive to Righteousness and true Holiness If we put him on as t is written Put ye on the LORD Jesus and make no provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lust thereof This is that that recovers Mankind out of the Fall to put on His Righteousness His Humility to put on His Obedience to the Father His Self-denial His Justice His Mercy and to be cloathed with all His Heavenly Vertues This is better than an adherent or an imputed Righteousness which without this we are never the better for but here we eat His Flesh and drink His Blood that nourishes and gives life to our Souls and causes us to
the true Ministers of Christ trod in the steps of their LORD they lived in the offering up of their Souls continually in the flames of Love as a whole Burnt-offering to Christ which is the practical part and kept their Bodies under that while they were Preachers to others they might not be cast aways themselves 1 Cor. 9.26 they went on conquering and to conquer and so doth every true Christian they are still conquering and overcoming all their Enemies getting their Sins and Lusts under their Feet and can never rest whilst there is any to overcome till they have brought all in Subjection and this they are able to do through the Power of Christ in them although the false Prophets and Ministers of Antichrist who are Ministers of the Flesh and not of the Spirit that tells them to the contrary for their sinister ends to keep up their Trade of Diana Acts 19.24 But alas who do I give this aforesaid Doctrine to For it must be a Caleb that must do this work a Caleb which signifies a good Heart not a Heart that seeks Liberty to the flesh to make the knowledge of Christ a more easie way to sinning to encourage them in their Luxury and Fleshly Pleasures not an Heart of unbelief that brings an evil report upon the good â—and to make the death of Christ of no effect saying We shall never overcome our Sins and Lusts being so many potent and strong while we are on this side the Grave No no this is not the Heart that shall overcome but a couragious valiant heart that 's fill'd with Faith and Love that stands armed upon its Watch-Tower against every high and wandring thought strong hold and vain Imagination that exalts it self against the Power Kingdom and Soveraignty of Christ that so it may kill Sin in the Conception before it be brought to the Birth and this is the way that Christ and his Apostles ascribed to work out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling that we be equal workers together with him and then Co-heirs for he places our Salvation conditionally if we suffer with him we shall also Reign with him so then this suffering life is the door all must come in at for saith Christ He that comes another way is a Thief and a Robber so here 's no Salvation but by being partakers of his Internal Sufferings which Hermes Trismigestes doth excellently treat of in his first Book For this only Oh Son saith he is the way to the Truth which our Progenitors travelled in and by which making their Journey they at length attained to the good it is a venerable way and plain but hard and difficult for the Soul to go in that is in the Body For first must it war against its own self and after much strife and dissention it must be overcome of one part for the contention is of one against two whilst it flies away and they strive to hold and detain it but the Victory of both is not like for the one hasteth to that which is good but the other is a Neighbour to the things that are Evil and that which is good desireth to be set at Liberty but the things that are evil love Bondage and Slavery And if the two parts be overcome they become quiet and are content to accept of it as their Ruler but if the one be overcome of the two it is by them led and carried to be punish'd by its Being and continuance here This is Oh Son the guide in the way that leads thither for thou must first forsake the Body before thy End and get the Victory in this contention and strifeful Life and when thou hast overcome then return and avoid all conversation with the Multitude or common People for I would not have thee subject to Envy for they do rather sharpen and whet evil Men to their Maliciousness therefore it behoveth to avoid the Multitude and take heed of them as not undestanding the Virtue and Power of the things that are said And in the second Book where he began to Preach unto Men the Beauty and fairness of Piety and Knowledge saying Oh ye People Men born and made of the Earth which have given your selves over to drunkenness and sleep and to the ignorance of GOD. Be sober and cease your surfeit whereto you are allured and invited by brutish and unreasonable sleep Why Oh Men of the off-spring of the Earth why have you delivered your selves over unto death having power to partake of Immortality repent and change your Minds you that have together walked in Error and have been darkned in Ignorance depart from that dark Light be partakers of Immortality and leave or forsake Corruption And some of them that heard me said he Mocking and Scorning went away and delivered themselves up to the way of Death But others casting themselves down before my Feet said he Besought me that they might be taught but I caused them to rise up I became a guide to Mankind teaching them the reasons how and by what means they may be saved and I sowed in them the words of Wisdom and nourished them with Ambrosian water of Immortality I shall speak something of his great Vision which in order should have gone first How God appeared to him calling him by his Name saying What wouldst thou hear and see or what wouldst thou understand to learn and know Then said Hermes Who art thou I am quoth he Poemanders the Mind of the Great LORD the most Mighty and absolute Emperour I know what thou wouldst have and I am always present with thee Then said I I would learn the things that are and understand the nature of them and know GOD. How said Poemander know God I answered that I would gladly hear Then said he have me again in thy Mind and whatsoever thou wouldest learn I will teach it thee When he had thus said he was changed his Idea or Form and straightway in the twinkling of an Eye all things were opened unto me and I saw an infinite sight all things were become light both sweet and exceedingly pleasant and I was wonderfully delighted in the beholding it But after this there was a darkness fearful and hideous insomuch that Hermes trembled at his Idea or Form which I cannot now insist further upon How GOD revealed himself to him making known the mystery of his outward and inward Creation which is wonderful and excellent and is committed to Posterity though in an obscure or hidden Stile But having not room here for the Vision being much I shall only touch at something as I go along that may be serviceable to my matter in hand Poemander GOD said Let the Man endued with a Mind mark consider and know himself well Hermes Have not all Men a Mind Poemander Take heed what thou sayest I the Mind come unto Men that are holy and good pure and merciful and live piously and religiously and my Presence is a help to them and forthwith
desire his hand to be removed till all is consumed that is for the Fire in this fiery Baptism and if you continue faithful to the end of your Purification in Patience and Long-suffering diligently attending upon His Hand alone for His redeeming Power to redeem you from the Earth and all perishing things whose Fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his Floor and gather his Wheat into his Gardner but the Chaff he will hurn up in this unquenchable fire and then you shall come forth as the Gold seven times refined And farther take this from one that hath upon Tryal proved it for your comfort and encouragement in your Journy that the more diligently you wait upon him in all Conditions you pass through even so much the more shall you receive of his virtuous Life and heavenly Power for by this your continual secreet converse and invisible Union with the Everlasting GOD you will come to be so filled with his divine Love that your Mortal will be swallowed up of the Immortal so that it will become your whole Life and all your Thoughts Words and Works will have their Rice and settled Habitation therein but then you must be sure let nothing come out of the fire unconsumed for hear lies the stress of all your giving up all that which is for the Sword to be cut off and that that is for the Fire to be burnt up for if you keep any thing back that GOD requires to be offered up of any Darling-sin or beloved Dalalie whether Love to the World Name or Fame together with the whole Catalogue that belongs to Self for if Self be in any case whatsoever you must lay the Ax to the Root of that Tree and with all your Strength and Power cut it down for if the Root remains the fruitless Tree will grow therefore Self the accursed Thing must be found out and destroyed Joshua 7.11.22 Before you can prosper in this Holy War to get the Victory over all your Enemies for you know a faithful Souldier intangles not himself with the Affairs of this Life but gives up all to follow him that hath chosen him counting nothing dear to them nor any thing hard to endure for the hope of obtaining the Victory and I entreat you consider how intent he is in the Fight Doth he mind any thing but striking at the Enemy No for if he did he could not overcome it is so in the spiritual Warfare of the Soul It counts nothing dear that it may win him CHRIST JESUS thinking no time long nor any thing hard to endure for the Joy and Beauty that is set before it of its beloved Lord who went before through the bitter Agony of Soul and bloody Passion with Mockings Slanders Reproaches Hatred and Malice of his cruel Enemies and ignominious Death for thee and the Redemption of thy Soul from all Iniquity if thou follow Him the Captain of thy Salvation through his self-denial in Faith and Obedience for it is not only given you to believe but also to suffer for his sake Because Faith without Works is dead and thus the LORD will be found in his own way For I am the Way the Truth and the Life and none can come to the Father but by me saith he Here you see CHRIST is the Way his suffering Life is the Way he hath appointed and also saith He that comes this Way to me I will in no wise cast him off but will pray to the Father that whatsoever you ask the Father in my Name he will give it you even the Spirit of Truth that shall lead you into all Truth and cut of all Errour and will be your Strength in all Weakness for this is that your Souls travels for and hath such bitter Pang as a Woman in Travail to bring forth my Will my most exceptable Will therefore will I deliver you and though you sowe in Tears you shall reap in Joy and tho' you go out weeping and carrying precious Seed you shall return with Joy and bring your Sheaves 126 Psalm 5 6. As one speaking his own Experience with Christ's words said For though Sin the evil Seed be sown when Men sleep and take root with Pleasure and springs up with Delight yet the End thereof is Bitterness Lamentation and unconceivable Wooes But my precious Seed saith Christ is sown with Tears conceived with Sorrow and brought forth with Sighings Nights of Watchings Days of Mourning and with much labour of Spirit and travail of Soul must you see your desire Brought forth and it s not beating the Air that will fight your battels for its a gainst such airy Notions you are to make War and all Spirits of what sorts soever that would possess you with Words and Forms without the power of Righteousness regard them not for nothing less than Victory over Sin will satisfie your immortal Souls Therefore yours is Work and not vain Words and for my part all 's a like to me whether in Forms or out of Forms if they deny the power of Godliness in the Practical-part I say as the Apostle said From such turn away and do as Christ my LORD and Master did turn from the proud Pharisees to the poor Publicans and Sinners that wants a Physician and tender his loving kindness to them for the whole needs no Physician but the Sick and what tho many may say we have Eat and Drank in thy presence nay farther cast our Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful Works but what said Christ to all this Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity I know you not This is plain and evident for you to see if you are not wilfully blind it s not all the outward Services of the outward Temple nor the outward Water nor the Holy Duties nor the holy and comply Orders for the worker iniquity hath spoiled all these and made them unholy and uncomly But the latter of these might uave claim'd more right to the aforesaid wonderfull works had they kept to their first works and in the humility of Christ But what they had committed to them when they were in poverty of spirit they have decked themselves therewith and now it serves to make a discourse of though they are gone from the Life of Innocency into the spirit of Craft and subtilty and so are got above the Cross of Christ which is the power of GOD into the Liberty of of the Flesh by which they are become Great and waren â—ich and so bless themselves in the Earth instead of the GOD of Trueth This is Adultery Treachery and Whordom therefore their Portion is with the rest Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity I know you not Others there are who have a Sight beyond Forms but the same Ground remains in them as in the rest very few excepted that I know of yet a more universsal Spirit of Love to all remains in them than the rest Friends to you this is my Advice Take not